Before I knew anything about this game, I was excited as this game just looks epic! The big box. The large array of components. The stirring art. This is a preview copy with only about one third of the final components and it’s still overflowing with gameplay, which tells me the final copy is going to be something very special indeed. You can find the Kickstarter campaign here. The basic premise of Heroes of the Shire is fighting monsters. You start as a level one adventurer with access to an exciting array of spells and fighting moves. And with the promise of a whole lot more! Either in solo or with friends or enemies, your job is simple. Go out and fight. There are two ways you can play the game. There is a battle royale mode where you will be fighting your friends in the Arena in a last person standing skirmish. And a campaign version, where players will battle their way through a series of hexes towards the end of level monster. Included in this preview was enough components for three of these campaign levels and four different characters to choose from in either campaign or Arena mode. The final version will have a whole lot more but the flavour of the game can certainly be assessed here. So, what is that flavour? I would say that this has a blend of different styles. From the grind and leveling up of Dark Souls, the adventure and story of Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, and the fighting of Direchism. This all combines to a highly satisfying game experience and I am eager to see what the full final version of the game looks like. The part of this game that I think will appeal to people the most is the player boards. Each character has a unique board, all set with a specific group of spells and attacks. Each character is different and very much mouldable. There is a choice to make in the path you take when it comes to upgrading your character when you level up. It’s not a linear path. You can choose what areas and skill sets you want to develop. It is this flexibility combined with the variety of new powers available that makes this part of the game a stand out feature for me. And you don’t even get all the final characters from the game in this preview copy, so there may well be even better things to come! But the highlight for me in this version was the Warlock character and their ability to go into ‘Demon Form’. One of the Warlocks spells, ‘Demonic Ritual,’ allows the Warlock to transform into ‘Demon Form.’ This gains the Warlock character 50% more health points and access new to abilities and spells, including immortality for two turns and the ‘Demonic Ritual’ which allows you to increase different abilities for the next six turns. This transformation is achieved by placing a piece of card over your player board, changing your appearance and the spells and actions available to you. It feels deeply thematic in its design and rewards the player using the Warlock with some very exciting new powers. Other characters included in this preview version are The Paladin, Warrior, and The Hunter. These felt a little more Dungeons and Dragons in their origin, but still came with beautiful art and some real depth in the options available to them. Each spell and action has a different result and power. The game balances this with a clever ‘cool down’ effect whereby, after each use of every action or spell, you must place a dice on the space for that specific support or attack move. The ‘Marksmanship’ action for the Hunter for example, allows her to deal 50% more damage on her next spell and force the target to miss their next turn. Due to this spells’ huge power, it has a cool down of six. Meaning a dice with a value of six must be placed on it. Each turn, you will reduce the dice face by one until it is removed and that power can be used again. In the game, you will be taking it in turns to use one of your ‘Support’ or ‘Attack’ actions or spells to either ready a later move or act now. The turn sequence is a well-oiled set of rules which includes a small bit of character maintenance around your cool down dice and any temporary affects that have been added to your character. Before you have the chance to use any special abilities you have and then choosing which action you want to take. In Arena mode, this will generally be a series of attacks until the other player is reduced to zero health points. Whereas in campaign mode, there are a series of hexes to explore before you start any serious fighting! Treasure and armour will be acquired, actions will be taken, all in a series of battles aimed at not just completing the campaign, but also helping you to level up your character so that you can fair better in the Arena. The affects of the events in campaign made thus affect what you can do in the Arena, and this campaign/legacy style affect appeals a lot to me. Other than fighting, you will also come across different choices to make in the campaign mode. For example, you may spot what looks like treasure up ahead. Do you investigate further, or leave it knowing it may well be a trap? Decisions are made as a group before a player reads the card and reveals your fate. These action cards are opportunities to gain loot, temporary ‘buffs’ which increase your characters attributes, and also bring new foes to the table! Some of the characters have the opportunity to summon support characters to help them fight, such ‘Pets’ or an ‘Army of the Dead.’ Playing as the Hunter, you can summon a Wolf for one of you actions. This will add a ‘Wolf’ card next to your player board and this acts essentially as an extra player fighting along side you. They have their own turn in the turn order, abilities, health and opportunities to support you in a fight. There are also Boars, Birds, Bears and Snakes, all willing to come and help lend a hand, or claw, paw, trotter or tail! The ‘Spell mastery’ is where you can really develop your character in unique ways. Extra player boards are placed next to your main one, showing three main paths of development. Such as for the Warlock who has the choice to follow either a path of ‘Decimation,’ ‘Demon Form,’ or ‘Soul Harvesting.’ All jolly choices! Once per level, each player gains a power cube which they can use to unlock new spells and abilities. Once you have placed a cube in one box, on a later turn when you level up again, you can now place the next cube on the subsequent box or start on a new path. The choice is yours. It builds a tech tree of development of sorts and offers a lot of flexibility and freedom in the way you want to develop and use your character. There are a lot of symbols used in this game, but there is an excellent quick reference sheet and a brilliant turn by turn introduction to the arena mode which teaches you the game in a very user friendly and simple way. This is like the one found in Wingspan and Root. It is so smooth; it always makes me wonder when I use things like this why all games don’t do it. It’s a brilliant addition. There is a lot to be excited about in this box. I will continue to follow the development of this with close interest and look forward to the final version which you can read more about here.

