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We previously reviewed the fantastic little card game Odin, from Helvetiq Games. You can read t hat here . It's a brilliant small box card game that fuses way more than you first see. It's really quite clever. From this genius design, the game has won lots of fans, accolades, and even prizes. So, we set about to talk to Mr. Helvetiq himself, Hadi Barket, founder and chief publisher at Helvetiq. WBG - Hey Heidi! So, we love Odin, but tell us a little but more about the game. How did it come to be part of the Helvetiq line-up? It all started with a meeting in Paris with Bruno Faidutti, the French designer of Citadels. He showed us a co-design he had created with Yohan Goh — a name we hadn’t heard before. While we liked the game, it wasn’t quite the right fit for Helvetiq. We later reached out to Yohan directly to introduce ourselves and set up a meeting at one of the major game fairs. There, he showed us several eclectic and fun prototypes, including a card game called Valhalla. It was perfect for our pocket line — we almost signed it on the spot. In late June, I met with the trio of designers in Seoul. Gary, Hope and Yohan. Great creative minds, choosing to work together. They meet every Monday [to] bounce ideas [off each other, and Odin was born]. WBG - Amazing. Odin recently won the prestigious As d'Or at the Cannes International Games Festival. What does this recognition mean to you personally, and what does it mean for Helvetiq as a company? It’s huge! Anyone working quietly in their corner dreams of a moment like this — recognition in front of thousands of people. That’s exactly what happened, and we felt so much joy. Seeing our love for Odin translate into thousands of people playing it is incredibly fulfilling. WBG - Do awards like this typically lead to a noticeable boost in sales? Absolutely. The As d'Or is nearly as impactful as the Spiel des Jahres. Sales are often multiplied by ten. WBG - Wow! By ten. That's incredible! Congratulations. Can you share some insight into the application process for entering a game into an award like the As d'Or? I'm sure many aspiring designers and publishers would be curious to know how it works. There is no formal application process. We didn’t submit anything — our only “merit” was to publish the game. That may not be the answer people expect, but it’s the truth. From what we’ve heard, the jury — made up of media professionals, show hosts, and even a film actor — played over 500 games. They narrowed that list down to 40, then to 12. Odin was played more than 50 times by the jury, and they decided it would be a great ambassador for the hobby to a wide audience. WBG - What an intriguing process. I wonder who the actor was! So, in your opinion, what makes Odin special or stand out from other games? There are so many great games out there, but Odin evokes a very specific set of emotions. It converges beautifully — you’re never stuck in a game that drags on. You always feel like you’re doing well… until suddenly you lose. Then, of course, you want to play again to prove yourself — haha! (Very true! - WBG) When playing to 15 points over several rounds, the game becomes increasingly tactical and long-sighted. It also plays well from 2 to 6 players — not that common — and it’s ultra-portable. I’m literally writing these answers on a plane with the game on the tray table. Plus, it’s affordable enough that you can buy a few copies to share with friends. WBG - Well safe flight and amazing you have signal up there! Tell us, what’s next in the pipeline for Helvetiq? Any exciting projects you can tease? We’ve signed some amazing designers for upcoming releases: Antoine Bauza (7 Wonders), Théo Rivière (Tucano), and Kaya Miyano (Trio). If that’s not a tease, I don’t know what is. WBG - What I need to know more! ! Lastly, what are your thoughts on the current tariffs imposed by the American government, and how might Helvetiq respond or adapt to these challenges? Business and uncertainty don’t go well together. Game publishing already runs on tight margins, and I’m genuinely concerned about the impact these tariffs will have. But the magic of play remains. Gamers will still be here. I just hope they continue to support their local stores, their publishers, and their designers. WBG - Agreed. I think you need to be open and honest. Show the implications on your business, and then offer buyers the chance to help cover some of the costs at the point of purchase. In my experience, most will. But of course, that is when they buy direct. When you are dealing with resellers and other companies who sell for you, well gosh, good luck! Thanks! Last but not least, thanks for the opportunity to share our story. And if you haven’t played Odin yet… you’re missing out on something small but mighty!

Isla WBG Score: 8.5 (Solo) 6.5 (Multiplayer) /10 Player Count 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Exploring islands based on dice rolls! Published by: Ocean City Games Ltd Designed by:   Oleta Forde , Aaron Grove , Alexander Lucas This is a free review copy of the game. See our review policy here . I originally previewed this game in its prototype form and was a big fan, particularly of the solo mode. You can read that here . I now have the final version and have been eagerly exploring the Island once again. The game works quite different in multiplayer to solo, and I have tried both again. Both will be covered here, but I will focus more on the solo game, as that is where I feel this game excels. So, with that said, let's get it to the table and see how this game plays. How To Set Up Isla Board Game Give each player a map sheet. There are two sides, so be sure that each player is using the same side. For your first few games, it is recommended to use the front side. Then give each player a pen or pencil, and the tokens required per player (four Flora, three Fauna, two Fossil, one rest, one Boulder, and five Exhaustion tokens), and give one player the first player card. Each player then places their tokens face down onto the map sheet. Then, flip them all over. Each player then has the choice to swap over two tokens, but that's it, and never again in the game! Then place the five Exhaustion tokens that represent the five dice in the spaces provided at the bottom of the map. Place out all the dice by them. Then, take the research cards, shuffle them, and deal out four cards into a line. Place the rest in a face-down pile next to these. Each player will now place their meeple on the start spot on the bottom left of the map, or next to the port on the other side. Then, for a solo game, take one of the Keeper cards, and place this face up in front of you. Place the corresponding Keeper meeple on the starting spot shown for this Keeper on its card. Place your own meeple on the start spot on the bottom left of the map, or next to the port on the other side. For a multiplayer game, take the threat cards, shuffle them up and place them face down in a pile. You are now ready to play! How To Play Isla Board Game Players will now run through six steps, seven for the solo mode. Let's go through them one-by-one. Planning phase. Here each player must declare if they choose to Rest, Explore, or Research this phase. More on what they all mean shortly. Dice Roll Phase. Here, the first player will roll the five dice. In a multiplayer game, if you roll any ones, then you must resolve a Threat card. If you roll more than one die that shows a single pip, you still only resolve a single Threat card. This is a nice development from the early prototype! To resolve a Threat card, draw the top card from the Threat pile and follow the effect shown. If you cannot carry out the instruction, simply discard it. If you draw a card with the same name as a Threat card already in your possession, discard it. Otherwise, do what it says and keep it by you. Only the first person this round resolves the Threat card. Rest Phase. Here, if anyone chooses to rest, they will mark off the Rest box on their player sheet, and then their turn this round ends. But they can now refresh the leftmost exhausted dice token, ready to be used again the next round. You can normally only rest once per game, but you can gain one more Rest token as you play if you move over the space the rest token is randomly placed during set up. Explore Phase. This is the main action in the game. If you choose to Explore, you will pick one of the dice rolled this round by the first player and move that many spaces on the board. At the start, you can choose any die you like from the five rolled. But as you use each die, you must move the exhausted token for the die you used. You cannot use this colour die again until that particular exhausted token becomes unexhausted. This is done mainly by moving over the symbol that represents this die's colour on the board. As you move on the board, you will start at the bottom left space and move your meeple the shown number of spaces on your chosen die. You can move orthogonally in any direction. The idea of the game is to cover as many spaces on the map as possible, reach the exit first, and collect as many Flora and Fauna tokens as possible in order to complete your research goals. You cannot go back over any space you have already visited, and if you ever block yourself in, your game is over. As you move, un-exhaust any die for die symbols that you move over, and claim any tokens you pass over. Moving them into your play area. If you move over a symbol to un-exhaust a die that is not ye t exhausted, you simply waste that power. So don't do it! Research phase. If you choose to research, you can now discard previously obtained research tokens that match any of the current four face-up research cards. You can now take that card, and this will score you the shown points on the card at the end of the game. In solo mode, you will now carry out the Keeper phase. Flip over the top card from the research deck and check the symbol shown on the bottom left of the card. This will show a one, two, or three. Then check the Keeper card you have in play this game, and carry out the action as represented by the one, two, three or blank symbol revealed this turn. This will mostly move the Keeper token from its starting position closer to you. If the Keeper ever reaches your space, it's game over. Finally, prepare for the final round. This will be the sixth phase in multiplayer mode. Discard the rightmost Research card, draw a new one, and place it into the leftmost space. Then move the first player card to the next player if you have more than one player playing. Continue with rounds like this until all players have either exited the island or become lost on the island. This can happen by trapping yourself with no path to explore due to turning in on yourself, running out of available dice to use by not un-exhausting the dice, or, in the solo player mode, by being caught by the Keeper. In multiplayer mode, note that players can end their game in different rounds, but the first to exit will gain a bonus of five, and the second, a bonus of three. In the solo game, you simply gain the five points. Then work out the bonus points gained from the completed research cards you have in front of you. Add these to the points gained or lost from the Threat cards you faced. You then gain one point for each Threat card you faced in the game. Remember, there are no Threat cards in the solo game. Then you gain points for any exhausted dice token that is currently not exhausted. You will gain the points as shown on the tile itself. You will then gain points for the space you reached on the final exit track. The further down you go, the more points you will get. So you will want to end your final turn with a big number. Finally, you will lose one point for any space not covered on the main map. Most points wins! In the solo game, there is a point target to reach. Is It Fun? Isla Board Game Review The multiplayer game of Isla lacks a little something for me. If all players play the game similarly, then you will all mostly cover every space and exit at similar times. The exit first bonus is not enough for me to chase that down and race to the end. There will be some frustration when someone else takes a research card you wanted, but more come so frequently that you can just save your tokens and use them later. They are not different enough from each other to matter too much. So, it becomes a simple game of working out which is the best dice to use, efficiently make your way around the map, cover as many spaces as possible, and collect all the points you can. I find most games are pretty close, and the winner is never left with a feeling they did anything that clever compared to the loser. The threat cards offer some variety, but of course, it is completely random, and one player could be way more affected than another, and there is nothing they can do about it. It just doesn't work for me. BUT! In solo mode, I adore this game. The tension created by the Keeper slowly making their way to you is wonderful. Made by the fact that their movement towards you is never as slow as you think! As they start quite a way from you, depending on which Keeper you choose to face, and they sometimes do not move at all or great distances, you may start the game thinking you have all the time in the world. But then, as you move north and they move south, your paths will quickly come a lot closer than you ever thought! And as you do not always get to control how far you move, and sometimes your choice of die can be quite restricted, getting away from them quickly when you need to can be tough. I have had multiple solo games of Isla where I have been caught, due to my hubris telling me I had all the time in the world. Until BOOM! They got me. Or, I may get close to the Keeper and risk claiming just one more token by taking a path that goes way too close to the Keeper, knowing that only one of the four symbols drawn this round will let them catch you. And of course, that's the symbol you draw. But then plenty of solo games where