Mountains out of Molehills WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Colt Express, Tiny Epic Mechs, Bunny Kingdom. Published by: The Op Designed by: Jim DiCamillo, Patrick Marino With special guest contribution by Ameristrashtalk at the end. Mountains out of Molehills is an intriguing game. On looks alone, this game screamed out to me. Begging to be played. It certainly does have a unique table presence and I am sure that it bring in the crowds when set up. But how does it play? The Mechanisms. Mountains out of Molehills is an area control game at it's core. But the game is driven by a programmed movement mechanic which I love. If you have played Colt Express or Tiny Epic Mechs you will be familiar with this idea. Players will chose a group of cards to play in a specific order, making a plan for how they will move around the board. In isolation, this is a very easy process. Move forward one, turn right, before moving forward another two spaces. A perfect turn! However, it very rarely turns out like this because this does not work in isolation, there are other moles at the table! Players will flip cards in turn, one card at a time. After your first turn, perhaps you have moved forward, your opponent may have then placed a rock to your right, so then after you turn, your path is now blocked. This is what I love about programmable movement. You need to try and guess what your opponent will do, and how you think they may try and interfere with your actions. And of course, players often inadvertently block or affect the other players actions too. There is some luck involved here, some turns can be a little frustrating. But if you can embrace the chaos and enjoy the outcomes, be they in your favour or not, this game could be for you. Set-Up. To set up the game, the first job is to make the board. I love games that make use of the box, and this game certainly does that! Inside the four corners of the box, you need to place the four pillars. They slot in nicely. You can watch a video of this simple process here. Once this is done, each player will place their Mole into one of the four corners of the bottom board and a molehill in the space directly above this. The boards are double sided to suit different player counts, providing more space for more players to avoid too much carnage, whilst keeping it tight in a two or three player game. How to play. When this is done, lay out cards face up on the table ready for the draft phase. Players will then take a card in turns until all players have four in their hand. Each player will then order their four cards in the hope they can run through the action phase in a smooth manner. Once this is done, each player will place their cards on the table face down and put their order token on top to show they are ready to play. Then, depending on the turn order, players will reveal each card they selected one by one, taking the appropriate action. You are generally moving forward, turning to the right tor left, taking a u-turn, moving the rock, or popping up to the surface for a look above ground causing a 'topple'. All the cards are self explanatory, and like everything in this game, it all feels very intuitive. When ever a mole moves, a molehill must be placed directly above them in the new space they have moved to. If they move more than one space multiple molehills are placed and a trail is created. As more and more molehills are left behind, towers are formed. Each round, the maximum height of these towers is increased. It starts at two and rises to five in the later rounds. If ever a molehill is created that is higher than that rounds maximum, the tower will topple over. Each molehill piece will fall in the same direction away from the original spot, one piece at a time, moving one space further away for each molehill piece that fell. The direction they fall is up to you. This creates a chaotic board that is hard to predict, and this is crucial to the way you score in this game. At the end of each action round in the game, the scoring phase takes place. Each player will score points for each molehill they control. A player controls a molehill if the bottom piece is their colour. As players move through the board and add extra pieces to existing molehills, their piece will become the new bottom space. The molehill builds from the bottom up. Your goal in the action phase is to create more molehills, and take control of any existing ones that are not yours. Players score one point for each piece in every tower they control. Each round, all molehills remain in place, so the amount of molehills and the height of each one gets increasingly bigger. In turn, the amount of points available each round significantly increases. I like games that employ this scoring mechanic. It is the perfect natural catch-up mechanism. If a player takes an early lead in the first few rounds, the amount of points available in the later rounds means it is easy to catch up. And as ownership of each molehill is so fragile and constantly changing, there is often a swing in leadership throughout the six rounds. Another clever catch up mechanic in this game is that at the end of each round, the player with the most amount of pieces on the top of each molehill, as in the player who probably just scored the least amount of points, gets to chose the turn order first for the next round. Taking the first player token means you can take the first pick of the cards available in the next draft and importantly, will have the initiative in the movement and action phase. Taking the best card available, especially when there are only a few turn cards for example, can be a big advantage. And of course, in a programmable movement game, taking the first action offers considerable assistance. Being able to do something before anyone else does gives you a much higher percentage chance of actually being able to do what you want to do! Control or Chaos? Playing Mountains out of Molehills brings a mixture of emotions. I constantly feel somewhere on either end of the control/chaos spectrum. Often moving from one extreme to the other within a matter of minutes. I like this. I enjoy the random elements of programmable movements, because when things go well and according to your plans, it feels great. When things don't quite play out in reality as they did in your head, it can be frustrating. But If you can accept this will happen, and understand that each time it happens to you it will most probably happen to the other players too, you will experience a lot of laughter in this game. On one occasion, due to a constantly moving rock, I was bouncing around off the corner of the board over and over for two full rounds. I was unable to lay any new molehills, and my scoring was terrible for those rounds. I was unable to catch up and lost this game by a long way. But the entire process created huge laughter all round the table. If this sounds like it would make your friends and family giggle too, this game could be for you. If it sounds like it may frustrate you due to the lack of control, then perhaps you need to think about how you have felt playing programmable movement games before. If you have not played any, then maybe try this one just to see how it works for you. If you didn't enjoy the ones you have tried, I guarantee you will at least enjoy the set up of this! Building the board is fun enough for anyone. But don't just take my word for it, check out what May from Ameritrashtalk has to say about this great game. Mountains Out of Molehills is a delightful take on an abstract game. First, it has a wonderful production that provides a satisfying tactile experience from the acrylic mole standees to the little molehills themselves. In addition, the use of programming your movements and revealing at the same time as the other players adds some fun chaos to the game. Foiling the perfect plan, with a well placed rock, is such a treat and gives you laugh out loud moments. The game feels fresh with its two layer board; and the idea of toppling. The perfect strategic topple to score max points is amazing and gives the players a sense of accomplishment. I personally had so much fun with this game. My only concern would be the wear and tear on the board as you press the molehills down, however, I think with good care that may not be an issue at all. This was such a pleasant surprise, and quite a unique game in our collection.

The Court of Miracles WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: A War of Whispers, Blood Rage, Root. Published by: Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Vincent Brugeas, Guilhem Gautrand By Steve Godfrey Courts aren’t the nicest of places to be in and having looked into the real court of miracles that seemed like no exception. This game from Lucky Duck however IS the exception and is probably the most fun court you will ever find yourself in. The court of rules. Give everyone a plot card, some money, their three starting Rogue tokens, a guild and their 6 renown tokens. When giving out the guilds always hand me the Narquois guild (the one with the dog tokens). It's not in the rule book but I have sent a letter to lucky duck to get that added. On your turn you add one of your rogue tokens into one of the three spaces on one of the neighbourhoods on the board. There's only three different actions and they repeat in all the neighbourhoods but sometimes in different quantities. Their actions are either, collect coins, take cards or move the penniless king. This is a token that moves round the board and may trigger standoffs. When you place your rogue token you take the action of that space. You may then take the action of the neighbourhood that space is in. These actions are either collect coins, collect cards, swap one of your rogue tokens with a blind draw from the bag, or move one of your rogue tokens to a different spot on the board. The last one is to pay the toll and put one of your renown tokens in the Renown square. Renown tokens placed here are there permanently. The game will end in one of two ways. When a player places their last renown token on the board or when the penniless king makes it to the final space, in which case the person with the most renown tokens on the board wins. Aside from the renown square you can put renown tokens on the board from standoffs. A standoff will start when either all three spaces of a neighbourhood are full or if the penniless king token gets to certain spaces on the board. When they resolve each player with a rogue token there reveals the strength number on the underside and the player with the most strength wins and takes control of the neighbourhood with one of their tokens. The court of time management I was going over my top ten games not long ago and realised there were five games in it that used area control, so it seems to be a popular mechanism for me. But they’re not always that easy to get to the table. For the most part they’re not exactly quick games and so they often need to be the main event of the night. That was the case until I played A War of Whispers which is an area control game that plays in about an hour and can easily be played before or after the big game of the night. Well it turns out the folks over at Lucky Duck had heard about this, rolled up their feathers and said you think that’s a quackers (sorry) playtime? Well we have one that plays in 40 minutes, so obviously, I had to check it out. Just because this plays in such a quick time though it doesn’t mean that it’s lacking in any decision space. If anything the decisions are even more tense and tight because of how quick it plays out. In a longer area control game, having control of an area taken from you is annoying but you usually have the luxury of time to regroup and plot your devious revenge. In the court of miracles you need to have plans to retake control in place by your next turn. It’s not necessary of course, you could easily turn your attention to somewhere else, but since you only need six tokens down to win, It makes every renown token that you lose all the more important. The flip side of this is that your opponent could now be one clever turn away from winning the game. All you can do at that point is to hope that you can get another turn to hopefully knock them from the board, or, as much as you don’t want it to happen, have an opponent do it for you. You soon come to realise that a seemingly simple action as putting down a rogue token and where you put it isn’t necessarily about you getting your own renown token down. It's just as likely you're putting it in a certain spot just to get a certain player kicked out of it just because they’re close to the win. To some that may sound a bit counterproductive but honestly this is where some of the fun puzzles and interaction kicks in. There’s been a few turns during my plays where I’ve kicked off a standoff in a neighbourhood just so another player could take control and stop the current owner from winning the game. The court of miracles is essentially a tug of war game. This is true of all area control games of course but you can definitely feel the push and pull of this one more due to the playtime and how quickly control can be won or lost. Things get even tighter as the game goes on. As players start to place down permanent renown tokens in the square, the amount of neighbourhoods someone needs to control to win gets smaller and smaller, so the game becomes just as much about keeping your opponents under control than it is about you going straight for the win. As the game goes on the tug of war gets even more tight and even more tense. You may be on the cusp of winning, but then so may your opponents and you’re just sitting there hoping that no one sees your path to victory and that you can just get one more turn to take the game. The court of swift justice. Something else that I find this game does because it’s so quick, is soften the blow of that sometimes disliked take that mechanic. You see, on one player's turn you could lose control of a neighbourhood. But a cleverly planned turn and you can have control of it, or a different one by the end of yours. Renown markers and turns are flying about so quickly that you don’t seem to have time to feel bad that you’ve just been put back a step. Throw into the mix the new rogue tokens you can get, some with their own special abilities and the plot cards and you can create some fun clever combos on your turn. Being able to go from having a token taken off the board, to making a brilliantly clever turn where it’s possible to put down more than one renown token is such a great feeling and definitely makes up for the bad feeling you might get from the take that element in the game. The court of components. I love the components in this game. The slightly hollowed out rogue tokens to put your guild tokens in are awesome and really tactile. You'll be guaranteed to hear everyone clacking them together during the game, much like the poker chips in Splendor. It’s the board that is going to be the main draw here though. I’m a bit of a sucker for a differently shaped board and this one is no exception. I don’t know if it’s just me though but I do get some Millennium Falcon vibes from it, apologies if you can’t unsee that now. Because of the way the board is though with the sticky outy bits, it can be prone to a few knocks and dents, especially if the box gets thrown about in the car or if you store it vertically. It doesn’t bother me so much personally and I will say that this will never affect the game play, but I know that this is something that could bother some people. I hope that this doesn’t put many people off because this game is really worth your time. The Court of Summaries I really think that The Court of Miracles is one of those hidden gems of a game and certainly needs more love. It gives players a brilliantly thematic and thinky area control game in a relatively short time frame and it’s so quick and simple to grasp at that.