Pie in the Sky WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Tobago Clank Ticket to Ride Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Hoby Chou, Vienna Chou If you are looking for a good family game to take your younger children's gaming to the next level, then My Little Scythe reviewed here, could be the one for you. If you have played My Little Scythe and love it, then you may be looking for ways to extend your fun beyond the ample game within the base box. The Wind Gambit is a brilliant expansion for Scythe, bringing ominous air ships to the table. Pie in the Sky does the same for My Little Scythe introducing one giant bright pink Airship into The Kingdom of Pomme. The airship is the center piece of this new expansion. It looks very impressive towering over the miniatures. This is done not just for aesthetics, but also as the ship is allowed on spaces occupied by the Seekers, flying over their heads. The size and tall stand allows for the Airship and Seeker miniatures to be placed on the same hex quite comfortably. The Airship comes into effect when players decide to 'Seek'. There are new cards to lay over the existing player mats which change the 'Seek' rules. In short, a new purple dice is now rolled along with the existing dice that moves the Airship. The dice will either land on a 'Six' allowing the active player to move the airship six spaces. Or, on a trophy symbol, allowing the active player to move the airship the same number of trophies they currently have remaining on their player mat. The Airship can go anywhere on the board, the only rule is that it must end on a space with either an Apple or a Gem. The players who moved the Airship, once moved, can then take the Apple of Gem from the space the Airship is on and move it to their Cargo hold space of their own personal Airship container. Or they can use their factions new power. Each fraction now comes with its own asymmetric power. Players can choose to use this when moving the airship. Other than the airship itself, this is the biggest change to the game, and it's awesome! There are ten new powers, one for each faction. Here are my favorites. There is a Telescope that lets you attempt any quest within the region that the Airship is currently situated in. Utilising the Spotlight allows you to place your token where the Airship is. On any later turns when you take the 'Make' action in the region that the Spotlight token is situated, you gain an extra Friendship or Pie. The Harpoon lets you place your token on the airship space. Then on later turns when taking the 'Make' action, if any Apples or Jewels have been placed on the Harpoon space, you can use these items as if they were your own. Using the Magic Vortex allows a player to discard a Magic Spell card to move up to three Apples or Jewels from other spaces onto the Airships current space. As the game plays quicker now with these additional powers, there are now five trophies required to win the game, rather than four. A three player game of this can still be completed in under thirty minutes. This is not a long game. The additional trophy requirement is a welcome one, not just for the game length, but also the challenge, and overall enjoyment of the game. With only four trophies required, I found My Little Scythe could end a little abruptly at times. The Airship itself looks great on the board. It adds some real presence and will look even better once painted! Any offers? (Joke) It has lovely detail and works very well in keeping with the existing art and miniatures. My Little Scythe is a great game for families. Set up it looks like a proper game. The game has cute art and brightly coloured components. But this is a 'gamer's game'. Simple and easy enough for my six-year-old to play. But also bringing enough to the table for my own enjoyment. I don't like it when family games aimed at younger players dumb down the game too much. It's not an attractive quality for me either when the game looks childish as well as playing that way. I have found that my children think the same. My Little Scythe finds the balance perfectly. It offers a proper gaming experience with attractive art and styling that is neither intimidating to the younger player, nor off putting to the adults at the table. With Pie in the Sky added, you have a few new rules. But nothing that adds any complexity to the game. I found my children loved playing with and moving the Airship. Although they did take a while to understand it was not their's throughout the game, but a universally shared component. An interesting concept for younger gamer's to grasp. The two new factions are fantastic. They fill the spots in the original box nicely. In fact the entire expansion fits into the original box well. Although the depth in the insert for the faction tokens is a little too short so these are now a little loose when packed up. But other than that, this is an expansion that has clearly been thought through from the beginning. I can highly recommend this expansion to anyone who enjoyed the base game, and would encourage any gamer with a young family to give this a try.