things have worked out in my favour. It's a wonderfully tight, balanced, and enjoyable experience. The different Keepers all offer a different level of challenge too. So, as I become a little better with the game, I can change which Keeper I am up against, to still keep this balanced game. The setup for this game takes a minute, tops. And the upkeep for the Keeper is seconds per round. As a solo experience, it is close to perfect. All the tension of the main game is there. The frustration and random nature of the Threat cards is removed. And the added pressure of the Keeper brings a lot more of an enjoyable and "I want to beat this game" mechanic to the table. In multiplayer, I want to try and beat my friends. And sometimes do. But I rarely feel I earned that. In the solo game, when I beat the Keeper and get a good score, I feel good about myself. As I face tougher Keepers, I am excited about the challenge. It is a near-perfect solo experience. This is the reverse side of the map to use for a more challenging experience. It is a nice addition, and I enjoy using it. It does make the multiplayer experience a little better as the layout of this is a little more challenging. You can play the multiplayer mode without the Threat cards, which is how I do it. Simply remove them from setup and final scoring. It takes away a lot of the randomness and frustration for me. You still have all the tension from choosing which die to pick, how far to move this time, and what route to take. But without the annoyance of being penalised for things out of your control, that may not happen to other players down to the luck of a roll. And it is in those choices of which dice to pick where this game really excels. You still have this in the multiplier mode, but I find it comes alive in the solo experience. This is because in the solo game, not only are you trying to make your way around the map as efficiently as possible, but you are also trying to avoid capture from the Keeper. As the dice are all different, the choices are deliciously tight. You only want to take the dice when they are at the higher ends. Why take a D12 when it rolls a three? But what if that is all you have left? If the D12 rolls a ten, that is now more tempting. But what if the D6 finally rolled its first six of the day? Should you take the six from the D6 now, knowing that it is at full efficiency? But what if the D12 doesn't roll that high again for a while. I will risk it... Roll again next turn - a 12 on the D12! It paid off. These emotions pop in and out in the multiplayer mode, but will be with you throughout the solo mode. And I love it! Finally, I want to make a note of the rule book. It is excellent. Clearly laid out. Great examples, images, and wording. And I really enjoy the little bits of lore created from the flavor text, dotted around the pages. It's one of the best I have seen in a while. Congratulations to all involved there. So, if you are looking for a new solo game that plays quickly, sets up and packs away in minutes, but offers you some tension and satisfaction, this could well be the one for you.

Corps of Discovery WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Figuring out intricate puzzles with big time pressures! Published by: Off the Page Games Designed by: Jay Cormier , Sen-Foong Lim This is a free review copy of the Deluxe version of the game. See our review policy here . I originally previewed this game in its prototype form and was a huge fan. You can read that here . I now have my hands on a final production copy, and it is a thing of beauty. While the game mechanics remain unchanged, the components, trays, box layout, and game boards have received a beautiful update. Note that this is the Deluxe edition with wooden components and boards. The game is based on the comic book series Manifest Destiny , which tells a revised history of the Lewis and Clark story, but with Minotaur's! This follows publisher Off The Page's style of converting modern graphic novels into master pieces on the table. Such as Harrow County and MGMT . They have all been fantastic so far, does this new game live up to the hype? Let's get it to the table and find out. How to Set Up Corps of Discovery Board Game First, you need to select which chapter of the game you wish to play. There are a number in the box; it's best to start with the training mission, but then, you can go with whichever level wherever you like. Each chapter offers different components, rules, and challenges. I will cover the base rules here. Once chosen, take the map from the selected chapter and slide it into the map board, using the blank white paper to conceal the images on the front of the map from you as you do this. Then cover each of the circular holes with path tokens, so all spaces are covered. You can then slide out the concealer paper and put it back into the box. Check the side of the map to see where the peak of this map is, and place a rock token onto this spot. The map you chose will have am associated Reference board, place this next to the map board. Each player will now choose their character. Note that not all characters are eligible for the starting missions. If in doubt, pick Lewis and Clark. But in the later chapters, you will have access to more choices. Each character has their own unique power, so this does make a difference. Now, take gear cards based on the number of players: three gear cards for a solo game, two each for two players, and one gear card each for any player count above this. For an easier game, or the first training mission, you can also take the Training gear card. Now, set up the Supply board. First, shuffle the Destiny cards with the cards specific to your chosen chapter. There are matching symbols on all cards, linked to each chapter. Add these to the base Destiny cards, shuffle them up, and draw two cards. These are placed in the spaces available on the right of the Supply board. Next, find the Approach the Arch Challenge card. You always start with this. Add this to the space on the left of the Supply board. Now shuffle the remaining Challenge cards, again with the chapter-specific cards, and deal two more into the remaining two positions. Place the rest into a face-down deck to the side. Now add eight Water tokens into the Water supply along with the Shelter token. Place all the other tokens in the token container to the side of this. Finally, create your Threat deck for this chapter. Take the chapter-specific Threat cards. Shuffle them randomly along with two random misfortune Threat cards to form a face-down Threat pile. There may be additional setup for later chapters, but otherwise, you will now be ready to play. How to Play Corps of Discovery Board Game Choose a starting player, and now take it in turns, or do it all yourself in solo, to remove one of the path tokens, to reveal and action the symbol below. You will start with one of the spaces to the right of the board, next to the river. Thematically, you are coming off a boat from the river, and exploring into the land. You can pick any space you want from the right most column to start, but then for subsequent turns, you need to build orthogonally from this first space, to form a path. Then, you can build off any other space you have opened. If you come across a rock, then you must go another way. Rocks represent impassable mountains. When you take the path token, add it to the space on the Supply board above the first Challenge card. Each card will have a number within a sun icon on the top right. This will represent the time you have to complete this challenge. For example, for the first 'Approach the Arch' card, you have five turns to complete this card. This is represented by the path tokens. So, when you remove one, flip it over to show the sun side, and add it to the space above the card. When you add the fifth token, this card must now be finished. The card will show what is needed to complete it successfully, generally a mix of resources. On the bottom of the card, it will show the consequences of passing or failing the card. Even if you have the right resources, you can choose to fail if you want the resources for other things. If you pass, put the required resources back into the supply and claim the success from passing the card. If you fail, then fulfil the consequences of failing. Generally losing water! But sometimes you have to take a Sample token, which will clog up your backpack. When a challenge card is concluded, remove it from the board and check to see if you have items in your backpack beyond your limit. If so, you will lose one water a resolve any Monsters that have consequences, if you have any in play at this point. Your limit starts with four items, but you can expand this to six if you have built a shelter. If you have a shelter, you cannot ever become fatigued. Then, move on to the next card. When you finish the third card, that is the end of your day. There are then some end-of-day processes to run through, namely spending food, if you have one, to feed your troops. If you don't, you lose. That's it. Game over! If you do have food, congratulations, you live to fight another day. Now, check to see if you have a Monster in play. If you do, do nothing. If you don't, reveal one Threat card. Then, refresh any gear or characters you may have used their powers for, and reveal three new challenge cards and move on to the next day. What you are looking to do each game is fulfil the chosen chapter's missions. This could be to simply fulfil six challenge cards, as in the training mission. Or for later chapters, you may need to find ways to kill monsters, locate giant plants, or other adventures that I won't spoil here. The way you do this is by exploring the map and finding the right resources to complete each chapter's missions, all the while remembering to get food for each day and completing enough challenge cards so you don't run out of water. This is a mix of resource management, pattern recognition, and cooperative/solo deduction. And what I mean by that is, this adventure is not about luck. You will have clues given to you each game as to where certain things lie. And its your job to work out each maps puzzle. You will be given a mini map in the extra rules section of each map to help with this. This will show you the layout of certain items on the board. These are items that are always next to each other in a specific formation. Orientated in any way, but always in this manner. You will also have clues on the reference board. These will be in the form of rules, such as Water and Wood are always orthogonally next to each other. So, if you reveal one of those, you will get an idea as to where the other will be. You will also be told how many Wood resources can be found on each row and column, and other clues about various other resources in that chapter. You can use multiple clues, pieced together to form more solid information. Some spaces will even be clues, such as Hills that will tell you how many of a specific thing will be in a row. When you reveal these, they do not count as an action, so you can discard the path token you removed to reveal this and have another turn. And this is the meat of the game. Working out from the clues you have and the spaces you have revealed so far, where the thing you desperately need may be. And making educated guesses on your subsequent turns. Each turn will be important. You will not have many free goes in this game. You always need one more thing to avoid disaster, or to avoid death in various ways. Do not fail the mission or you will run out of water. Do not forget food, otherwise you will starve at the end of the day. But do not forget the main goal in the chapter, otherwise you will be running around for days without achieving your quest. There are multiple free actions you can do in and around exploring the map, such as using your gear or characters' power, or the Destiny cards available to you. These will all be pretty much self-explanatory, but ultimately will help you in your quest, giving you the chance to gain extra resources, challenge cards to prepare yourself, or even gain new Destiny cards such as the Gear cards below. You can also build fires using various resources. Two fires allow you to backtrack. As in, if you see something under a path token you don't like the look of, discard your fire token, put the path token back, and go again! So, good luck! And make every step count! Is it Fun? Corps of Discovery Board Game Review The sense of adventure in this game is off the scale! As will the sense of tension and enjoyable discussion. As a two-player cooperative experience, I adore this game. Everything feels important. From turn one, you feel a sense of urgency to get exactly what you need. But you start with minimal information. Where the peak is. That's it. But you will quickly form a picture in your mind of where certain things are, and the discussion to get there is what makes this game special. As such, as a solo adventure, which is how BGG suggests this game should be played, this game does not work for me. I enjoy it, and I can see some sense to it. I also understand why others would really enjoy it. But the game is elevated so much by the decisions of working out where things are, I miss that too much in solo mode to have fun. There are a lot of maps in the box, so you won't be in a situation where you start to learn the board. That isn't really possible. And the setup is so well thought out, you won't see anything before you are ready to play. The game has gone to extreme measures to create a strong aesthetic and also functional experience. With the expansion included in this game, there are also a lot more maps and variations of types of games. New challenges will be set. New goals are required to fulfil the requirements of the later maps. And if you do complete them all, start to learn the layout of the aps, well you can access you maps from games website. You can check that out here . Seemingly, the fun in this game will never end! After I finished with the prototype, I said this: I cannot wait