Western Legends WBG Score:8.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Xia: Legends of a drift system, Firefly The Game, Merchants and Marauders. Published by: Kolossal Games Designed by: Hervé Lemaître By Steve Godfrey I like sandboxes, in fact, aside from some moody teenager called Anakin, who doesn’t like them? they’re a lot of fun and unless you leave the lid off them overnight and let the rain and the neighbours cat get at them then they can provide countless hours of fun and options. Unfortunately my kids wouldn’t let me play in theirs when they were younger but thankfully Herve Lemaitre has created a sandbox that us adults can play in, and it’s arguably more fun! So you wanna be a cowboy? In Western Legends players will be competing to be the most legendary player. Whether or not that title extends to real life rather than just the game is entirely down to you. Players will pick a character and a mini to represent their player and take their starting items. All other unused minis will be used as the sheriff and the bandits. On a player's turn they have three actions to perform and it’s here that I’m going to give the vaguest of vague rules summaries just because there’s so much to do here. First you have a choice of taking two poker cards, $20 or a combination of one card and $10. Then you can take your three actions. You have a choice of moving three spaces, taking a work action which will net you $10, playing a card with an action on it or performing an action on one of the action spaces. Just on the action spaces alone you have a load of options which I’ll just list. Mining, buying goods at a trading post that include new mounts, weapons and provisions, playing poker, healing at the doctors, entertaining yourself at the Cabaret, wrangling or rustling cattle and depositing gold nuggets at the bank or even robbing it. Throw in the fact that you can, duel, rob or even arrest opposing players gives you a ranch full of options. Just in case you think there’s not enough choices you then have one more choice. Do you become a Marshall or an Outlaw? Certain actions will give you a marshall or a wanted point and you will move you up on the respective track. But you can only move up on one of these. The wanted track will only give you rewards on every other space but will give you victory points at the end of your turn, the number being dependent on where you are on the track. The Marshall track will give you rewards on every space, even victory points but it will also give you VPs at the end of the game depending on where you are on the track. Don’t fret too much about which track to climb up as it’s possible to switch tracks. To switch from the Marshall to the wanted track just do something naughty. To switch the other way you first need to get yourself arrested, you lose a lot of your stuff but it does take that target off your back. I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride! I want to start with the big question. The question that everyone always asks at the start of this game, whether you're new to the game or you’ve got loads of plays under your gun belt. “What do I do first?” Western Legends gives you so many choices that picking a starting path is just as daunting as learning the game itself. There are two ways to answer that question. One, throw in the goals variant. They are easy to add in and give players a little bit of a direction to start for. Second, choose your track. Half the fun of this game is deciding if you want to be a goody two shoes Marshall or if you want to be an outlaw. Both have their pros and cons which I’ll get to but they both also give you some guidance on how you maybe want to play the game. If you decide to be a Marshall for example then robbing the bank probably isn’t the best move (although it is arguably the most fun) The answer you’ll most likely get from the game though is “what do YOU want to do? Even though it’s a big decision, once you do get into the flow and carve out a path for yourself it’s fantastic and I find the idea that a game can give you that many paths to victory and that freedom is fascinating. One of my favourite things in games is multi use cards and all the tough and interesting choices they give you. Western Legends has this in spades….and hearts, clubs and diamonds as well. I’m pretty sure Western Legends has the most multi use cards that I’ve seen in a game and they are all encompassed in a standard 52 card deck. You can use them in fights (high card wins), as regular cards for poker, for the actions, and for their reactions. Deciding whether or not to keep your high cards for its action or if it’s going to be more beneficial in a fight or poker is always a tricky decision. Especially when you realise that everyone else will see you play that Ace and now they know that you’re probably easier pickings in a fight. It’s such a simple way to get so much gameplay out of what, by modern gaming standards anyway, can be a small deck of cards. If that isn’t enough then there’s always the chance to get that Uber turn. Some of the cards give you extra actions and movement. If you manage to get a few of these in hand then you can string them together to create a big turn and that feels great. Ride cowboy ride Where this game shines though is how well that entire sandbox of options knits together so well with the theme. It manages to incorporate most of the things you associate with the Wild West and pour them all into one game, much like sand in a sandbox. None of it ever feels forced or too overblown though (unlike the previous metaphor) The theme runs through everything you do, just look at the list of things you can do to see proof of that. But it’s the extra touches. The story cards that players can complete each have their own unique flavour text on them that just screams to be read out with a cowboy drawl (points should be deducted if you don’t). Each of the characters are based on real people and their special abilities are themed towards each of them. Even with the vast amount of choices in the game you don’t need to do all of it to win. Don’t fancy mining for gold? then don’t do it. Do you like the idea of hanging around town playing poker and going shopping? Then fill your cowboy boots. Unlike a lot of games, not doing the things you don’t like won’t lose you the game. Equally, doing more of the things you love will still keep you in the running. Western Legends let’s you make your own fun but never to the detriment of being competitive. Let’s talk about tracks. I mentioned the theme earlier and one of the things that helps bring that theme to life is the Marshall and the Wanted tracks. I’ve already said why I think these are a great way to help decide a path but they’re also a great way to bring some character to the game. The minute you start up on one of those tracks you can’t help but take on an air of a character. No doubt outlaws will turn to any Marshall’s and start taunting them to come and arrest them. In fact one of my favourite things to do as an outlaw is mine for gold nuggets, deposit them into the bank then immediately rob it. There's nothing like robbing a bank whilst waving at the sheriff in the office nearby whilst you're doing it. Being as though the bank is right near the sheriffs office though you’d best be prepared to make a run for it. If you want to get into character then Western Legends gives you everything you need. Going out in a blaze of glory I really like how this game scales. I’ve not played it at two but at the other player counts it works well. However the game can change depending on that count. At the lower counts there tends to be less interaction on the board and unless anyone starts rocketing you the wanted track, people tend to leave each other to their own devices. As the player count creeps up then the beautiful chaos ensues. There can be more of a mix of people on the separate tracks and with all the more people on the board you may find yourself next to a Marshall/Outlaw a lot more frequently and because you don’t have to go out of your way and upset your plans to chase a player down, there tends to me more attempts at arrests and it injects more tension into the game, specially if your an outlaw trying to avoid the marshalls. With those higher player counts though it can bring with it a touch of down time. If the players before you get into some fights or some poker games that you're not able to be a part of then you can find yourself twiddling your six shooter. Luckily it’s not every round that happens but like with most games, more players can come with more down time. Another thing with the larger player counts is that anyone on the wanted track will have a massive target painted on their back and I usually find it best to let new players know this just as a friendly warning. If they still choose that path then they’re fair game for any posse. Yoohoo, I'll make you famous! Now I know that this open world style of game won’t appeal to everyone. For some there may be just too much choice, but if this sounds like something that appeals to you, then Western Legends will give you such a fun thematic experience, a ton of interaction with your friends, some brilliant decisions and will make you want to saddle up your horse and ditch your car for the ride home. Western Legends. Best played to any cowboy based Bon Jovi song.