to see what other people think of this game. But I also want it back on my shelves to play again and again. I want to try the other chapter. [That I did not have with the prototype]. I want to try this with other people. It is a fantastic game and one that will live long in my memory, until I can get my hands on it again! And now I have it back, I feel exactly the same way. This game feels unique in my collection. It offers things other games come close to, but do not bring to the table in such a clever and well-integrated way at this. The art and theme work perfectly with the original comics, as is always the way with games from this publisher. And as always, I am blown away by the high level of development quality of everything in this box. This is a top notch production. (Again, please note this is the deluxe version!) There is a huge sense of discovery, both in terms of the game itself and all the new maps to play. The different expansions to try out and the new ways to play this game keep me coming back for more. Each Chapter feels quite different, and each map for each level offers its own new set of challenges. I can see this being a real mainstay in my collection, being played more often than others due to its accessibility, game length, ease of getting to the table, but also, and mainly, due to the fun it delivers when I play. It is the sort of game I think about a lot after completing it and then want to play again and again, no matter how many times I play. My thirst for this game only increases with more games. I cannot seem to stop thinking about this game or stop wanting to play. Some games can be a little disappointing. If you lose, you can sometimes lose quickly, and then you think, oh, that's a shame. I may never play that map again, and it only lasted for 20 minutes or so. But then you see all the other maps and quickly move on. I may well play them all again. I doubt I will remember the location of everything on every one. So this thought is not true, but ending a game like this quickly with a loss can be disappointing. Not frustrating or annoying. Disappointing. But that is only because you wanted to keep exploring and get a sense of completion from winning. And as I move through the various chapters, the sense that the game is ramping up with me works so well, in that I feel that every game is incredibly close. When I win, I win narrowly. It ends in a sudden death way where it feels like one wrong turn - and it's game over. But one correct deduction and the right choice, and victory could be ours. The difficulty ramps up perfectly across the maps and chapters with my learning and understanding of the game. So as new challenges are put before me, I seem to be able to stand up to them, but only narrowly. And not all the time. Victories always feel hard-fought and celebrated as a group with great excitement. Just when you think all is lost, you will see a power on a character, gear, or destiny card that you realise can buy you one more turn. Will that be enough to find the thing you need? ' Well, maybe if I use our two fires, we can actually have two more turns. And if we find this specific resources, we can do that, to do this, and win the game! ' Moments like this will be commonplace, and oh so joyous. I will cherish this game for years to come. Like the other games from Jay and the team at Off the Page Games, it makes me want to read the comics that inspired this. I did that with Harrow County and loved it. It also made the experience of playing the game better as I understood the characters, story, and lore a little better. Here, with the story of Lewis and Clark being more well-known, I can piece together the extra components added by the comics, but I still want to read them all and fully immerse myself into this theme. As that is what this game does to you. It picks you up and draws you in. It says come on an adventure with me, and then play again-and-again. Win or lose, you will have fun. Oh, and check out this new way to play, and have you tried this map? Oh, and did you know you could get even more!? OK! Enough already, I'm sold.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. Corps of Discovery Board Game Preview - More info here Mind MGMT is a fantastic game. One of my favourites from 2023 in fact. It was published by Off the Page Games who specialise in developing ideas inspired by graphic novels. Bringing the ideas off the page, into games. Get it? Their second game Harrow County: The Game of Gothic Conflict recently fulfilled after a successful Kickstarter, and is gaining favourable reviews. The third game from these fans of comic/game fusions is Corps of Discovery. A game based on the Manifest Destiny comics . It has the same look and feel as the comics, as is the style with this publisher, but how does it play? Mechanically speaking, the game is a delightful puzzle of deduction and contract fulfilment. Thematically, it is about exploration. Playing the game, you will get a sense of all of this. A classic mix of mechanics and themes. And yet, the game feels fresh and unique - albeit in a familiar way. The game plays out in an ingenious way. There are multiple maps for each chapter, and a number of chapters available in the base game along with a few expansions in the pipeline. Each one follows the same basic core mechanics but introduces new ways to win the game. Defeating monsters, finding hidden objects, defeating giant killer plants! It's all here. The setup: first, you must choose which map you want to play. Slide it into the game board with the cover sheet protecting you from seeing the layout. This would spoil the game. There is then a bit of setup admin, where you need to fill each hole with a face-down sun token. I find it is best to just chuck them all onto the board and then rearrange them into the slots. When this is done, you can slide out the cover sheet, and the board is ready. Smart, right? The game plays by you working your way around the game board, removing sun tokens one at a time, trying to uncover specific terrain and items. You start at a different point for each map and have a different goal each time. But in Chapter 1 - Fauna; that I will focus on here, the goal is to find and defeat three Minotaur's . But first, you must find the Settler's Forts, so you can learn the techniques needed to slay the beasts. But, you can't just walk around, uncovering every space at random times. As you play, each token you uncover is placed onto the current challenge, which will have between two to five spaces until it is full. At this point, if you cannot meet that card's specific requirements of items, you will suffer the consequences of a failed challenge. Generally losing resources and water. Run out of water, and you will lose the game. So, for example, in the below challenges, for the Rainstorm card, you need to have a Shelter built after three turns, otherwise, you will lose two fires, one water, and be forced to add a Sample token to your backpack. Filling an otherwise useful space with a redundant object. More typically, as you can see in Strong Wind and School of Fish, you need to discard items that hopefully you have found and stored in your backpack, in order to gain benefits, and avoid losing water. But try not to become too distracted with fulfilling just these challenge cards. Your challenge in this chapter is to find the Forts, learn the skills required to defeat the minotaur's , then find the beasts' lair, and kill them. Only then can you win this chapter. Each minotaur needs a different methodology of termination. Making spears, ammos, and traps can only be done once each time. And each action needs specific items, things you have found along your path. So, just walk around and gather things to complete challenges and kill monsters. Easy right? Wrong. You can only hold six things in your bag, total. Only four before you get exhausted and start losing water for each completed challenge card. You need to plot your route carefully. But how do you go about finding each thing you need? This is a 7x7 grid. There are 49 spaces to visit. And time is of the essence. You cannot simply run around hoping to find what you need. This is a game of deduction. Well, this is where this game moves from pretty and interesting to genius. Each chapter has an associated reference board that offers you clues as to where everything may be. At first, you will be going in a little blind, but as you start to see the lay of the land, a picture will form in your head. Puzzling this part of the game out will be make or break. This determines how much fun you will have. And I found it to be quite the split experience. In solo, I was left adrift. Unsure where to go and often making quick guesses based on limited thinking time. It was luck-based, lacking in any kind of satisfaction, and causing me some frustration. In two-player, where I think this game shines, I was awash with joy. Puzzling this sort of thing out in my head is not for me. But debating it out loud with another person is thrilling. Genuinely. We played a game where we were down to the final move. We knew the next turn would either take our final water with a failed challenge or deliver the final resource we needed to win. We had a one in six chance of getting the thing we needed. But we used the available clues to deduce exactly where we should go. We got it right and cheered like our team had just won the World Cup. It was amazing. In that regard, it's sort of like a deeply thematic Sudoku. And I am all in for that! As you can see above, we know in this map, there is only one wood per column and row. Wood will be orthogonal to water. As is water and rock to mud. It's sort of like algebra too, in that way. If A is B, but only when B is C, etc. I don't fully understand algebra. It just sounded smart. But playing this game sure does make you feel clever as you play. Getting those big decisions right, finding what you need just when you need it by noodling out the available clues - it's a great feeling. The other chapters all offer clever twists on the base game's mechanics such as in Chapter 2, where the hunt for the minotaur's is replaced by a clever pathway goal. Here, you need to find specific land types in a set order to gather crew and resources to fight a giant mutated flower! It adds another level of suspense to the timing of the game that elevates it to another dimension. There still may be some monsters to fight along the way, but the challenge now is about tracking the "end-of-level" boss, getting the tools you need to defeat it, and taking it down before all is lost. It feels more like a linear progressive ramp-up in tension compared to the ups and downs of Chapter 1, which suits my style a little more. And it's incredible how different each chapter feels from this small change. Corps of Discovery is a game that appears to embody discovery and adventure. And it does. But the heart of this game resides in the deduction and overall efficiency puzzle. This is why I describe it at the start as feeling unique but in a familiar way. It does not necessarily do anything new. But the entire production is impressive, the execution of each composite part so seamless, that as you play Corps of Discovery, you will feel like you are discovering a new game each time. Which leads me to my only concern with this game. Knowing where things are on each map is a problem. This is why the game goes to such effort to stop you from seeing the map during setup. But after a few plays, could you not memorize the location of the key items and areas? Well, no. I don't think you could. First, there will be plenty of maps to play, learning them all will be tough. Each map is double-sided, and there are multiple chapters, and expansion maps are also planned. To simply play the same map over and over just to learn it, well, sure. It's possible. But would anyone really do that? I don't think so. And if they do, that's their choice, and a different way to play the game I suppose. But the game as is, provides enough variation, enough maps, and enough prevention of seeing the maps before you play to make this problem irrelevant. Designer Jay Cormier commented on this point, "We'll be offering new maps to download and print at home - so we'll have unlimited maps!!" I don't think learning the maps will be an issue! "Corps of Discovery" is a brilliant board game. I usually fall for games on the first play as the new and exciting is overpowering me. I often cool a little in games 2-4 as I try to learn the strategy, and then settle on my final thoughts around game 5 onwards, as I can then play the game without the new game excitement or the early game confusion. "Corps of Discovery" was very different. I really did not enjoy my first few games, not because I struggled to learn the strategy or rules. No, it was simply because I chose to play it solo. I am happy playing games solo, but not this. This is a shared experience game. Like "The Mind," the joy in "Corps of Discovery" comes when you make a bold but correct decision and the team benefits from this. As a group, this feels wonderful. In solo, this fell flat for me. When I then moved on to playing this game with a second player, the curve of excitement and enjoyment leapt up unexpectedly to a ten right from the off and has not gone away yet. I now must pass this game on to another person to preview, and I do so with mixed emotions. I cannot wait to see what other people think of this game. But I also want it back on my shelves to play again and again. I want to try the other chapter. I want to try this with other people. It is a fantastic game and one that will live long in my memory, until I can get my hands on it again! Until then, you can find more info on the game here . It is also worth noting that as part of the Kickstarter, they will also be offering deluxe editions of MIND MGMT and Harrow County during the Corps of Discovery campaign. The publisher offers those games via their website, but can only ship within North America. So now, European fans can easily get hold of these games too.

Captain Flip WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if y ou like: Lost Seas Published by : PlayPunk Designed by: Remo Conzadori , Paolo Mori This is the reviewer’s copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey There have been many famous pirate captains throughout history, to name but a few: Blackbeard, Sparrow, Silver, Hook, Crunch, Birdseye. All of these, however, pale in comparison to the fearsomeness of Captain Flip and his nature that can flip with the snap of a finger. Gracious one minute and hate-fuelled the next, his rage knows no bounds... what’s that?... it's just a game about flipping tiles? So he’s not angry at all?... donated to many charities, you say? Well, it doesn’t make as exciting of an intro, but it’s nice to know he runs a good ship, I suppose. How to Flip If it’s your first game then give each player the sheet with the A on it, you’ll be using that side. For subsequent games you can all decide which of the four possible boards you're all using, making sure that you're all playing the same one and that’s it. On your turn you’ll take a tile from the bag making sure that you only see one side of it. Each tile is double sided with a different character and ability on the other side. You can then choose to either play the current tile as it is or choose to flip it. If you keep the side that you pulled then you place that tile on one of the columns on your board in the bottom most space. You'll then collect coins from any immediate scoring if that tile has it. If you choose to flip the tile then you must keep that side and place it on the board in the same way. Some tiles will have immediate scoring while others will score end game points. Completing some columns will net you completion bonuses and once one player has finished 4 columns the game will end. Score any end game points and the player with the most coins wins. Here’s a quick rundown of what each character does. Cartographer - (Immediate) Take the treasure map token. You get 1 point at the end of every turn you have it. Navigator - (Immediate) Gain 2 points per cartographer on your board. Cook- (immediate) Gain 1 point per character in their row (including them) Gunner - (immediate) Take 5 coins. If you have 3 gunners on your board at the end of the game you lose! Monkey- (immediate) Gain 1 coin, plus flip an adjacent character tile and apply the revealed effects.  Parrott - (Immediate/ Endgame) Draw and play another tile gaining the effects. Lose 1 coin at the end of the game. Swabby - (endgame) , Score increasing points for each swabby in different columns. Carpenter - ( endgame) , Gain 3 points if there are no gunners in their row or column. Lookout - (endgame) Gain 4 coins if there is no character above them in that column. More flippin than a pinball table If you’ve read the overview then there's a good chance that you’re thinking, “Well this is just a pure luck fest right?” and for the most part yeah, I can’t argue with that. You pull a tile from the bag and whether you choose to flip or not you pretty much take what you're given. But there’s actually more strategy here than I originally gave it credit for. So many of the tiles rely on particular positioning or would benefit with more of something on the board before playing it. In fact if you want to maximise your score on this game you certainly need to do a bit of planning. For example, the Gunners are great! 5 coins immediately? Yeah I’ll take some of that! Especially if you get a couple of them out it’s a decent chunk of points. But when you factor in the negative aspects of it, like potentially losing the game and blocking any carpenters, well then, that’s when you need to have a plan. Like placing them in a position where they can still get flipped if you manage to pull a monkey out of the bag (this was a weird sentence to write). It’s a weirdly strategic game for something so light and quick. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to have you pacing up and down on your turn trying to math out all the possible variants, but it does offer enough that you will have moments when you're genuinely fraught with answering the question, to flip, or not to flip. It’s a genuine gamble at any point in the game. There are extra boards and each gives you enough flavour to keep the game from getting too repetitive. One adds a race element to the columns. One board has the column bonuses being rewarded for the first person to reach it. This is one of the reasons you all play with the same boards each time rather than mixing them up. Whereas another has you getting the bonus if all the characters in a column are identical.  Don’t flip the table Captain Flip was nominated for a spiel des jahres in 2024 and it lost out to the also excellent Sky Team. Sky Team is excellent and a worthy winner but, I’ll be honest, now that I’ve played this, if it had ended up winning, I wouldn’t have been mad. That award is all about family gaming and I think this is a game that encapsulates that completely. It’s simple, light, fun and lucky but having that luck fail you never feels offensive enough to put you in a bad mood. Everything about the game gives you that light fun feel so that if you do happen to have a bad game of it (score and luck wise) you’re more than likely to just say ‘meh, never mind’ and carry on with your day un-phased. Captain Flip was all over Instagram when it was released and I’ve learned the hard way not to just buy everything that I see on social media no matter how good it looks. However, a couple of plays on Board Game Arena and I was sold. This is one that I can easily see me pulling out as a quick starter game, a “between the big games” game or an end of the night game. Most importantly though I can see this being played with whoever I’ve got round the table, be they seasoned gamers or just familiar with the old classics.  Right, I’m off to get out of this pirate costume and flip my table back over. It’s possible I may have assumed something before I read the rules.