Switch & Signal WBG Score: 8 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, The Crew. Published by: KOSMOS Designed by: David Thompson This game has a lot of very interesting debating points. Switch & Signal is a re-print of a web-published game from designer David Thompson back in 2014. It's about trains, which always catches a lot of peoples eye! But it uses the polarizing mechanism of pick-up-and-deliver with a dice powered roll-and-move. It's a little like a cooperative Ticket to Ride fused a reverse Pandemic. Let's look at how it plays. Switch & Signal is a co-operative game that includes trains. For some, that will be enough! It i is pitched at the family/gateway level, offering an attractive, simple, but rewarding game experience for any type of board game enthusiast. The game plays in under an hour, offers a lot of tension and fun choices. There really is a lot going for this game. But there are some who seem turned off, simply by the use of dice controlling movement. A lot of people really do not enjoy this mechanic. Comments like this are common, "I like the idea of a co-op train game. But roll-to-move? I think I'll pass." Check some more out yourself here. But if you can move past this issue, then what lies within this box, could surprise and delight you in ways you had originally hoped when you first cast your eyes on the box art and before you saw one mechanism. There is a train careering around the bend, sparks are flying off the rails, smoke is bellowing from the engine. Can you control the train and win the game? Well, great news! There are nine trains, not just one! You will be controlling them with more than just dice. And the strategy in this game is actually quite deep. OK. I don't disagree with people who are put off by dice rolling pick-up-and-deliver games. It can be somewhat mundane, luck based, and lacking in strategy. I get that totally. I think the "roll-to-move" mechanic was destroyed for a lot of us by a number of lazy games in the 1980's that employed this mechanism, and not a lot more. But there are a few fundamental reasons why this is not a problem for Switch & Signal. First up, you are not rolling to move yourself. And second, you are not doing this on a board with a start and finish. When both these factors are present in a game, the strategy can be somewhat lacking and dry. It's a race, with no real control for you. Roll mroe sixes and win. But this is far from the case with Switch & Signal. The trains you are moving are not owned by you. This is a co-op game after all. Each moment, like all choices throughout the game, are discussed and decided by all players. And the movement is not about racing from the start to the finish, more trying to move cargo from various cities to the harbor spaces, with a lot of twists and turns. Lets get into the set-up and rules, it will all make sense soon I promise! Set-Up. First, you need to choose which side of the board you want to play on. Don;t you just love a double sided board?! The rules suggest that you use the European side for your first game, but after you have learnt that, there is the option to play on the USA side too. The main difference is on the USA side, there are two Harbors, one on the east side, the other on the west side. whereas Europe has just the one in the south. There are also different "helper" powers in American when compared to Europe. We will cover this later. Once you have made your choice, set up the green signal discs and black switch discs as per the rule book. In later games you can place these however you like. You can even change the amount you use to affect the difficulty of the game. The only rule you have to follow when placing them is that you must have one switch on a three-way junction, two switches on a four-way junction, and at least one signal disc must be present on each city. Other than that, go crazy! In an organised and tidy way though, please. Once this is done, place the time tokens on the clock, again these can be adjusted based on the difficulty of the game. Then place the nine trains in the depot spaces on the board, lay the dice close to the board, and finally place the three cover tokens next to the helper spaces (the three images of people on the top left of Europe and top right for USA). They are used when the helpers powers have been enacted so that you don't mistakenly use them again. Finally, shuffle the departure cards, remove two at random and place the rest on the clock card space. Then shuffle the action deck, deal five cards to each player and lay the rest on the wheel card space on the board. You are now ready to play. All aboard! How To Play. On your turn, you will first reveal the top departure card and carry out all the instructions, then play as many action cards as you like, before finally drawing five new action cards. As this is a cooperative game, all players are involved for all turns. But if there is any disagreement, then the active player can make the final decision. Or, just let the bossiest person take charge for the whole game, which allows the other players to make passive aggressive comments about their failings if you don;t win the game. Fun either way! The departure cards will tell you to either add a new train to the board, or move all trains of a certain colour. When you add a train, you must roll the two regular dice to determine the trains starting place on the board. This introduces the first, somewhat misunderstood issue for this game. Like Catan, people suggest that in this game, due to the nature of rolling two dice, the most common outcomes are the middle numbers, and this increases the chances of the trains being placed in certain spots over others, which ruins the game. The probability of rolling a seven with two six sided dice is higher than any other outcome. So the facts are there, and this bothers some people with its use in this game. The game has a clever variant you can use if this is a problem for you using the eleven location tokens. These are numbered tokens you can use to decide where the trains appear instead of the printed numbers on the board. The rules say to place them randomly on each location space to determine the number for each city when the dice are rolled. This of course changes the affects, game to game, of trains more commonly being placed on the six, seven, and eight spots. Or, you can leave the dice in the box and each time a new train is set to be placed on the board, simply take one of the face down tokens. Once a token is used, that's it, it is out of the game. So no spot will ever be used twice. Although, after the locations tokens are used for the first three trains, they are flipped back over and shuffled up again, so you could place on the three used here again. When you use this method, ,this of course means that each number has the same opportunity of showing up, and other than for the first three trains, that no number can be used twice. Once the trains have been placed on the board, if you ever need to place another train onto the same spot, if the first train has not moved yet, then you will lose two time tokens. This obviously does not happen with the second variant where each location token is only used once. As long as you move your first three trains, you won't ever be punished for this. I do see the issue with two dice being used for something like this, but the higher probability of the middle numbers showing up adds to the game. It is not a problem that this could happen. It is part of the strategy. If you roll a seven and place a Train on the seven spot then you know you need to get that train moving as soon as possible. Where as a train on position two has, at least statistically speaking, potentially more time before its a problem. The board has also placed the six, seven, and eight spots in locations that work for more common use. The other action shown on the departure cards is moving the trains. Depending on the colour shown on the card, you will roll the appropriate dice and move the train the required amount of spaces, counting one track symbol for each space. If the card shows a multicolored train symbol, you can decide which colour to pick. Each train has its own coloured dice. The black train has one two, two threes, two fours, and one five face on it and as such is the fastest moving train in the game. The brown runs one to four with two twos and two threes. The grey moves the slowest, with options of one to three with three ones. When choosing which train to place and move, you will often favor the black train over anything else, but there are only three trains of each colour. If you ever need to place a train of a specific colour and don't have that train available in the depot then you lose time tokens. A balance of each train being used efficiently needs to be found. The Games Goal. The time tokens serve as your punishment throughout the game. If you ever cannot do something you need to such as place a train of a specific colour, or use all your movement points, or when a train crashes into another, or moves back into a starting city location, the time tokens are taken away. If you run out of time tokens you will lose one of your departure cards. The departure cards act as the games timer. When these cards are used up, the game is over. You will need as much time as possible to complete the goal of the game which is to pick up the cargo from the various cities across the board and deliver them to the harbor spaces. If you manage this before the departure cards run out, you will win the game. Once you have carried out all the actions on the departure card, you will then be able to carry out as many actions as you you have cards in your hand. You start with five and draw five at the end of each round, but players do not have to use any cards if they wish. You can never have more then ten cards in your hand, but storing up cards for more effective later turns is an effective way to increase your chances of winning this game. Every turn is crucial and wasting turns just for the sake of it will not help. You need to be prudent and use your action cards wisely based on the situation in the game and the cards in your hands. There are three different types of cards, but five different actions. One card allows you to move one green signal token from anywhere on the board to anywhere else. You must always have at least one remaining signal token in every city. Moving these signals allows you to create clear routes for your trains to move. In the picture below you can see a grey train that is only one space from the harbor, it has a red signal ahead and therefore, cannot currently move. Another card action is to move a train. Once the card is played, you can roll the appropriate dice and move the train the number shown on the die face. You have to use all your movement, and lose time tokens if you can't, so you need to prepare your route first. The only time you don't have to use all your movement is when you are moving into a city of harbor. The last card action allows you to move the black points tokens around at a junction. They cannot be moved from one station space of the board to another, but they can be shifted around the spaces they are located at, creating head on movement where there was once a turn, or an east to west path where there was once a north to south, or visa-versa. Cards can also be discarded to pick up cargo at a city, or any two cards can be discarded to carry out any of the three main actions. This is a prime example or how sometimes it may be better to hold onto cards than to play them. Sometimes if it crucial to do something immediately, and discarding two cards to do that thing may be your only choice. In a race game against the clock, you cannot afford to waste turns too often, and using two cards to do something your team mate could do next with one card should be avoided. Discussion and forward planning is key. A Tense Strategy. Playing Switch & Signal is a tense affair. Like many cooperative games that run on a timed mechanic like this, you will feel under pressure throughout the entire game to make the most efficient decisions. After three games, I had come close each time, but still not won. I learnt that every decision matters, and there are some inefficiencies you will fall for if you become distracted in your main goal. It wasn't until game eight that I felt a little more comfortable in the decision making process and started to win more often than not on the basic settings. But even then, I am of course, never making these decisions alone, and other player(s) would regularly have different and often better ideas that I had. I learnt that moving the trains as often as possible and not using two cards as a wild too often is key. Wasting cards on inefficient or unnecessary switch or signal changes is obviously damaging. So the key is to forward plan. Avoid losing time tokens, by never leaving a train on a starting space, or without their maximum potential movement points free ahead of them is obviously important. Losing too many tokens and then subsequently a departure card can be game changing. As I progressed in my understanding of this games required strategy, I started adjust the games' set-up more and more. This can be done very easily. Adding or removing signals, switches, time tokens and departure cards is incredibly simple, has zero impact on the rules, minimal impact on the game length, but directly affects the difficulty. You can tailor it perfectly to the players around the table and their experience with this game. One area I have failed to master yet is the helpers. This is what they look like in central Europe. Each one offers a one-time-use power that can be crucial for winning the game. But timing is everything, and this is hard! The first character on the left offers you a re-roll. One single re-roll in the entire game, with no way to get more. If you have one one of something, you have to use this at a significant time. What I have found to be most damaging, which is contrary to my early thinking, is that is more helpful to use a re-roll that avoids me having to take another turn to complete something, rather than a re-roll that avoids me losing a time token. Rolling a one when I am two spaces from a harbor for example instead of when I need to move a train more than I can. Not only do you have to waste another action to complete this trains route, which is more important to avoid that time tokens being lost. But also, if you roll one short of a harbor, but it could be that now you don't have any trains of that type in the depot. Once a train has delivered to a harbor is it returned to the depot, and not having a train there when required not only means you lose time tokens, but you will have less trains on the map in an active location. Pulling up one short of a harbor is the perfect time to use a re-roll, but interestingly, this may not happen to you at all in the game, or indeed until the later stages when the re-roll may not be as helpful. Or, on the re-roll, you may still roll a one and pull up short. This chance part of the game can turn some off. And I understand that. It can be frustrating, but luck based games can be fun, and this game certainly is fun! The second helper will allow you to move through a city without stopping if the signals are clear. Helpful in some situations but does require a lot of planing and a long roll. The third helper allows you to keep a train in its current position when otherwise it would have been required to move due to the departure cards. This power I have found to be a little less helpful and important in terms of when you use it. But has helped reduce the amount of time tokens I got, sometimes at crucial times. It's just that the time tokens running out has become less critical for me as I found other ways to increase my efficiencies. I worry less now about losing them, and think more now about how I can sometimes 'spend' them when required. The helpers in the US allow you to ignore a departure card and place it to the bottom of the pile, chose the starting location of a train yourself, or keep a train in its current position when otherwise it would have moved. I am unsure why these differences are unique to each side of the board. It would have made more sense to me if these were six cards you shuffle and then draw three from each game, irrespective of the board you are using. Overall, I have really enjoyed playing this game. I love the tension it creates. Wining feels truly special. But losing just lays out a challenge to try and get better, as frustrating as a close loss can be. The game is rewarding win or lose in the excitement and satisfaction it brings to the table. And I, like many, will always enjoy chugging little trains along a board. The double sided board brings some nice variety, and although you are moving to either one or two harbors, the game feels very similar on both sides. It's nice to have the choice, and I hate it when a board isn't used this way. Why print just black on it. It cannot save that much money? But this is a nice to have, rather than a great addition. I wouldn't jump at the chance for any new maps via an expansion. However this game does scream out for a few other expansion that I hope do get developed with different types of trains, perhaps different types of cargo which require different things to be done to them. And maybe even event cards. But with or without expansion, I will have a lot more fun with this game. It has become my new number choice for a cooperative gateway game when looking to introduce people to this wonderful hobby of ours. And despite being advertised as a 2-4, it plays very well in a solo too. Choo-choo!