Harrow County WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-3 (4 with expansion) You’ll like this if you like: Smallworld , Mountains out of Molehills , The comic . Published by: Off the Page Games Designed by: Jay Cormier , Shad This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Harrow County is the latest graphic novel to be adapted from the pages to the table by publisher Off the Page, who specialise in finding intriguing stories within the wonderful world of comics and turning them into captivating board games. They did a wonderful job with Mind MGMT, which you can read more about here . I described it as "genre-defining moment in the board game hobby," due to its clever fusion of mechanics. Harrow County has similar ambitions, bringing together route building, king of the hill, and wonderfully thematic chit-pull system within a deeply absorbing and asymmetric world. Especially if you are a fan of the boos. But, does this make for a fun game? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Harrow County There are two ways to play this game: the full game or a reduced rules version. The rulebook previously split the game into chapters and taught players across five separate versions, but this has since been updated to just two, making it a lot easier to digest. The lite version is fine, but it is a little simple and can be over pretty quickly. The full game is what I will explain here and can be used from game one if you choose. I really see no reason why you cannot just go straight into the full version from your first game. I would say it is mid-weight at most. I feel the split rule book now is only there as they used to have the five-chapter system. Going from five to one maybe felt too extreme. And the five-chapter system was there initially to link to the fact this originated from a graphic novel. And Off The Page as a publisher wants to make the process of learning their games easy. All of this makes sense. But ultimately, this is not a hard game to learn or teach, so perhaps just one version is all you need? Anyway... Place the main board in the centre of the table. You can play on either side; it is just some minor variation. Ideally, place it so that the hexes with the home bases are close to the two players. Although, of course, you can play this with three or four players. I will focus on the two-player rules here. The three player version is excellent though, and the expansion offers the chance for four. Each player then takes one of the two main boards for either the Family or the Protectors. Although one can play as Kammi instead. Place this in front of you along with the Haints (little plastic ghoulie things). Now, each player pick as a character to play as there. There are a number of choices for each, that affect your legendary power. Make your choice and take the player board and standee associated with this. Now take the Legend ability track associated with your chosen player colour, pick a side (your choice) and place this underneath your player character. The players using the Family or Protectors, now place their standee on their chosen start hex on the main board along with three of their Haints. If you have chosen to play as Kammi, place the Goblin Legend Token matching your Character Board and the Kammi Legend Token onto two separate hexes behind your Home Hex. then add three Haints onto either your home Hex, the hex occupied by Kammi, or the Hex occupied by your Goblin. Each player now takes their deck of cards for their faction. The Tactics cards for the Protectors, the Upgrade cards for the Family, and the Goblin cards for Kammi. Shuffle the decks, draw three for your hand, and leave the rest in your play area. Each player will have small coloured cubes, their strength cubes. Take three of each colour (for the players in the game) and place these in the battleground tray. Place this next to the box, which will sit upright as part of the game's components. On the top and front of the box, there are two holes. On the top hole, place the funnel, and on the front hole, this is where the battleground tray needs to be placed, facing outwards from the box. This is now your cube tower! Cool, huh! Now place the scoreboard onto the table, fixing it to the Mason jar board. Place the scoreboard with the main side facing up. Each player now adds their Mason jars onto the board. It doesn't matter where you place them, but make sure both players align their jars to match each other's placement. Each player takes one wild token, leaving the rest in a central reserve. The Family will also take the storm tokens adding to their personal reserve. The family will take the blue bag and add four advance tokens, two spawn, and two strengthen tokens into this bag. They will also take the upgrade tokens and add them to their player area. Anyone playing as Kammi will now take the Action Grid and place it face up in front of them. Take two advance, spawn, and strengthen tokens and place them randomly onto this grid. Then take one Advance token and place it to the left of the Action Grid on the table. Then, (and again, only if Kammi is in the game) the other player will take three Doll tokens and secretly place one face down on each of the hexes behind your Home Hex. One token is a Doll, the other two are decoy skulls. The player playing as Kammi can now move their Haints and Legend standee to be on their home space or the hexes containing a Doll token. Now, the Protectors place one Townsfolk meeple on each of the four Terrain spaces on their side of the Scoreboard, and the Family does the same with the buildings on their side. Then finally, shuffle the nine bonus tiles and each player in turn flips one over, placing it into the leftmost empty space on the Mason jar board. If the first player token comes up, that player will be the first player. If not, once the four spaces are full, keep drawing in turn until one player claims the first player token for that round. Keep the remaining tiles face down next to the Mason jar board to use later. You are now ready to play! How To Play Harrow County Playing the game is a lot simpler than setting it up! The game runs in three main phases, but only really one has any meat. Let's get into it. First, players playing against the Family or Protectors will place their Townsfolk meeples or Buildings onto the map. One piece each round. And they must be placed onto a terrain matching the terrain they were originally on, on the Mason jar board. Ideally, you want to put this as far away from your opponent as possible to make it hard for them to get to it. If you are up against Kammi, do nothing! That's phase one done. When all pieces are on the board this phase is skipped. Phase two is where the real strategy of the game exists. Players will now take turns, starting with the first player, to pick one of the four available Mason jars on their side of the Mason board. The first time each player picks one of the four unique actions, they can also take the bonus action in the middle. This bonus action can be carried out before or after the main one, but not during. The four main actions allow you to move your character on the board, spawn new Haints to your home space or the hex where your leader is, take a wild action, or fight. Moving is simple. You can move any number of units from one hex to another for one movement. You can drop units off as you go, move just one, or all of them. Your choice. Movement onto mountains costs one extra hex. Movement onto storm spaces also has an increased cost. The Family can place paths to reduce movement costs. The Protectors can place storms to increase their opponents' movement costs. Adding Haunts can be done either on the home hex or on the space where your Leader is currently present. You cannot have more than four units on one hex at a time, and units from opposing sides cannot share the same hex. The wild action means you take a wild token and add it to your collection, and then carry out one action of any type, based on the number of wild tokens you have. You don’t discard them when you use them. As such, your wild actions will increase in power by one each time you take this action. The more you do it, the more powerful it becomes. Fighting is a little more complicated, but in short, you can target any enemy unit one or two spaces away, three when on the mountain space. This is done by adding all cubes currently in the battleground tray into the top of the box and dropping them into the cube tower. The player with the most units in battle gets to add one extra cube before this happens. You also get one bonus action to move, spawn, or add an extra cube before or after you start a fight. When the cubes are dropped, not all come out. Some will get stuck, some will knock loose cubes previously caught up. The outcome is never certain. The player with the most cubes wins the fight. If you have more cubes and at least two in total, you can discard these cubes to remove a Haint from the board and gain a point. It only takes one cube if your enemy is in the Brambles. If you have cubes remaining after this and there are still Haints in the target hex, you can do this for a second time. If an enemy has a leader and a hint, you must target the hint first. If there are no hints, you can move the leader to another space and attack a hint on another. Removing a Haint will score you one point. When you fight for a second time in the game, you need two Haints for a point, then three. Move the slider on your score tracker to keep a record of this. You can move this marker back with one of the bonus tiles though, a very powerful action to have, considering the game ends when you gain seven or more points! So, on occasions, you can gain one point for killing a single Haint two times in consecutive turns! The other way to score points is based on which character you are playing. The Family is looking to connect their home hex with the blue buildings using their storm tokens. At the end of each round or using their Legendary power, they can place one more storm token onto the board. Creating continuous paths of storm tokens not only slows down the movement of the other players but also gains them two points at the end of each round for each destroyed building. The protectors do the same, but with the Townspeople meeple placed on the board. They can create a path using the path tokens, Haints, or Leader. The path tokens are gained when they pick up the Legendary tokens on the board and can be placed near the Leader to help reduce the requirement for movement to get around the board, whilst being a part of their safe paths for the Townspeople. Any connected path leading a Towns person back to the Protectors home Hex scores them two points at the end of the round. Kammi and Hester work a little differently but I wont fully go into that here. Kammi is best used once you have played the game a few times with the Family and the Protectors. Hester is the third player, and again, best used once two players understand the way the main two factions work. Each faction has access to the same actions as detailed above, but utilises them in a very different way. The Family will pull tokens out of the bag, based on the number shown on their player board. At the end of the round, all units on spaces with tokens can take those tokens and add them to their play area. Players can then choose to add them onto their player board or place them in the bag. You want them in the bag so you have the chance of pulling them out next round and doing them. But you want to add them to your board so that you can increase your player powers, and pull more tokens. The Protectors work differently. All tokens they can are added to their board to build up the strength of the three main actions. They can build up the number of actions they do this way quicker, but they can only ever carry out one action in this way each round. All players have cards dealt to them at the start of the game. The Protectors' cards allow them to take powerful additional actions such as spawning additional Haints, claiming extra tokens, or moving their Legend. The Family has upgrade cards that they can use to switch out previously gained tokens with upgraded versions that offer improved actions. At the end of each round, any player holding the central bramble location will gain one point. All units on spaces with tokens can now take those tokens into their possession. All bonus tiles on the Mason board are replenished, the Mason jars themselves are flipped back over, the first player token is switched, and a new round begins. Unless any player has scored seven or more points at this stage, in which case the game ends. Is It Fun? Harrow County: The Game Of Gothic Conflict Board Game Review The lite version is too simple and too quick. But I can see why it was included to help with the learning process. However, it does seem more of a legacy effect from the original rule book being laid out in a chapter system. With that now gone, I think it would have been fine to just teach the full game and leave it at that. It is not that complicated, and the lite version is nowhere near as good an experience. I would give the lite version a 6.5 at best. I fear for some people who may play this version and then move on. Games need to grab people from the start. There is a lot of competition for people's attention out there. I would encourage any new players to Harrow County to start with the full game. The full game is deeply thematic. It links beautifully to the core text, conveys a real sense of struggle between two battling communities, and ultimately offers a rewarding and entertaining experience. If you are a fan of the comics (as I am), you will adore this! I cannot see why this is not a must-buy for you! If you have not read the core text and are unsure, then read on. This game does not feel as polished as Mind MGMT. The system of that game, serving you new content in between each game, felt epic. The game evolved over multiple games, and you never felt like you had covered it all. There was always more to learn, more to explore, much like reading a graphic novel over various chapters. With the initial chapter system in Harrow County, I think the designers wanted to create a similar experience with this game, but it just wasn't needed. Now they have moved to a lite and full game (which is a better decision), the sense of exploration is somewhat nullified. There still is some, of course. Multiple characters can be used, adding in Hester as a third player, using the expansion to add in a fourth, trying out different sides. There are lots of ways to play this game, but each game does generally feel 80% the same as the last. It won't have those big swings each game like Mind MGMT. But that is fine. As this game is good. If you enjoy path building and asymmetry, buy this game. This game does these two mechanics in a fresh, engaging, and thoroughly strategic way. My only personal complaint is the game is fast. It can be over in 30 minutes. I feel the seven-point scoring target is too low. I wonder where that came from? I have played a few games with a higher ten-point target, and it felt right to me. The game lasted closer to 45 minutes, and I got more out of it. The theme of this game is what stands out the most for me, though. As a fan of the comics, I have been enthralled by the entire experience. From the art, the characters, and the box being used as the tree; I have been entirely captivated by this wonderful adaptation. And then when I spotted the art on the bottom of the box, showing the Witch buried under the tree, oh my! As such, I am trying to think what this game would feel like for someone not as enthralled by the theme. How would someone who has not read the comics feel about this? Well, everyone I played this game with fell into that category, and they seemed a lot less enthusiastic about the game than I did. They liked the tight mechanics, fast gameplay, and interesting asymmetry, but did not feel it captivated them just as it had done for me. As such, I would strongly recommend this to anyone who read and enjoyed the books. For anyone else, perhaps buy the comic first and see if you like that! Then buy this game. If the comics are not for you, maybe this game is not for you. And have I mentioned the box is used as a cube tower?!

Codenames WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 4-8 You’ll like this if you like: Mysterium Published by: Czech Games Edition Designed by: Vlaada Chvátil This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey Many things happened back in 2015. Pizza rat went viral, Zayn left One direction, selfie sticks were annoying everyone, Netflix and Chill became a term and THAT dress sparked many an annoying debate across offices and dinner tables. Luckily for us though there were actually some fun and interesting things that happened in 2015, like Hamilton not throwing away its shot and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was released (gotta keep it spy relevant) Board gamers though had their own slew of great games released that year that will be turning 10 this year. As popular as they were though I don't think anyone was prepared for a word guessing game about spies to be the monster hit that it was, let alone being one of the bestselling modern board games of all time. How to find your codename. First pair off into two teams with one member of each being the spymaster who should sit next to the opposite team's spymaster. Lay out 25 cards in a 5 x 5 grid in front of them. The cards are double sided so just pick a side at random.  The spymasters will take one key card and place it in the stand facing them. They'll then take the tiles in their chosen team colour then check the coloured arrow on the key card, that team will be going first. The key cards will have a representation of the grid in front of you with each square coloured differently. Squares will either be, blue, red, beige and in one case black. The spymaster's goal is to get their team to guess the words in their colour on the grid. The first team to get all of their words wins. However if one team guesses the word on the black square (known as the assassin) they lose.  On your turn as spymaster you need to give your team a one word clue and a number. The number will be how many words your clue is associated with. So for example your word may be Olympics 3. That means that your team has to find three words in the grid that are linked to the Olympics. If they guess a word and it's their colour then they can carry on guessing. This will go on until your team has either picked all of the words you were linking (although they could accidentally pick another word in your colour which also counts), or they pick one of the beige bystanders or one of the other teams words. At which point their turn is over. If they do get all of the words and they still have words from earlier clues then they can carry on. When one of the end game conditions is met the game ends.  A legacy to protect Having your game make it to ten years and still be in the public consciousness and still being played on a regular basis is a massive achievement. To have that and have sold 16+ million copies and to have been played by seemingly everyone is nothing short of amazing. But amazing doesn't just happen for no reason. Especially in board games. There’s obviously something that strikes a chord for people. Now, I can't tell you exactly what that is, but I’ve got some ideas. One of the marks of a great party game is one that sparks discussion and Codenames excels in that. Every time the spymaster throws out their clue that discussion between the players happens almost instantly and that's where the game throws the reins over to them to create their own fun. The game is pretty simple, it's just a bunch of words on a table and if the game was just ‘give a clue for one word, guess that word, then the next player's take their turn’ it'd be pretty boring. But a rule as simple as ‘link multiple words with one clue’ gives players something to sink their teeth into and the game really shines. It gives people permission to let their imaginations run wild. You’ve only got to listen to the conversation between the players, the random guesses, the tangents people go on as they explain their reasoning for guesses to know just how unrestrictive this game is. Of course the brilliant thing about that type of freedom is that it won't be long before the laughs come which is what party games are all about.  There’s a lovely personal aspect to the game that comes with playing with the same group or even just one or two people you know well. Clues like my example above are great and would work for a majority of people I’d say, although it depends on what the words are. But it's those moments where you’re struggling to link something and then you realise the team you have, it may even be just one person in it, but you can give a link that only they would get and it's fantastic when they get it. It’s not only playing to your audience but it adds an extra layer of fun that you’d only get playing with friends.  All of the above only if you get this in front of the right group however, regardless of if they're old friends or people you’ve just met. If you get this in front of the wrong group or if they're not working as a team and that discussion isn't happening then it's easy for this game to fall flat and at that point it can then all feel very procedural. Luckily that can be a rarity and if that does happen then the chances are you wont put the game in front of that particular group again.  I’m the spy-master The role of spymaster is one that can be as frustrating as it is fun. For the split second after you throw your clue out there it'll be Schrodinger's clue. It’s simultaneously the greatest work of genius since the splitting of the atom and a clue so monumentally terrible that you’ve been banned from speaking for the next week. Your friends are either going to get it immediately or spend the next 20 minutes debating the potential of two words. If the first instance happens then you’ll definitely be enabling smug mode, especially if you manage to link a decent amount of words. At which point you get to feel like an absolute genius and you should absolutely own that. But then there's the latter. It's here that you’ll learn the true meaning of ‘screaming on the inside’ as your friends bounce back and forth on various options and all you can do is try to keep your facial expressions in check as they edge dangerously close to the wrong word or worse, the assassin. This could easily sound like a negative of the game but honestly is so much fun. As you watch people spot a word that links perfectly to your clue that you didn't even see. Or when you get that one player that overthinks everything so much and spouts knowledge so obscure that you end up getting a history lesson as you play. (Yes I do play this with someone like that) A Red Herring There can be some downtime involved though. Being the spymaster, regardless of how good you are, you need to come up with a clue and ideally one that encompasses as many words as possible and that understandably takes time. This is even more noticeable on the first clue of the game since you’ve had no time to think of something and before you know it people are staring at you waiting for a clue and it can be pretty daunting. Even if they aren't purposefully pressuring you it's easy enough to feel like you're holding everyone up. This can be relieved a bit if people are happily chatting amongst themselves because then it just feels like part of the game. It’s when people start to reach for their phones that it may start to weigh on you. My advice is that If you're not the sort of person that works well under that sort of scrutiny then that may not be the role for you and you may be happier just sticking to guessing. The other issue that can easily come up is the aforementioned ‘one word link.’ This is either because the words are difficult to link, or you’re feeling that pressure and just want to get something out there to give yourself more thinking time. Those moments can be a bit of a let down even though sometimes they're necessary, if you get too many of those or someone isn't trying then it's easy for the game to lose its lustre. There's also something a bit anticlimactic about using one to win the game. I get it, if you’ve only got one word left but there’s something more thrilling about having three words to guess and then counting them down for the win. Maybe that last part is just me though? 10 years, time for a new disguise. With this anniversary comes a bit of a revamp. The cover art has changed and it's a lot more vibrant and appealing. Based on data from the Codenames app a bunch of words that had been deemed as being difficult to link have been removed and replaced with new ones. The colours on the key cards have been made more vibrant to work better in a variety of lighting conditions, particularly lower light. The artwork on the tiles has been changed with everyone now being unique rather than having the same picture. You’ve also now got pigeons as one of the bystanders... yep, pigeons. Actually there’s quite a fun explanation for that on CGE’s Making of Codenames video on YouTube and I’m not gonna lie, they're always the first bystander I put down.  The plastic key card holder has been replaced with CGE’s re-wood and they've now provided us with an insert. The rulebook has been redone to give a bit more clarity and last but not least they've done away with the sand timer which, if I'm honest, I didn't really know existed having never opened the original game.  To buy or not to buy? The one thing that hasn't changed is the game play. So the question is, if you already own codenames, do you need this new edition? No, no you don't. This is the exact same game that you know and love and none of the changes CGE have made here will change anything enough to warrant you're-buying this game. Unless of course you just like the look of this version or your copy is on its last legs from countless pays. If you've not got a copy of your own then this is definitely the version to pick up if you're interested.  Right I’m off to see I can link all the items on our Chinese food order to just one word to make ordering quicker.

Joyride Duel: Next Gen WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2 (for this particular box) You’ll like this if you like: Gaslands, Thunder Road Vendetta, Mario Kart Published by: Rebellion Unplugged Designed by: Duncan Molloy , Pete Ward This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey So, yes, you could go and buy a Switch 2 with Mario World for a large amount of money. Or you could instead try and possibly buy Joyride Duel for around £30 and still have money left over to take someone special in your life out for a nice 3 course dinner. I mean you could, but let’s face it, we’re gamers and would probably just use the extra cash to buy more games.  How to Joyride Set up the map per the scenario you want to use and have each player take one of the cars and take either the standard abilities or the asymmetric ones depending on which ones you're using. It’s recommended to use the standard ones if anyone playing is new to the game.  Determine a start player and place your cars on the start line in turn order. It’s worth noting that each car will take up two hexes of space. Then both players roll two dice and move that many spaces in a straight line. The dice are then placed on the rear view mirror on their player board without changing the values.  Each race will have a start/ Finish line and a number of checkpoints. To win you have to complete the required number of laps making sure you go through each checkpoint in order before you can complete. However, the great thing about Joyride is that there’s no enclosed track or defined route to follow. So you can go through these in any direction and as long as a part of your car touches the line then you’re considered to be past it……the line…..not that you've gotten old. On your turn you’ll go through a number of different phases.  Start: Not much happens here except you can use any items you may have in this step.  Lock:  Take any number of dice from your mirror and place them in the locked slots on your board. Then move that many spaces forward.  Shift: Here you have the option to use any items you have (you may have picked this up on the previous step.) you also have the option to shift gear up or down. If you shift up, add a dice to your mirror. Remove one if you shift down. The gear you're in should reflect the number of dice you have access to. If you don’t have any dice on your mirror to remove then you can’t shift down.  Roll: If you have any dice on your mirror you must roll all of them and then move that many spaces.  End: This is where any end of round effects play out and you can have a final go with one of your items.  Up until now any movement you make is in a starting line, however, once per turn you can steer your car either in the lock step or the roll step. You will have three hexes in your front arc and when you steer you move your car (at the start of your move) into either the left of the right of those. Whenever you move make sure that the back end of your car moves into the space you just moved out of. If you moved in the lock step and you are in second gear in the roll step, either by staying in that gear or you just shifter into it, you can perform a second steering move. You can’t do this twice however if you didn’t move in the lock step.  There are items you’ll collect by going through certain gates or picking them up on the track. In this version you’ll have Flashbangs, Drones, oil slicks and Mines. Some are dropped behind you to hinder opponents later on (or maybe even yourself!) or fired in front of you (that’ll teach them for trying to win the race!)  You’ll also have special abilities that you can use to help you but they are generally one and done. However when you cross the finish line you can refresh one for every person who went past the line before you. So getting over the line first means you get none back.  Roads? Where we’re going we don't need, roads Every racing game so far has tried different ways to simulate racing whilst still trying to keep it as strategic, tactical and as fast feeling as possible. How well they do on that front varies but the one problem that they all suffer with is that they all rely on those annoying restrictive tracks. Yep, going round and round in circles the same direction can be fun but what if you didn't have to. What if you could do what every Grand Theft auto game has taught you and drive wherever and in whichever direction you want. Well Joyride does that and gives you relative free reign of the map. With the only real rules being, don’t drive off the edge and don’t ram into barriers. Well you can if you want but it’s not really advised. You’ve got all the freedom you need to approach each track in your own way thus giving you a ton of options in terms of your overall strategy and ultimately the game's replayability. What I ultimately love about it is that even if you’ve been nudged off the course you were taking it doesn’t necessarily mean that your race has been ruined. It may just mean that you’ve got to take an alternate route which might see both cars careering towards each other in a game of chicken to cross the same checkpoint and who doesn’t want that type of excitement in their race? That freedom just makes every race that much more exciting. Just as you think someone may be out of the race they manage to find a new route or the clever use of a special ability or item that puts them right back up into contention to make for a nail biter of a race. The joys of the open road All that freedom of an open track is great, but let's be honest, it's not really chaotic enough is it? Never fear because in true Mario Kart style they’ve thrown in some weapons and items to make sure true chaos ensues. There are four in the box, Oil Slick, Mine, Drone and Flashbang, each with their own way of causing chaos and messing with your friends best laid plans. There’s a simplicity and malevolence to each item that will have you cackling to yourself……who am I kidding, out loud, as you stick a well placed mine right in the path of another player to truly ruin their day. The flashbang blocks up their lock slots leaving their turn to just the roll step. The drone finds them and explodes on impact and the oil slick forces them to steer as they leave and stops them from steering again. Of all of them the oil slick is the only one that has the potential to be used for good as it essentially gives you a free steer action. My advice, place carefully, and by that I mean, wherever it can cause the most chaos.  