So here it is! The 2021 games of the year. I was going to do a top 10, but I simply could not decide between all these great games, and so you are blessed with 12 beauties this year instead. One for every month! Best Card Game - TEN Best Surprise of the Year - Riverside Best Mid-Weight Game - Furnace Best Solo Game - Rolling Realms Best Party Game - Night of the Ninja Best Roll & Write - Hadrian's Wall Best Heavy Game - Golem Best Adventure Game - The Adventures of Robin Hood Best APP based Game - Destinies Best Family Game - Juicy Fruits Best Euro Game - Tinners' Trail Best Dungeon Crawler - Resident Evil 3 Best Card Game - TEN TEN is a fantastic game. You can read the full review here but if you are looking for a new card game to play with you family then I cannot recommend TEN enough. It is so much fun, plays fast, and can be taught and played with anyone. Best Surprise of the Year - Riverside Riverside was recommended to me by Marie from Burtons Boards when we visited the Essen Spiel this year. I had not heard of it before, and I certainly was not in the market for another roll and write game. But after playing the game at the show with designer Eilif Svensson, I was hooked! The game has a beautiful look, the art on the box is one of my all time favorites! The game itself plays incredibly smoothly and offers some highly satisfying cascading turns, something essential for me in a good roll and write. What makes this game special over other games is the way the game feels like an event. So many roll and writes feel like a mathematical equation to me. Either with a pasted on theme, or no theme at all. In Riverside, I don't feel like I am Captain a ship of tourists, but I do feel immersed in this beautiful snow landscape and fully engrossed in my mission. Best Mid-Weight Game - Furnace Furnace is a stunning game. I love engine builders so that must be said right from the start. But even without my mechanical bias, this is a truly great game. You can read my thoughts here, but I would recommend this game to anyone for any group. Best Solo Game - Rolling Realms Rolling Realms holds a special place in my heart for what designer Jamey Stegmaier did with it during lock down, but even with the sentimentality removed, this game holds up as one of the best solo experiences I have ever had. I enjoy solo games when they are somewhat removed from a big immersive theme. This goes against everything I say about games in a group. But playing solitaire I don't want to have a game do that as it just makes me miss my friends who I would usually share this epic experience with. Alone, I would rather get into the math, strategy and game choices. Rolling Realms does this better than most with a simply stunning solo experience which you can read more about here from the brilliant Mostly Solo, who explains solo games better than most! Best Party Game - Night of the Ninja Night of the Ninja has hit the table for me so many times. As soon as I have a big group I play this game. I don't care if they are gamers or not, this games works with everyone! You can play at home, on the couch, round a table, or in the pub. This game is so versatile and is always brilliant. It looks stunning and just writing about it makes me want to play again. Who is coming round for a game? You can read more about it here in my Brotherwise Games feature. Best Roll & Write - Hadrian's Wall Ok, this is the third roll & write on this list, but they are all just too good to not include, and they all tick slightly different boxes. Hadrian's Wall works well for a solo game just like Rolling Realms, but due to the epic nature of this game, it just feels better to me with others. Where Rolling Realms suits both group or solo play, Hadrian's Wall to me is more about trying to beat other peoples scores, and there are some parts of the game that are affected by other players unlike most roll and writes. As such, Rolling Realms takes the spot for best solo game, and Hadrian's Wall takes the overall top spot for best Roll & Write. But really, they are all fantastic and this was just my way to fit them all onto the top 12. Which lets face it, was supposed to be a top 10 anyway. You can read a little more about this game here at Erlijne's great website. Best Heavy Game - Golem Golem's inclusion in this list may be a little premature as I have only played it a few times, hence it not having a full review here yet. But I just love the game so much from my early plays I feel confident it will stand the test of time and repeat plays. The theme intrigues me. You can watch more about this here. I love the way the board looks. The idea behind some of the mechanics is really interesting, such as the marbles acting as a randomly determined option each turn. The choice of which of the three tracks to work on, and how to best deploy your Golem and Students is a delicately balanced and intriging strategic decision. There are not many turns in this game, but they all feel very important. The game has received some minor criticism for the way it has handled the theme, but personally I think they have done an okay job. They called in a cultural expert and personally I find it intriguing and interesting more than anything else. Maybe my opinion will change on this over time or with more thought. But for now, I am simply left wanting to play again. Best Adventure Game - The Adventures of Robin Hood The story in this game is a lot of fun. The art is simply stunning. The game teaches you how to play it better than any game I have ever experienced before. But what stands out the most is the joy from opening parts of the board up like an advent calendar. There are no two ways about it. That is just a lot of fun! For my full review, head here. Best APP based Game - Destinies I have not reviewed this game yet as I hope to run a feature soon on the use of Apps with games. When that is done I will link that here. I have loved the experience of playing Destinies. It feels so unique in its mechanisms. I have played with my son and solo. Both experiences work very well. This would be my second choice for best solo game and also best adventure game. It feels epic and engaging, but works in a solo for me as the App keeps you focused on the game, not the empty seats around you. The App integration is flawless. It works so well and is integral to the game. You could make this game without it but it would be cumbersome and a lot less exciting. This game shows what can be done with Apps and I think will lead to some very exiting advances in the years to come. Best Family Game - Juicy Fruits Juicy Fruits looks great. It plays great. It is great! I am surprised this game hasn't received more hype. It ticks so many boxes and has some wonderful ways to make it work for different age groups or abilities. It feels incredibly satisfying to play well, and understanding how to do this is a relativity straight forward process. You can read my full review on the game here. Best Euro Game - Tinners' Trail I only backed this on kickstarter because Movin Meeples was so pumped for it! I knew next to nothing about the original or this re-print. But I am so glad I got this. The game scales brilliantly to all player counts, and like any good Euro, makes you heavily invested in moving bits of different coloured wood around and turning them from one type of thing into another. There are a nice amount of mini expansions included with the Kickstarter version to keep the game interesting and I really enjoyed the scoring mechanism. The art on the cards and board is stunning but it did get a little busy near the end of the game. A larger board may have helped here. But overall, this is a brilliant game that I look forward to playing many more times. Best Dungeon Crawler - Resident Evil 3 Resident Evil 3 is a stunning conversion from a video game to a board game. This seems to be happening more and more now-a-days and I for one am delighted about that! This game brings the nostalgic joy of the original PlayStation game to life on the table with such precision and detail. There are so many touches in this game that would make any fan of the original computer game giddy! Whether or not this would work as well for those not familiar with the source material I am not sure. But my son who has never played the PS games loved this! You can read my full thoughts here. Honorable Mentions A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises - This is a fantastic game and has seen so many plays this year! Every person I have played this with has been in hysterics within minutes! Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition - I have only played this game once so I don't feel I can include on my list but I think with more plays it would have made it. A brilliant version of Terraforming Mars that asks the players to make some very interesting decisions. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea - I love this game like I love the original, but as my family doesn't and I have not found any friends interested in playing repeated games of this yet, it just hasn't had enough plays to get to my top 12. You can watch my short video on the game here. Excavation Earth - I only played this once at Essen, hence it not making the list. But I loved it and would like to get a copy for myself. The art is stunning and the complexity of the options available are so brilliant dealt with in the game incredibly smooth game play. Maglev Metro - Another one with only one play, this time at UKGE; but with more plays I think this could have made the top 12. The game looks great, the components are fantastic, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to change your upgrades as you progress through the game and your requirements change. Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor - This game should arrive today! I have it refresh on the tracking email so many times already! I have played online and at Essen in 2019 and am certain this will make next years list despite technically being a 2021 game! Happy City - Such a simple game, but it offers a short, sharp, fun experience that suits all my family. It narrowly misses out by just being a little too simple. But for a quick filler, its great. You can read my full review here. Hit The Silk! - I love this game and it pains me to not have it on my top 12 but with only space for one party game I have to be ruthless. Hit The Silk! would be my second choice for party game this year though and offers more of a full-game feeling that Night of the Ninja which is more just playing round after round. I have certainly laughed more playing this game this year than any other! You can read my full review here. Loading - A crazy real-time card laying game played in large groups. It only misses out as it is not available in the UK yet. nd I don't have a copy yet. And I only played it once. But other that that, its great!! What Next? A beautifully made game that narrowly misses out on my number one family game of the year. We have enjoyed this one so much and I look forward to seeing more expansions for this. You can read my full review here. Games I have not played yet that may have made the list. Sleeping Gods - This game looks amazing and I cannot wait to play it. I did not back the kickstarter and have not got a retail copy yet. But I am so exited to play this soon. Ark Nova - I missed this at Essen as it sold out so fast! I am keen to get this soon and am certain this will win a lot of people's game of the year this year! Those that have it anyway!