Joyride welcomes (partially) careful drivers. There are some racing games that choose to focus mainly on strategy (Heat, Rallyman GT) and there are others that focus more on the chaos (Gaslands, Thunder Road Vendetta) Joyride however seems to have an equal love of both and that’s absolutely reflected in the two dice steps on your turn. At first I questioned why the separate lock step and the roll step would make much of a difference but they absolutely do. The lock step is your chance to grasp some form of control over your turn based on the facts you have in front of you, i.e. your dice values. It lets you put a semblance of a plan in place and hopefully set yourself on the right path, or at the very least help you get out of a tight spot. The roll step however is where the element of chaos rears its majestic head. Yes you have some sort of control over how many dice you roll (if any) depending on if you decide to shift up or down and that mitigation can be much needed. What you roll though is up to the fates and the results can often end up bringing some of the best moments in the game. It’s those risks you take that lead to those tense moments when you roll the dice knowing that anything above a certain number will have you careening into a wall and that huge reaction from the players, regardless of whether you succeed or not is absolutely joyous. At first it looks like going through all of these steps each turn is going to drag the game to a halt. Once you pick up how it works, which shouldn’t be long, then you'll find that turns can be over relatively quickly. There may be a few moments of thinking time if someone has parked a car or a mine in front of you on the previous turn but going through the actual steps is still pretty swift. So much so that there's been time where I thought I’d missed some rules Duel of the fates In the current climate where every game seems to be getting their own dedicated two player spin off, It’ll surprise no one to know that Joyride duel is the two player version of a bigger game that can play with up to four players. The difference with this one is that, apart from a smaller board, nothing is different. Every rule I’ve described and pretty much any praise I’ve heaped upon this game you can easily transfer onto the 4 player version. I’ll admit though to being a bit sceptical of a two player version of a game that relies on player interaction to provide a large portion of its fun. Is making a smaller board the only thing you need to make this game work just as well at two as it does with more players? Yeah, apparently that's all it takes. Within the first couple of turns of our first game we were colliding with each other. Eventually we’d got hold of items and were using them against each other and before the end of our first lap our race was already taking wildly different paths. So much so that by the end of the race we were both on lines that would have easily taken us into a head on collision had we not both been on the road to the finish line in what was a tense end to a great race. They've managed to make a minimal change and still keep what appears to be the energy and feel of the 4 player game. I’ve not played this one yet but I’ve seen plenty of playthroughs and the vibes definitely feel the same. The great thing is that this box is relatively inexpensive. I’ve seen it go for about £25-£29 and if Joyride appeals to you and two players is your main player count then it's definitely worth checking out. Especially if you combine it with the fact that you can get any of the extra car expansion or the bigger box and everything is compatible. Even some of the maps in this box are able to be played with 3 and potentially 4. Damage just isn’t what it used to be. If I have any minor gripes then it's with damage. The job of damage is to make you more inefficient by taking higher gears, weapons and lock dice slots away. So every time you take damage it should feel like a tough decision in terms of where you're going to place it on your board. The problem is that with this smaller map you’re not very likely to hit 5th gear and 4th can be used but not often enough that losing it will be a detriment. The same with the lock dice. I’ve never felt the need to use all four of those slots. So for me it feels like that decision isn’t as devastating. It’s going to take a few points of damage before it really starts affecting your game. Unless of course you're having a particularly item heavy game, or you've been tricked into driving into a painted tunnel on the side of a rock many times and you just keep hitting walls. (Stupid Roadrunners) The threat of damage never feels like, well just that, a threat. There are a couple of races in this box that make you start with damage already on your car and there's nothing to stop you from doing that with every track if you feel you want more of a challenge.  The components add so much to this as well. The cars are big chonky (yep I said chonky) wooden pieces that are just fun to drive around the board the artwork for each driver is a lot of fun and the drivers abilities are thematic to each of them. An expansion one that I love is the pirate that can hook people with an anchor and pull them in. The art on the player boards can feel a bit busy and maybe so can the cars so to help with that and colour blindness, each board has a side with simpler art and uses iconography for the cars. Similarly the cars can be flipped to show just their icon for ease of identification. Joyride Duel is well worth the price of admission. If you want simple small scale chaos in a short amount of time then this fits the bill, and let's face it, who doesn't want that after a hard day at work?  Right, I’m off to attach Joyride style items to my car, I’ll let you know how it goes! UPDATE: My wife wouldn’t let me do it :(

Cytress   WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Blood Rage , Android: Netrunner , Neon Gods . Published by: Tress Games Designed by: Sean Lee This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . This games has already been previewed here . The game has since had a successful Kickstarter, and fulfilled to its backers. I have been sent a final copy as thanks for my help with the preview. So, now, lets check out how this beautiful and ambitious project from first time designer Sean Lee came out. Spoiler, pretty good! How To Set Up Cytress Place out the four districts around the mini map and load it with its associated Intel cards. Then place the three-tiered tower that makes up the city of Cytress. Place the District board below the Cytress tower and place the four contract cards below it. Then, on the Cytress tower, add five random Stratolite cards, placing the remaining deck next to the tower. Now give each player their own player mat, and rebel board, with resource trackers, Crew tokens, three Transports standees and one leader standee all in their chosen player colour, along with seven tube sections each. You are now ready to play. How To Play Cytress Players will now run through four different phases, across around four to six rounds. Some phases are simultaneous, others run in turn order. The first phase is where players all simultaneously gain resources based on the symbols in their top left yellow Corpocrat cards. For each symbol there, players will move their resource tracker one space on their resource tracker board. As you gain more cards, your phase one resource generation will naturally increase. Next, players will take turns placing their leader standee onto one of the four district boards. This will gain them the shown resources. Other players will gain any resources shown on their bottom left Privateer cards if they have any matching the area where other players send their leaders. In a two-player game, players will then move their leader to a second position once each player has chosen their first. Next, players will move to the third and main phase of the game, where they will take turns sending out one of their three transport ships to one of the nine locations. Four of these sites will allow players to gain new Intel cards to add to their own personal player engine, improving their subsequent turns. You can also visit the District board to trade resources you have for others, gain new Intel cards, and claim the first player token (this is the only way it changes in the game). You can take a Bounty card to either add a Crew token to the mini map or move a crew token on Cytress to a higher level. Finally, you can visit the Renegade or Stratolite to drop a tube onto the mini map where you have a Crew member, and then move that crew member up to Cytress. This is the main part of the game. When you do this from the Renegade, you can pay the cost to drop the tube with any resource you like, and place it onto any coloured space on the mini map where you have a crew member. When you do this from the Stratolite space, you have to choose one of the Stratolite cards to pay with a specific resource and ascend from a specific colour space, but you then get to move your transport ship off and have another bonus turn. That bonus turn, could be to visit the Renegade and drop a second tube this round! When you do this, you need to decide which person you visit, how you pay, which crew member to ascend, and where to place them. Each of the three levels of Cytress has a different end-game scoring mechanic. The player who dominates each level with the most crew members on each of the three levels at the end of the game can use that level's scoring mechanic. The top level will allow you to score six points for each set of the four intel cards you have. The middle level offers the player who dominates this tier three bonus points for each of their intel cards in their longest lifepath (biggest collection of cards). The bottom tier allows the player who dominates here to gain three points for each crew on Stratos. But at the end of the game, there are also points available for the player who has the most crew tokens surrounding each of the tubes on the mini map. Seven points for a three-high tower. Five points for a two-tier tower. And three points for a single tube. So, when you are picking which crew member to ascend, where to place them, and what to leave behind, there is a lot to consider. With huge end game point swings available! The final phase each round is to return all your Transports and leader to your player board, and reset the Stratolite cards in the Cytress tower. Player then moves to the next round. The game continues like this until one player uses their seventh and final tube. They can use more, as there are plenty in the box, but this will be the final round. Players then score for their Crew on Stratos; the higher they ascend, the more points they earn. There are also points for the player who has the majority on each level and who controls each of the tubes on the mini map. Finally, there are points for each bounty collected from the bounty hunter. You will gain two points for each matching symbol on the bounty card on all the other Intel cards you gained during the game. Is It Fun? Cytress Board Game Review Playing this game is incredibly satisfying, and the experience is heightened with every turn you take. Each decision feels significant, as if it could tip the balance of the entire game in your favour or lead to your downfall. This sense of urgency and importance in decision-making forces me to engage deeply with the mechanics and strategies involved in this game from turn one. Strategic planning in Cytress is essential, much like in any classic board game, but what sets this game apart is the necessity to consider every action meticulously right from the beginning. The game has a brisk pace, with most games finishing after just five rounds, and sometimes even four. This limited timeframe means players must be agile and decisive, as there is little room for prolonged development of strategies. You are thrust into the action immediately. The pressure to act quickly and effectively enhances the overall enjoyment, making every move feel impactful. And this is not down a linear path, with obvious choices. The game offers multiple paths to victory, which adds depth to the strategic possibilities. Players can choose to focus on dominating a specific area of Cytress, thereby reaping the associated bonuses that come with control of that territory. Alternatively, players might prioritise gathering a wealth of resources early on, setting themselves up for success in the later rounds, or they could aim to control the mini-map, which can offer significant advantages around the tubes that get built there later in the game. Or, do you want to gain all the Bounties. They are limited to five after all. Each of these strategies is viable, and the challenge lies in determining which path, combination of paths, will yield the highest score for you by the end of the game. The beauty of this game lies in its complexity and the interplay of different strategies. Can you effectively combine various approaches to truly dominate the scoreboard? This question lingers in the minds of players as they plot their moves, weighing the potential risks and rewards of each decision. The satisfaction derived from executing a well-thought-out plan, while simultaneously adapting to the evolving game state and the actions of your opponents, creates a rich and rewarding gameplay experience that keeps players coming back for more. When I play Cytress, I am instantly absorbed because of this. But it does not slow the game down. These complex and rich choices do not mean you will have a slow game. Far from it. Two of the four phases are simultaneous and very quick anyway, and the other two rounds where you are placing your leader and transports, you are limited to a few locations anyway. You just need to pick a strategy, then plot your most efficient path to that. But of course, like all good board games, other players are around the table and forever changing the state of the game as you play. You won't have everything your way. Players will place their leaders where you want to go. They will take spots on the mini map you intended to use. They will build tubes in places you didn't expect. And most intriguingly, they will take the Stratolite card you had planned to use! Adapting to this, alongside your pre-planned moves, is crucial to the success of this game, both in terms of your personal score, but more importantly, the group enjoyment from the game, which I have found, every time I have played, to be immense!