Adventure Mart WBG Score: 7 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: 7 Wonders Duel, Its a Wonderful World, Bargain Quest Published by: Hub Games Designed by: DigiSprite Adventure Mart is a fast paced card-playing deck-builder with a very interesting round structure. It has a delightful art style and striking box which suggests a more light weight game than the treasures contained within this box. However the rules certainly are very simple, it's incredibly quick to set-up and teach, and getting this to the table is a absolute joy. Let's head to the shops and see how this plays. Set-up and rules. To set-up Adventure Mart, separate the deck into the six different types shown on both sides of the card. First place the blue backed stock cards onto the top row. For a two player game deal out four cards, for a three player game place five, and for a four player game deal six cards. Then lay out two fixtures cards above two staff cards. Below that place Adventurers cards face down equal to the number of players plus one. Finally on the bottom row deal five face down Bulletin cards. Give each player the standard starting hand of nine cards, five gold coins, and give one player the initiative token. Each player shuffles their nine cards and deals five into their hand. The game can then begin by the starting player turning and reading the first bulletin card. Players will take it in turns to either buy a stock card, recruit one staff member, build a new shop fixture, or turn one of the adventurer cards over to start a sale action. The rounds last until all players pass. The game runs for five rounds. At the end, the player with the most gold wins. Gold is attained from the value of your final stock and fixtures, the gold in your possession, and from any REVIEW bonuses on your cards. Strategy. Each round, new adventurers will be dealt face down. Players will not know exactly what the adventurers have come to buy until they decide to try and sell to them, and flip the card to reveal their fate. If you don't have the right items for the adventurers then there is not much you can do at this point, and other players will inevitably be able to steal the sell from you. This has led to some criticism for the game, largely from Tom Vasel. But I do not understand this. There are only ever three types of items the adventurers want to buy. There are dozens of cards you can buy, but they are all within three suits. Martial, Magic, and Exotic. It really is not that hard to keep your hand well stocked of all three types to plan for any eventuality. There are also different powers you can gain from various fixtures and staff that allow you to sneak a peak at the adventurer cards before you start a sale. Some powers even allow you to pick from all the available adventurers after checking it one to find one that best suits your hand. But ultimately, this is a deck-building game, and sometimes your hand will be better than other times. And of course, as the game builds, you would hope to see constant improvement in your available options. Each adventurer will have a different amount of money to spend, and often, a different REACT action that will happen at different points. All of these are clearly marked and explained on the cards. You wont know what this will be until you reveal the card, but all players are in the same position. Having a balanced hand will help, but this variety is part of the game and adds to the fun. Once you have made your offering to the adventurer, based on what type of items they want and how much gold they have to spend, you will work out the quality of the items you have offered and declare this to the table. Each stock item has a star rating. This is how you work out its quality. Each other player then has the chance to try and offer a higher quality of stock items to the same adventurer, sticking to the same parameters of item type and gold available. The player that can offer the highest quality package will get the sale, and the available gold. The value that you sell to the adventurers is shown on the top right of each card. Any cards left in your hand at the end of the game can be sold for the value on the bottom left, generally a lower value. As such, you want to win these sales as often as you can to maximise your gold. The stock items that you can buy, serve more than just things available for you to sell on, they also offer unique powers that you can use on your turn. As play passes round to each player, they have a choice to make. This decision is not just about what they want to do, but also about what they think other players may be planning on doing next. There are only so many cards drawn each round. If there is a powerful stock item, you may want to get it before another player does, however that is your entire turn. It then may allow the next player to get the fixture you had your eye on, or recruit the staff member that has a power that could really help you. You can only ever have a maximum of four fixtures and staff at any one time, so there is a limit to how many you can buy. But there are only ever two shown at once, and only five rounds. Buying these cards early, especially if they have a useful action that could be used multiple times is key. But of course, there are also a limited number of adventurer cards each round, and starting the sale has a huge benefit. Not only do you get to make the first offer, but you also get the initiative token, which increases your quality score for this sale by one and your gold return if you make the final sale by one. Also, the player who holds this at the end of the round will be the first player in the next round. Timing when you buy cards and when you try and make a sale is what this game is all about. If you start a round with a balanced and powerful hand, it may be you want to go straight in for a sale. But if the fixtures and staff available offer useful and powerful actions, you may need to get these first. Maybe there is a powerful item that would compliment your hand, and you are fearful of starting a sale before you get this first. Having only one action per turn with limited cards each round adds a lot of tension and makes each decision, albeit very simple, tense and enjoyable to make. This really is where the heart of the game lies. I enjoy the process of slowly building my powers both across my fixtures staff and deck of items. I like the different ways the cards can be used and the choices this offers. The staff for example, once used are flipped upside down to show they have worked that day and cannot be used again. You can rehire them the next day if you pay their salary again, but if you don't use them during a round, you wont need to pay their salary and can save them for the next day instead. It's nice to have this option, especially as the gold you are paying them could all be end game points instead. Like many games, Adventure Mart is all about inputs and outputs. Trying to spend gold in a way that will generate more gold by the end of the game is your constant challenge. How much luck is in the game? Each round begins with the player holding the initiative token reading the daily bulletin. This adds a new rule or slight change to the parameters for all players. The bulletins are varied and interesting enough to add a nice twist each round, but not game changing enough to add any specific advantage to one player. I don't see much luck in this game as some other reviewers have suggested. Going first helps to get first choice, but you can make sure you go first buy winning the last sale each round, and missing out on one card may be frustrating, but there will always be others. All players have access to the same starting hand, and can all buy new cards based on the ones they need. And of course, you can't win all the sales anyway. That is not possible. So, pick your battles. Diversify your stock, and try to win the ones that will help you the most. Ease of play. The game does have a lot of keywords and iconography but they are all self explanatory, and the rule book has a simple glossary at the back that clearly explains everything if you are ever unsure. It may take a game or two for each key word to become second nature, but there is nothing out of the ordinary or particularly new here, so experienced players will adapt quickly. But it does serve the argument that this is not a simple light game as the art suggests. Which brings me to my final point. Some games with cute, fun, light art are expected to be light games. Likewise, games with more serious and sophisticated art suggest a more mid-weight or heavy experience. But obviously this is not always the case. But why is this? Why can't we have games with fun bright and childlike art that offer a more strategic experience? Do all adults want to have all mid-weight and heavy games looking the same? Do we all want to be farming a field in Europe, or fighting zombies in a war? No! I think there is a place for a game like Adventure Mart, which offers a mid-weight filler experience but with fun bright art. This issue seems to be more about peoples expectations. Some people can see the box art, expect one thing, get another, and then react negatively towards the game. If you ever want proof that this is a fact, just look at books like Harry Potter and the various covers that have been printed for it. So, if you are looking for a game that sits somewhere between filler and mid-wight, but offers a breezy and fun art style. Adventure Mart could be for you. The game offers some interesting powers and your choice each round is simple but strategic. The choices you make will effect your success in the game, and the flow will be quick, simple, but rewarding. I would recommend Adventure Mart to anyone looking for a filler plus game. A filler is a quick light game you may play in-between other games, or when you only have 20-30 minutes to play. Filler plus is one step ahead of this, where the game length isn't necessarily that much longer, the set-up and teach is still simple, but the game does offer a little more strategy. You may need to pitch it to your adult friends that this isn't a child's game when they see the box art. And in turn, you may need to get your children to understand they have to concentrate in order to do well in this game. But if you can teach the value of not judging a book by its cover, as well as enjoying a fun game, what a great use of your time that will be! Happy shopping.

Kitara WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Root, Blood Rage, Targi Published by: IELLO Designed by: Eric B. Vogel Kitara is an intriguing game. Similar to Root, on the surface it looks like a family friendly, animal themed game. But also like Root, it has so many hidden depths. From the box art, you can get an idea for the battle that awaits within as two warrior's sit astride seemingly giant beasts, going head to head in mortal combat. But the brutal area majority battle in Kitara offers far more than what I first expected from the gorgeous sun rise below. Or is it a sun set? At its heart, Kitara is an area majority game. Card drafting and hand management is present too, but the core of the game is about controlling the board. And in order to control the board, you must fight! The game starts with each player having three warrior pawns on the board in their home territory. On your turn, players will draft one of six face up cards into their play area. Each player will start with one card here at their disposal and they need to build up a collection of cards that work well together. At the start of the game, players can only access the first two of these six cards. But as they draft more cards into their play area they will increase their ability to choose from a wider selection in later turns. Each card they take has a mixture of symbols on it. Some offer a wider selection at the drafting phase as already mentioned, there are also straight up points available, more movement for the next phase of the game, and most commonly the ability to place some of your others warriors onto the board. Once you have drafted your new card and placed any new warriors the new card allows, you can then use all cards you have in front of you to move your warriors. The board is made up of various areas, some of which generate food for your tribe but no points, and others which generate points but no food. Players will have three different types of warrior pawns. Only your master animal pawns will score you points, and only when they are located in the ruins spaces. Your hero pawns will generate points every time you fight with them, and your regular warrior pawns are there to make up the numbers. Literally, this is about who has the most warriors on any space. Kitara is a numbers game. You can only move onto an opponents space if you have more warriors than them. It's a simple rule, but you will be surprised at how often a player will start to attack and then realise they have miss counted! Especially when the board gets a little cluttered near the end of the game. Each warrior counts as a power of one, irrespective of their type. The hero pawns are a lot larger and so it can be misleading when glancing at the board, counting up how many warriors each player has in each space. When you move into an opponents area, they do not lose any points or warriors, they simply have to retreat to their nearest space with other warriors present. If you made this attack with your hero pawn, you can dip into the bag and pull one point token out. You can do this each time you attack in a round, but only keep one token per round. The points on the tokens vary from two to five, so its worth going in for a second attack if you can, if you draw a two point token on your first attack. Attacking the other players feels like the most natural thing to do. Not only do you get the points if you used your hero pawn, but also you can start to control the way the board looks. Pushing your opponents back and owning more land yourself is crucial in this game. Clearing space in the ruins areas allows you to score two point per round if you manage to get your master animal pawn there, and having any warrior on a grassland means you can feed your tribe and keep your cards. At the end of you turn, once you have used all your movement and scored your points, you must feed your warriors. For each card you have in play, you need one food. Food comes from controlling the savanna spaces. For each food you are short, you must discard one card of your choice. If that card you discard has warrior any images on it, then you must also remove those warriors from the board. Managing your food is key to winning this game. In the game, there are two different decks of cards to play with. There is no significant differences other than the food icon. The red deck offers the chance for some cards to generate food as well as points, warriors, movement, and the chance to increase your range when drafting. Having played with both decks a few times, I don't really see the need to ever play with the blue deck again. The red deck with this simple change, offers more chances to have a more powerful hand, a more satisfying turn, and a more enjoyable game. Other than the simplicity of learning the game without the food icon, I am unsure why there are two decks in the first place. The cards are highly functionally. They all look the same, and lack any original or exciting art. It's a shame, as the art that is present in this game is stunning, but it's not used enough. It exists on the player aids, the box art, and a little on the board, but the game does become a little abstract when playing. I love abstract games, and really enjoy Kitara despite the lack of theme. I just feel that if the theme could have been implemented on the cards, it would have added to the overall sense of immersion. The player aids look amazing! They are not really needed after a few games, but initially they are helpful reminding you on the left what each symbol means, and on the right, the order of your turn. But after a few games, when all this becomes second nature, I found I did not even use them. I still got them out the box and set up with them, if only to help clarify player colour. But other than that, they quickly got pushed to the side and forgotten which is a shame as they look great. I am unsure why the animals are so big though? On the back of the rule book, the designer talks of his desire to make this game as realistic as possible and explains the research conducted to give the games' theme some credibility. He explains what is real and what was exaggerated in the game. The over sized animals detracts from this sense of reality for me. I am fine with that in most games. I love a fantasy theme. But Kitara sits more in the real-world, and everything else feels more closely akin the truth. This slight change with the over sized animals jars a bit. Either go all in and have a number of fantasy themed animals, events or powers, or make is close to real-life. It almost feels like the art has a sizing error, as it just doesn't make sense when compared to the rest of the game. But this really is nit-picking. Overall the game looks great and the production is of a very high standard for a game of this size and cost. The meeples are all the same design across the four playing colours which is a shame, especially when each colour has a different wild animal on the player aid, but in the game, it's all just Rhinos. But they look great and the colours really pop on the board, especially in a four player game. But there is no doubt minis or at least different style meeples would have been better. Budget always wins though I suppose. The game scales brilliantly to the different player counts. The board needs to be tight and full of conflict so a larger board with more space simply wouldn't work with a two. As such, the game comes with two boards. One single sided small board for the two player, and a doubled sided board used either for a three or four player game. I much prefer the game in a four, but three and two works well too. They are all tight and engrossing affairs. But I like the options in a four player game. Having more players present, and more opponents to fight makes for a better game. In a two, you obviously only have one choice, and this worked better for me than a three. In a three player game, when you have two opponents to fight, it can become a little frustrating for the player in the lead, always being attacked. Whereas in a four, you may still want to go for the leading player all the time, but geography may not permit. If you cannot reach them, you cannot fight them. Movement points are limited and as such, the game becomes a lot more strategic and tense. It's tight and fun in a two but has obvious choices. In a three, one player can feel picked on. The game excels in a four for these reasons. The timing of the game is also very interesting. The cards that you draft are numbered in power from one to five. You sort the deck so that all the ones come out first, then the two's and so on. When the first five is seen in the draft line this signals the end of the game. Everyone has one last turn and then it is game over. The cards dictate the game length and there are the same amount no mater the player count. As such, the game has the same game time no matter the player count. Each player will have less turns with more players, and the game will remain at around 30-40 minutes, depending on players familiarity with it. I like games that don't have game the length affected by player count, especially in a game like this where on other players turns you are just watching. But it does feel very different moving from a two player to a four player, and having so many less turns. It feels like some cards should be added to make the higher player count games longer, but I presume this decision was ignored in favour of a consistent game length? And this was in turn, because the game has no involvement for the inactive player. You don't want a long game when most the time, you are just sat there watching other players do their thing. This is either then, an elegant solution, or a frustration born from the games mechanics, depending on your point of view! At its core, Kitara is a fantastic small box game. It sits in the mold of games like Targi. You get so much more from the game than you expect. It offers a lot more strategy than the simple rules would suggest. It pulls you back, asking you to play over and over. Not only to try and win, or beat your previous scores, but to fine tune your strategy. Getting cards that generate points early can be a good way to get a head start in Kitara, especially if you are able to keep these cards round after round. But if they don't give you enough movement or allow you to add the right warriors to the board then it may not work out for you. You need to find a balance to do well in Kitara. Some cards are clearly more powerful than others. There is an advantage to being the first player because of this, but there are enough cards in the game for this to be minimal. But I am surprised the game doesn't have any rules by which the second, third and forth players start with more warriors on the board to even this out. (Everything packs away beautifully as well. Minor point I know. But I do love a good box insert!) Overall, Kitara is a surprisingly good game. Surprising in that it offers more than its small size and simple rules would suggest. Surprising in that the game is a little more cut throat than the art may suggest. Surprising in how abstract the game feels despite the wonderful theme. And surprising in how different each player count feels. I will certainly be keeping this game in my collection and can see myself turning to it on multiple occasions. It scratches quite a few itches, and due to the consistent play time irrelevant of player count, will work for many situations. Kitara is a very clever little game that stands head and shoulders above its smaller physical presence.

This is a preview using prototype parts. Images do not represent the quality for the final game. Route East is a new game hitting kickstarter in March 2022 from first time designers Lost Venture Games. The game takes inspiration from founders Jonny and George's own experiences travelling the Silk Road from Istanbul to Shanghai. Many parts of the game from the Car on the cover art to some of the events in the action deck take inspiration from their own real-life experiences. The game looks and feels like an adventure. You can feel the truth in the game. For what is essentially an action point, adventure race game, a real sense of adventure oozes from every aspect of this production. I was instantly drawn in from the box art, and on opening the board, I was not disappointed. Everything looks gorgeous. It feels like something epic and exciting is about to happen. The final game will use a matt rather than a gloss finish, but it already looks like a highly polished game, even in the prototype form. A lot of care and attention has gone into the factual detail and thematic ties to all parts of the visuals. Setting up is easy. You lay out the board as above then add in the cards to the spaces shown, place the fuel tokens over the off shore rig. Then add the player tokens to the start space in Istanbul and deal three destinations to each player, that's it! When done, it should look something like this. The rule book is also very easy to digest and read, even in this early form. To win Route East, you must be the first player to move your piece to the finish space in Shanghai via your three destinations. On your turn, you can use three actions. You can either move your piece one, two, or three spaces, or use your actions to draw one, two, or three action cards. These card mostly help you with a variety of fun and interesting abilities. After each turn, you must end on either a hotel, hostel, or border space. You need somewhere to sleep after all. On your next turn, you will pay either $25 or $50 for your previous night based on where you stayed the night before, then draw an Ignition card to get started. Or if you stayed at a border crossing, draw a Border card if you plan to cross one of the many border crossings in the game that turn. The crossings can be as simple as a $25 fee plus a fuel token, but life does not always pan out like that! Borders are often closed, or require additional payments to get past the corrupt border guards! On your way, you can stop off at cash points to top up your funds, visit petrol stations to gather more fuel for upcoming crossings, take a short cut on a dirt road or ship crossing, or take a detour to one of the three tourist destinations you need to visit along the way. At the start of the game, each player will be dealt three random destination cards. They must all be in different countries, if they are not, you must discard and re-draw until this is the case. This will then create your path to Shanghai. Planning your route at this part of the game feels a little bit like Ticket to Ride. And the overall game does have a similar feel to this. The 'map-style' board. Plotting routes to various destinations. It does all feel a bit TTR, in a good way! When you reach a destination, you must reveal the card and then you can use the bonus that destination card offers. There are some interesting and powerful abilities to be gained for reaching each one. Either helping you or hindering one of your opponents. Plotting your route and making it to each one is the most fun part of the game. I only wish you could visit more of them. I have suggested a variant whereby you need to visit more than three, perhaps with more actions each turn so the game does not get too long. Who knows, it may make the final cut! But you can always house rule this yourself if not. We played a game where you had to visit 6 destinations instead of three and we gave ourselves six actions each turn again instead of three. It worked well. The three destinations you must visit do affect the game a lot. They could be all along a nice orderly path, or seemingly at the end of long and needless detours. But the game has enough swings and deviations that no matter your cards, it will always feel like a tense and close race. I have played five times so far and each game has ended with the other players only a turn or two behind from finishing themselves. There is nothing worse than a one horse race. Route East doesn’t seem to suffer from this. The final few turns are all through dirt roads where you must roll even numbers to pass. This alone creates a nice catch up mechanic for any players languishing behind. There are plenty of destination cards to offer a nice variety each game. Each are wonderfully illustrated with thematically tied powers and a nice local titbit. I would like to have more facts about them present on the art or perhaps in a separate guide book. This again I believe is one of the plans for the development of the game before and during the kickstarter. Everything about this game makes me want to pack my bags, pick up my passport and head off on an adventure. After finishing the game of course! This is the biggest compliment I can pay this game. Route East is a great family friendly gateway race game that sits in a nice place between Ticket to Ride and The Quest for El Dorado, and scratches the itch both games offer. There are a lot of cards for each of the main decks. The Ignition, Action, and Border cards. There is some repetition on the text, but certainly enough variety to make each draw feel exciting. The wording is clear and there is no need to refer to the rule book once you start playing. Everything just makes sense. I am excited to see how this game develops and will watch closely to see how the kickstarter goes. I will post a link to that here when it goes live. I would recommend backing this game to anyone who likes games such as Ticket to Ride or The Quest to El Dorado. As mentioned, this game sits nicely between those two and is a nice game to add to your gateway collection. I see a lot of potential for development with this game, either in this first copy, or through expansions. I would like to see different maps, action cards, and events added to future copies. It does feel like this could be the start of something big in the gaming world if the kickstarter gets the right traction.