You can find the updated card art for this game here . This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. You can follow the board game geek page here . Tricky Seasons: Finland comes from trick-taking guru Ren Multamäki . The man behind other trick-taking master classes such as Tolerance , White Hat , and Justice . Three brilliant trick-taking games, that all add their own little twist. This time, with Tricky Seasons: Finland we have another trick-taker, the twist this time being the game has been blended with tic-tac-toe and a bidding element. The game will be coming to kick-starter soon, I will add a link here when it is live. The game works simply. First, give each player a player number from one to five. Then, roll any six dice, and then place the six blank dice onto the spots matching these dice faces on the board. Place them in order of the three white dice first, then the yellow, then black, and finally the green. Consider the blanks as sixes. Any doubling up of numbers, simply leave that dice out. It should look something like this after. The black blank dice wasn't placed as it was the second six. Then deal out all the cards, taking some out for lower player counts. And then each player will pick two cards from their hand so use as their bidding the cards. The card are all multi use, and show either the suit and rank at the very top corner, or the bidding value just below that. In the cards I have, this is in a star just below this, but in the updated art you can see below it will be in on the bottom left in a white diamond. The cards each player places down at this stage as their bidding cards will total the intended points each player will be aiming to score this round. Each player will now be left with ten cards. Players will then play ten rounds, in the usual trick-taking way. Placing one card down from their hand, each subsequent player must then follow suit if they can. The highest card of the initially played suit wins, unless the hand was trumped. The trump suit is always the next season after the initial played card's season. So, if you played an Autumn card first, trumps for that round is now winter. Updated Card Art The winning card will be the highest card of the lead suit if no trumps were played, or the highest trump card if a trump was played. The player that wins the trick can then place a die on the game board. If the lead card was Spring or Summer, then the winning player will place a green growth die. If the lead card was Autumn or Winter, then the winning player will place a black decay die. When you place a dice, do so with you player number showing as you place it. You can place it onto any empty space on the board. The next round then starts, starting with the player who won the previous trick. Updated Card Art The idea is that you are looking to manipulate the board to suit your pre-game bid. But the board will change a lot during the game as more dice are placed. Also, when a die is surrounded on all four sides, the player who placed the final die is allowed to change the surrounded dice from a green growth die to a black decay die, or vice-versa. At the end of the round, after all ten tricks have been played and won, and ten dice have been placed on the board, a scoring phase occurs. Here, any dice in rows or columns of three or four of the same colour (the yellow dice counts as wild) will score one point for each player with one die within the row or column. A die can only count once even if it is in a scoring row and column. Players then score points based on their bid if they scored the same amount of points from the dice on the board as their initial bid. A correct bid of zero or six scores four more points. A bid of one or five gets three points. Two or four gets two points. And finally a conservative bid of three gets just one bonus point. Old Card Art The game plays over as many rounds as their are players, three to five. Or you can play to an agreed amount of points. Games will fly by though, and you will find that after each early game, your understanding for how you can manipulate the board in your favour will increase, and your bidding accuracy and scoring will get better. Which moves the game from a simple trick-taking game, to a tactical strategic battle of wits that will captivate you. I am a huge fan of trick-taking games anyway. At first, while playing this, I was enjoying myself but felt very unsure about how to play it tactically. I was unsure how to bid and where to place my dice. But after a few rounds, it clicked into place. As such, for anyone who enjoys trick-taking games, I would highly recommend this game. It has enough to make it stand out and feel different from other trick-taking games, but it is so familiar and similar to other games, you will be off and running within minutes. The teach is a breeze to anyone who has played a trick-taker before. The tic-tac-toe part does take a little more getting used to strategically, but the rules are simple enough. But then when it falls into place in your brain, the choices you are making throughout the game feel meaningful, satisfying, and enjoyable each round. No matter how you are doing, you always feel in the game and never too far behind. Check out the new art for this game here .

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. You can follow the board game geek page here. You can find the full preview for this game here . I have already previewed this game here , but the game has since had a bit of a re-design, with anew cover art, and glorious new cart layouts. Take a look. Here you can see the original artwork on the left, and the new layout on the right. It's much brighter, and the iconography is a lot clearer. And the same goes for all the other suits and cards. Everything just comes across as brighter, clearer, with a fresher and simpler look, despite there now being a border. Although, that serves a purpose, identifying the suit in a much simpler and easier to identify way. I am a big fan of this game, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with the original prototype over the last few weeks. The gameplay, mechanics, and simple rules set all appeal to me in a trick-taking game like this. The introduction of a new art style has enhanced my gaming experience. This fresh visual approach refreshes the game's aesthetic and adds a layer of clarity. The colours are more vibrant, and the textures are more refined, which helps in distinguishing different suits within the game. Check out my original preview for more information on how the game plays and my thoughts on it.

Play Prop WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 3-8 You’ll like this if you like: Fast fun party games Designed by: Birger Norup This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Play Prop was designed back in the late 70s by a few board friends! You can check out the full story here . Its beautifully odd. The game is now available for us all to enjoy, if you are willing to purchase from international Amazon sites, or directly from the Danish publisher's site. Mass market distribution is on its way, though, I am told. But I ordered mine via Amazon.com and it arrived to the UK in a few days. But should you be looking at this? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Play Prop Take all the components out of the box, and place the two mats on the table or play area. Next to one, place the bowl with the two dice inside. On the other, place one cork on a string for each player inside the central circle. One player will take one cork off and place it next to them; they will be rolling the dice this round, so won't need a cork. Get a pen or pencil and place it by the score sheet. You are now ready to play. How To Play Play Prop The person with the dice will now shake up the bowl and place it face down with the two dice on the mat. They will reveal the dice by lifting the bowl. All players need to quickly identify what the dice say and act accordingly. If the dice add up to seven or show a pair or any two same numbers, then the players with the corks must remove them by tugging on the string as quickly as possible. The player who rolled the dice must now use the bowl to try and trap as many players' corks on the mat before they remove them. For anyone who gets trapped, they will score a point. Points are bad. For the player rolling the dice, if they miss anyone, they score a point. Players who pull their cork away when the dice do not show a pair or total seven will gain a point. And the person with the cup will gain a point if they trap someone when the dice are not correct. Keep playing until someone scores four points in a round, then change who is the Cupper with the dice, then start the next round. Play eight rounds in total and the player with the fewest points after eight rounds is the winner. Players are actively encouraged to feint, shout out "seven" when the dice don't add up to seven, or do whatever it takes to trick your fellow players and have fun! Is It Fun? Play Prop Party Game Review This game is absolutely hilarious! The joy, however, is made almost entirely by the clever and strategic element of 'faking-out' your opponents. This aspect of the game adds a layer of excitement and unpredictability that keeps everyone on their toes. Players must not only focus on their own moves but also pay close attention to the actions and reactions of others, making every round a delightful mix of strategy and wit. The laughter that ensues from a well-executed fake-out can be contagious, bringing everyone together in a shared experience of amusement. However, there can be a bit of a lull when you find yourself unable to roll a seven or land doubles for an extended period of time. Although, when this happens, the anticipation builds with each roll of the dice, and when a seven of double finally rolls, there is an explosion of shouts, movement, and laughter! But mostly, despite these occasional setbacks, it’s just so much fun! The overall experience is filled with laughter, friendly banter, and a sense of competition that makes you want to keep playing. Each game session becomes a memorable event, where stories are shared, and inside jokes are created. The thrill of the game lies not just in winning but in the shared joy of playing together, making it a perfect activity for gatherings with friends or family. The laughter and enjoyment that come from the game create lasting memories that everyone cherishes long after the game is over.