The King is Dead: Second Edition WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: War Chest, Blitzkrieg, Air, Land & Sea. Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Peer Sylvester By Steve Godfrey The King is Dead! And since this is a second edition I suppose you could say that the King is Dead Again! Whichever way you look at it, being a male monarch in medieval England doesn’t have the most long term of career prospects. Luckily for the players though all we have to do is deal with the fallout, gain loyalty from a majority of the country and stop the French invading and taking over……..simple really! You have to know these things when you're a king, you know. Set up by giving each player a set of the eight cards, everyone has the same cards so just make sure each player has a complete set. Shuffle the region cards and place them randomly face up around the board. Give each player two random cubes from the bag. Then add two blue cubes into Moray, two red cubes to Gwynedd and two Yellow cubes into Essex (my home County) then place cubes randomly into each region until they each have four cubes. The rest go into the general supply. On your turn they can either play a card from your hand or pass. If you play a card, perform the action on that card. This is either going to add followers onto the board or switch others around but with restrictions. Once a card Is played, discard that card from the game, then take one follower (cube) of any colour from anywhere on the map and add it to your supply. Passing doesn’t end your round however. The round will only end once everyone has passed in succession. This means you can still change your mind and play a card after passing. Once everyone has passed a power struggle will occur. You check the first region card around the board and check which faction has the most followers in that region then place a control disc of that colour in that region and place all the followers into the general supply. If there are no cubes in that region or there is a tie for most then a black French control disc is placed instead. The game will end in one of two ways. When either all eight power struggles have been resolved or if the French place all three control discs on the board. The game will score differently depending on how the game ends. If by way of a power struggle then determine which faction has the most power discs, then the player with the most cubes of that colour wins. If the game ends in French invasion then the player with the most sets of each colour will win. You don’t vote for kings! Now and again a game comes along that I love to explain to people, usually because it has a little M Night Shyamalan style twist that makes people sit up and say “what?!, say that again!” The King is dead is one of those games. Some of you may have worked it out from my brief rules rundown above, if not, don’t worry. Basically you only have eight cards in your hand and each time you play one you discard it out of the game with no way of getting it back. This means you have a maximum of eight turns in the game and how and when you decide to take them is crucial and absolutely makes this game the little slice of brilliance that it is. Looking at this game from the outside it would be so easy to say “well just play one card per round then you're guaranteed a turn every round”, but the decisions are so much harder than that. The first time you play a card you think to yourself “that’s fine, that’s set me up nicely for the next power struggle” and you're all set to pass into the next round. But then someone else plays a card which may put a medieval spanner in the works, maybe for this round or a future round and then the conundrums really start. Do you sit back and let it go and try and push up for future power struggles instead, do you change your follower strategy, or do you play another card to retaliate and then hope that your opponent doesn’t decide to play ANOTHER card to swing the balance back in their favour. Playing that second card this round will mean you'll essentially be skipping a round in the future but it may just be worth it. These are the decisions you will have to struggle with EVERY. SINGLE. ROUND. and it’s brilliant. The cards themselves give you plenty of options. You have some cards that let you move cubes to different regions either into adjacent or across the map. The trick here is that the next player in turn can’t use the same card to reverse what has just been played. Re- enforcement style cards will add cubes to the board and strengthen a faction's control in a region. Then you have the negotiate card which lets you switch the position of two unresolved region cards and place your white negotiation disc on one which blocks it from being moved again. I love how an eight region map and a hand of eight cards each gives you so much depth and so much scope to make some really interesting and thoughtful choices. Every card you play isn’t a simple decision and you're never just playing a card for the current power struggle. Since cards are precious and power struggles are public knowledge You are constantly weighing up your options and trying to make your cards work for future rounds as well. It’s not just the cards though because taking a follower after playing cards adds that little extra layer to your choices. Now stand aside, worthy adversary! Chances are your best laid plans and strategies will change during the course of the game. Because all your cubes and cards are public knowledge it’s fairly easy to see where people's loyalties lie or if they seem to be pushing for sets and bringing about French victory. Because of that there can be a bit of a mid game panic as you see the loyalties veering away from you and you scrabble to try and either turn the tide your way or try and grab relevant followers. If you do happen to find yourself on the wrong end of a revolution though the game is quick enough and easy enough to set up that you can just go again. The randomness of the set up is where the game finds it’s replayability and for such little effort that is a lot of replayability. The production on The King is Dead is just fantastic. The tapestry style art on that beautiful box cover and the cards is amazing and I’m always drawn to a beautiful box and board with those shiny surfaces on (I think that’s the technical term anyway!) The art was done by Benoit Billion who has now taken my number one spot as the best name in all of board gaming. Consult the book of armaments The King is Dead does come with a small variant which sees you throwing new cards into the mix and it is honestly my preferred way to play the game and require no real effort to throw in or teach. Remove the three faction support cards from each deck and shuffle up the twelve cunning action cards and deal three to each player replacing those support cards. They essentially do similar things as the other cards but in different combinations and the rule book will give you a run down of each one. Since each card is different the other players can’t easily deduct what cards opponents have in their hands. Some people may prefer the predictability of the original set up while others may prefer the slight randomness of the cards. The standard factions support cards are good and are great for learning the game. They don’t over complicate things and it’s easier to teach everyone the same cards. They also have their limits though. If you don’t manage to play them at the right time then they may wind up being unusable. The game is so simple though that it will only really take a game or even two to feel confident enough to use the new cards. I love the fun back and forth and the will they, won't they play another card dilemma. The best thing about The King is Dead though is that it’s a simple to learn, quick and utterly engaging area control game which has a ton of replayability in a brilliantly produced small box of delights.

Title: Rallyman GT WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Formula D, Flamme Rouge, Downforce Published by: Holy Grail Games, Designed by: Jean-Christophe Bouvier By Steve Godfrey I don’t particularly like watching motor racing. Now when I say that I’m talking mainly in the general sense but specifically F1. When I was younger the racing was just some boring program that my parents had on during a Sunday that more often than not delayed my favourite show from coming on. A board game version of it though? That may just hit the right gear. Rules of the road After making your track, determine the first player and they place their car at the start line and closest to the edge of the next corner. Once all players are on the starting grid the first player plans their trajectory with the gear dice. There are six black dice with a gear number on it (one of each gear), two white coast dice and three red brake dice. Which of these dice you get depends on your car, tires and the weather. Place dice along the track with the dice going in ascending or descending order or a mix of both. So if you start in gear zero you’ll lay out gear dice one then two etc. the white coast dice let you remain in the same gear and the red brake dice let you skip a downward gear. This is for those “whoops I didn’t quite plan that right” moments. Corners have numbers indicating the highest gear you can take those corners in, any higher and you’ll automatically spin out. Some corners will even give you gear restrictions depending on how you go into the corner. Next you have to roll the dice. You can choose to go flat out and roll all the dice at once or go one at a time. In either case if you roll three hazard symbols (two in the rain) you spin out. Going flat out has more risk but will give you focus tokens. Rolling one by one means that you can stop your movement before rolling any of the dice to avoid disaster. It also allows you to use the focus tokens to avoid rolling a die. Each round turn order is determined by the following. Cars in the highest gear go first, any ties the car furthest round the track then the car closest to the inside of the next corner. The game ends after a determined amount of laps. “Lights out and away we go!” Sports games aren’t an easy thing to translate into board games. For the most part sports are fast paced and board games, famously are not. The faster the sport, the harder it is to find new ways to get the pace and feel of the sport you're trying to emulate. Well unless designers are going to ask gamers to run round the room with the board in hand and a huge fan blowing at them! I think most gamers would agree that one of the reasons we like board games is because it involves a large amount of sitting. I know I do! So designers are then left to focus on the strategic and tactical elements to get the essence and focusing on that strategy is something that Rallyman GT does really well. Setting your trajectory at the start of your turn seems like a simple thing to do, lay dice out, done, right? Well no, because there are so many tactical decisions to make as you're doing it. Choosing your speed and dice order are just the first part of a row of interesting decisions you get to make on your turn. You’ll quickly find that there are usually a few combinations you can place your dice in as you plot your turn. Some will get you further along the track whereas some may not put you as far round but will set you up in a nice advantageous position for your next turn, and if your luck, may even hinder you opponents in the process. “With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go.” Rallyman GT is the first game that I’ve played that simulates the idea of the “racing line” properly. Sure you can take the corner using any of the spaces but taking that ideal line will give you the advantage. Aside from the obvious tactical advantage it’s really satisfying when you manage to pull it off well and put your metaphorical pedal down and power out of a corner and surge ahead. There’s even a certain smoothness that you feel when you do manage to take those racing lines and especially when you manage to set yourself up perfectly for your next move. On the flip side you also feel how harsh it can be when you're forced to take the wrong lines or if you have to come into a corner too slowly. That’s not a negative thing though because it all adds to the racing experience and goes further to prove just how tactically this game can be played from an offensive and defensive perspective. All of this is before you even have to roll the dice, which brings its own conundrums. Playing it safe is, well, playing it safe and if you want to have a chance of winning then it’s probably your best chance. As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race, which I’m pretty sure was written from someone who has never seen high speed racing or was their schools “slow bike race” champion 4 years running. You can still push your luck when those hazard symbols come up but having the option to stop means you rarely have to worry about those devastating spin outs. Going flat out? That’s where the excitement comes in, rolling one at a time can have its “oooh” moments, but the tension of rolling all those dice and almost dreading opening your eyes to look at the result, that’s where the game gives you those moments where you cheer loudly. You even do it for other players. They’re your opponents, but it’s still tense and them spinning out may just be your chance to swoop in and take the lead! It works the opposite way when those hazard symbols come up but that’s the price you pay. Still getting the focus tokens regardless gives some consolation and is also a big help when trying to regain some ground in later turns. “The lead car is unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.” Rallyman GT can have any issue with a runaway leader if one person is having a good day with the dice and you’re deciding whether to put all or some of the dice in jail, then the chances of catching the leader can be pretty low. Now that's an extreme example but it can happen. This isn’t a problem unique to Rallyman GT however. This is something that all games involving those dreaded cubes can suffer with in various different ways. Take Formula D for example. This is a race game that has the same problem but, in my opinion anyway, suffers a lot worse. Rallyman has some ways of mitigating the dice and being that spinning out is more likely here it does make catching up more of a possibility. The last game I played of Rallyman this problem was rearing it’s annoying head but with some clever players everyone managed to catch up without the leader crashing. It can be disheartening when it starts to happen but in Rallyman Gt it doesn’t necessarily mean it's over. All that strategy and tactical play is a lot of fun but half the fun of the game is creating the maps before the game starts! There are some pre-made maps in the rule book if you're just wanting to set up and play. Making your own is great though. Take a number of tiles depending on the sort of game you want using the handy dandy guide in the rule book and create away. I like taking the tiles at random and seeing what craziness I can build. Another way I find a lot of fun is to hand all the players a number of tiles and one at a time add one to the track. This adds a bit of interactivity to set up and the other players can’t blame you for the bonkers map that’s laid out in front of them and the fact that they never get out of fourth gear. If they think that’s painful then they clearly haven’t spent any time driving on the M25. Honestly though, the Grand Prix could learn from some of these tracks. Rallyman Gt is a fun racing game that I think appeals to people wanting an enjoyable race game but also racing fans who want to explore the tactical side of the sport. It won’t make me a fan of racing but put this game in front of me and I’ll be more than happy to wait for the green light.

Title: Cartaventura WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Choose Your Own Adventure, Tales of Arabian Nights, Forgotten Waters. Published by: BLAM ! Designed by: Thomas Dupont, Arnaud Ladagnous This review will contain very minor spoilers to explain the games' mechanisms. Over the last few months there has been a lot of mystery surrounding this game for me. The art for the box was popping up everywhere I looked. Admittedly, confusing me when it was different each time. I did not realise there are four versions of this game at first, but all four looked stunning and so appealing to me. But I couldn't figure out quite how the game worked or how big it was. Not that this matters, but it added to the enigma! Now proudly owning one copy of this game, I can tell you, first up, its a really fun choose your own adventure style game, in a tiny box! I have the Lhasa version, there is also one called Oklahoma, Vinland and a mini one called Tintagel. Each tells the tale of a different adventurer in four completely different stand alone games. Cartaventura: Vinland is set in the the land of the Vikings. Players will follow in the footsteps of explorer Erik The Red trying to prove your father's innocence. Cartaventura: Oklahoma places you in 1854 in the United States. Players play as Bass Reeves, a slave, who works in cotton and sugarcane fields who has intentions for freedom! Finally, Cartaventura: Tintagel is a mini scenario for Cartaventura. It takes you on the footsteps of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was initially available for free within a French magazine and now I expect, does the rounds at conventions and eBay! But back to Lhasa, where I have been playing as a French War correspondant, travelling through the Far Eat in search of Alexandra David-Neal. A fascinating woman with whom I have been a little obsessed with since playing this game. It is worth checking her out, even if you just read the highlights here. What a fascinating life. The game comes with a brief piece of history about her and her life at this time too. Making the adventure to try and find her in the game all the more exciting! The game has multiple endings and it took me three game until I found the ending I was satisfied with, but I wont spoil it by saying anything about what happened in either ending. Or why I wanted something specific. Each game ending was fun and gratifying. But as each adventure transpired, I was left feeling I had either missed parts out, or wanted to try and take a different route. Learning and playing Cartaventura could not be more easy. There is no rule book per say, and the on-boarding process for this game is fantastic. You simply start playing. In the box is 70 cards. The first few take you through the basics of what each symbol means, a lightning bolt means you must do that card right away for example. Nothing you won't be familiar with already. You then start reading the story and making choices. At the end of most cards there is a two-pronged choice to make. Go here or there. Talk to this person or that. Do this thing, or that thing. You will soon be given resources to manage which will affect which choices you can make as not everything in life is free of course. And you will realise that each action has a consequence. You cannot say something bad about someones business without them having an opinion of your work for example. Some cards you reveal will be a map, showing where you are and giving you choices of where you want to go. Again, everything will have a consequence, and the game is played with a clever sense of time passing. Doing once thing will affect your ability to do another. A ship may sail and remove your options for other things. It's hard to not go into too much detail here without spoiling the game, so you will have to let your imagination do the rest of the work. The game has multiple endings, and your actions in one game, will affect subsequent games in a very clever way that again I won't spoil here. There are some parts of the game that will remain the same each time you play of course, especially for the first few turns. But it doesn't take long for your choices to fork, and new experiences to be had. I found that playing this game evoked a real sense of adventure and mystery. I think games like this rely on the story more than the mechanisms, and the story in Lhasa is truly fascinating to me. This era of history interests me a lot anyway, and I have always had a romantic interest in the area the game takes you too. Learning a little bit more about the people and cultures during this time, in what feels like a historically accurate account, adds a lot to this game. I was curious to try every different option. I wanted to look down every street, talk to every person. Experience every possible eventuality. This is how the game looks after about 5 minutes of playing, (with a few cards removed) no matter the choices you make. I feel comfortable showing this picture without spoiling anything. It gives you a good impression of how the game looks, and the multiple options that will be available to you at any turn. Most of the criticism for this game I have seen focuses around the lack of options available to you as the player, and how the game has a basic linear path that feels more like a choose your own adventure story and less like a game. I could not disagree more. Each time I have played, the game has felt completely divergent, and the story I told was vastly contrasting, and had very different endings. There is more to this than just your choices, but I appreciate how this can be the case for some. Of course, the choices will not go on forever. This is a physical product after all. In future, digital versions of games like this will offer more choice. But for a small box, low cost game, I think there is more than enough in this production to justify this game being given worthy consideration of anyone interested in choose your own adventure style games. And that is the key point. If you like choose your adventure style games, I think you will like this. If you don't, then I don't think this will change your mind on the genre. The main choice if you do like this type of thing, is which story interests you the most. For me it was Lhasa and it's mysterious place in history. But now, having experienced this one and enjoyed the way the game is structured, I want to play them all!

Arts & Architecture WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Viscounts of the West Kingdom, Wingspan, Lost Ruins of Arnak Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier If you would like to read the review for the main game, then head here. If you would like to read the review for the first expansion Plans & Ploys, then head here. If you would like to read the review for this second expansion, Arts & Architecture, then read on! I enjoy Tapestry a lot. The game is so smooth, looks incredible, and is incredibly easy to teach and play, despite its complex looking set up. I think it is a great Gateway game for this reason. I enjoyed the first expansion a lot, but this second one has really excited me as it promised a new fifth track. That's 20% more fun guarantied! On my first few plays with this expansion I was instantly smitten by it, but also, unsure how best to progress on five tracks compared to four. You don't get any more turns, but I had so much more I needed to try and achieve. After a few plays, I calmed down in my attempts to reach the end of all five tracks, which as far as I can tell, simply can't be done, and just focused on the game, which I will go into now. Arts & Architecture brings in four new elements to the game. The fifth Arts Track, six advanced Capital City mats, 20 Masterpiece cards, and the new inspiration tiles. Plus there are more landmark, tech, tapestry and civilization cards and eight beautifully painted miniatures. Let's take a look at all the new components added first. Arts Tracks This is by far the headline change to the game with this new expansion. It is always nice to get more "stuff," but I also want something new. Something that changes and enhances the game. A fifth track certainly does that. The track offers a new focus, a juggling act. Trying to advance on four tracks was always a challenge, now with an extra one thrown in, you really need to focus on what is right for your strategy each game. But this new Arts track doesn't just bring a new place to try and advance, it also has new benefits. Masterpiece cards and Inspiration tiles can be gained from this new track which I will cover more below, and there is a new symbol showing each colour of the four buildings. Players can now gain new buildings, but chose which one to take. I have found that the Arts track compliments the other tracks very well. Particularly the Science track which I always favour. I like how the Science track allows you to move up other tracks, and now with five tracks to move up, this seems even more crucial. Advanced Capital City Mats The new capital city mats offer more than just variety in terms of the layout. New rules around gaining benefits and placements are introduced as well. I like the Cavern which has interesting placement rules, and extra points for each completed row. I enjoyed the flexibility of Cloud City which lets you move your buildings after placing them, something I often longed to do in previous games! My new favorite though is the Swamp. It has giant lily pads that do count as a completed area, but they can be built over when required offering flexibility with larger landmark buildings. They will lose you pints if still visible at the final income turn, but help you complete more rows and columns in the earlier rounds. Masterpiece Cards The Art tracks brings in new Masterpiece cards. These cards can be placed anywhere in your player area, but the game suggests you use the space on your player board where the Maker of Fire image is. This is so you don’t forget to use them each income round. The cards offer new ways to gain resources and various different benefits that are triggered each income round, and at certain stages on the Arts track. The final space on the arts track allows you to trigger three different cards if you have that many by then. I found this to be a very useful way to gain more resources, have more turns, and build stronger scores. Inspiration Tiles. The Arts track also introduces the Inspiration tiles. When gained, these can be placed onto your payer board in the spaces where you store your buildings before you acquire then. They offer upgrades to your income phase, with additional points and resources now available for every exposed space. As such, it makes sense to get these early in the game so you can utilise them for more income rounds, and then focus on acquiring the buildings on that track. It adds a focus to your game, and works well when combined with the other new flexible ways to acquire buildings. Other new elements. This expansion also brings in new landmark, technology, and tapestry cards. They are mainly more of the same, but some do require landmark buildings to be placed on them for additional benefits. The new technology cards need a landmark building placed on them in order for it to qualify for the final upgrade spot. Whilst the tapestry cards offer additional benefits when the spaces on it are covered by buildings or landmarks. It's interesting to have the choice of where to place your buildings now, and with the landmark cards, it is nice to be able to get more landmark buildings in order to satisfy the different options. The landmark cards were first introduced in Plans & Ploys and allow players to get landmarks pieces irrespective of who reaches certain spots on the tracks first. I like this, as 'first' in Tapestry shouldn’t always mean 'best'. The new Civilization cards. The new Civilization cards offer more variety for people who have played the base game, and Plans & Ploys a lot, and are dealt out with one of the original Civilization cards for players to choose from. You can always have the choice to use one of these new Civilization cards if you wish. I like the new Gamblers card a lot. It offers a nice chance to use more tapestry cards, in a completely chance encounter. I lot of Tapestry avoids luck, and rightly so. There is some elements with the cards and dice of course, but this game seems to be more about strategy than random factors. That is a good thing, but I like the choice to add some pure luck with this card. I enjoyed using the Urban Planners card too, although on one occasion, I realised the error of my ways when I foolishly combined it with the new Archipelago Capital City mat, which is a series of small islands, only large enough for one landmark building each. The Urban Planers rewards you for Landmarks that touch each other in your capital city. The Archipelago makes this impossible! This is nothing against the game, just my own lack of focus! Relentless is my new favorite Civilization though. It adds a real focus to gain a new Landmark building each turn, and offers big rewards for doing so. In a game where you can deploy multiple different strategies, I do like my Civilization card to add some clarity to where my attention should be focused, and reward me in turn for doing so if I do well with it. The new miniatures are wonderful. They are probably some of my favorite buildings in the game, apart from the Shuttle of course. Like the previous games, they are not really necessary, and don't add anything to the game mechanically, but thematically and visually, they are stunning. This expansion is fairly priced though, and offers a lot more than just these painted miniatures, so I don't think any criticism can be placed on their inclusion or the affect they had on the price in the way the base game suffers from. Set-up and Game length. I will play Tapestry without this expansion on occasions. Particularly when I'm teaching the game to new players. But when I am playing with people familiar with the game, it will always be my choice to add this to the game, and my preference over Plans & Ploys. I have played with both expansions and it worked fine. The landmark cards were the main change in Plans & Ploys, and they are present in Arts & Architecture anyway. There is no real additional time or complexity added to the game when including this expansion or indeed both, and only a few more minutes added to set-up and rules, detailing the new track and what it brings with the Inspiration and Masterpiece cards. The extra track does add a little more thinking time initially as players become familiar with it, but it also opens up more spaces to go to which reduces competition for getting to the landmark spaces first. Well, just a little! Summery. Overall, I think this is by far the better of the two expansions, and elevates the game into new heights. Tapestry is a polarizing game due to its price, the popularity of the publisher, and the civilization theme not satisfying everyone. If you don't like the base game this will not change your mind. But if you are a fan of the base game, I would heartily recommend this expansion, both for added variety and longevity to the game, as well as creating a new experience to have with Tapestry. I would still like to see more done withe the theme and story of this game. It would be nice to make the names of each space mean something. I never feel like I am inventing, discovering or exploring anything. It feels to me that an expansion could ingrain the theme into this game a little more. Perhaps cards that rewarded you for doing certain things shown on the track spaces. For example, a reward for building Ships, found on the Exploration track, could be to actually gain Ship tokens to add to the board which would then allow you to reach a new island to explore for new bonuses. What Arts & Architecture does bring is new options, more choices, increased strategy, and a better overall game experience. Tapestry is my third favorite Stonemaier game behind Scythe and Viticulture, but it is quickly closing in on Scythe for second spot and with this expansion added, is getting very close indeed.