A War of Whispers WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Root, A Game of Thrones Published by: Starling Games Designed by: Jeremy Stoltzfus By Steve Godfrey Do you have a game that you love and you really want people to play and discover? When you go to give people your well thought out pitch for the game do you find that at that exact moment your brain wanders off to make a cup of tea and you end up spouting nonsense? I do and for me that game is A War of Whispers. Let's hope I do a better job of it here! Shhhh, it’s oh so quiet In a war of Whispers you’ll be dividing your loyalty between each of the five different clans in the game. How much of your attention each clan gets depends on how many points they’ll bag you at the end of the game. Before the game starts you’ll shuffle up your clan tokens and place them on your player board in one of the five spaces, each having a point value on them ranging from four down to minus one. Players will score points per city each faction owns and where their token is on your player mat. So for example if the bear clan has control of 4 cities and their token is in your 4 point space then you’ll get 16 points. It that token was in your -1 slot then you’ll bag yourself minus 4 point for that clan On a turn players will place two agents onto available action spaces on any of the different clan sections on the awesome circular board. On round two onwards you would remove an agent first before proceeding to place your two agents. Then going clockwise around the board players will take those actions. These will be things like adding units of that clan, moving units, attacking other clans and taking cards to be used later on. The brilliance here is that if there are any empty action spaces to the left of your agent then you get to perform those actions as well. This means that you can potentially have four actions to perform on a given round with that clan. Take advantage quickly though because those slots will fill up as the rounds progress. At the end of a round a player can swap the positions of two of the tokens on their mat, these then have to be placed face up and can’t be moved again for the rest of the game. The game ends after four rounds and players will score up. A Cunning Plan Area control games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I can totally understand that. I enjoy them to a point but it’s easy to see why they can be divisive. It’s easy to feel picked on, especially if you're a new player who may pose an easy target. They can suffer from the problem that whoever can amass the biggest army quickest will win (that usually falls to a more experienced player) and sometimes, just sometimes getting attacked can feel a little personal. If you're someone who feels like that then please read on because I think A War of Whispers largely fixes all of that and may just be an area control game that you’ll enjoy! On the face of it a war of whispers is a standard area control game and a simple one at that. You add units to the board, move them and then fight. Even fighting is boiled down to a simple one for one system. Move five cubes into an opponent's four and cubes are removed on a one for one basis until none or one player's cubes are left. If this was your typical area control game then I would place it in the gateway game camp which is no bad thing by any means. What I love about this game though is that just by changing a few little things, like giving people access to all the clans really opens the game up and gives you so many options and strategies. If you find a favoured clan is losing ground then you have the option to use any of the other clans to take it back rather than having to go through the potentially slow process of building your forces again before you can retaliate. This includes using the clan that just took it off them and If you're able to make that happen in the same round then I’ll guarantee that you’ll want to let out an evil mwahaha. Despite all the evil laughs and sly manipulation, at some point, no matter how hard you try you may find that the clan you're pushing for may just be beyond saving. Don’t worry though because this game is the board game embodiment of the phrase “if you can’t beat them, join them” because the idea that you can swap your clans is a small one but brilliant. Rather than feeling that you’ve lost the game after a couple of rounds you can swap tokens and get back in the running. That doesn’t mean it’ll solve all your problems though because now everyone knows who you’re rooting for. They may not necessarily start gunning for you because your interests may align but the secret is going to be out. Let's get to those fixes I mentioned. A war of whispers keeps everything a secret so until anyone swaps clans no one knows who’s rooting for what clans, so being able to target a player because they're in the lead is rare. Even if you saw the opportunity for that kind of play it may turn out that that very same player is actually now pushing for the same clan you are, so helping them is your best bet. This is where I think the game leans into an almost semi co-op territory. Throughout the game you can get a rough idea where people's loyalties lie, that is of course unless they’re playing a great manipulation game. The question then remains whether or not to help them, possibly revealing your allegiances, or do you leave them to it hoping your interests align. A war of whispers isn’t about taking areas off of other players, it’s about taking them from the faceless clans. It’s not about attacking certain players because they backstabbed you in a game of TI4 because as I mentioned, you may actually be going after the same goal. It’s certainly not about amassing the biggest army because the way combat works means that your armies get thinned out pretty quickly the more you attack. War Stories Gather round everyone, are we all sitting comfortably? Excellent, because I want to tell you a story from the first game I played of A War of Whispers which I think captures everything that makes me love this game. A couple of rounds into the game I noticed that one player was leaning heavily on my most preferred clan and strengthening their position on the board. Rather than wasting agents to activate that clan I decided to leave him to it and turned my attention to my least favoured clan. Rather than push them into battles just to make them lose and make it obvious what I was doing (just in case someone tried to retaliate to it) I subtly nudged them into positions where I knew other players would do my job for me and take them out. Luckily for me I usually make random stupid moves so to everyone else this just looked like I had no idea what I was doing. After that I focused on the other clans and made sure they were doing what I needed them to. It was close, just as games of this usually are and I won. It wasn’t the win that drew me in. What had hooked me was the fact that you could make clever plays like this, the sneakiness, the manipulation, the idea that I could win a game by getting everyone else to do the work for me. All of that and it had been done without that “take that” style gameplay. Don’t get me wrong I love a good area control with some fun back and forth and a good scrap, but I love the idea of having a game like this in my collection that still scratches that area control itch but one that I can potentially play with more people who maybe aren’t big fan of the genre. A War of Whispers is a simple yet strategic and clever game that has rocketed into my top ten games and is definitely worth shouting about rather than a whisper.

Rescuing Robin Hood WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Port Royal, Smash Up, Hit The Silk. Published by: Castillo Games Designed by: Bryce Brown Rescuing Robin Hood is by first-time designer Bryce Brown, who according to his video from the recent successful Kickstarter for this game, stumbled upon the idea for this kickstarter after making it initially for friends, and then realising it was actually rather good! The innocent nature of the origins of this game seem present throughout this entire production. The game employs a number of interesting mechanics that blend together very well. I can see why the early play-testing went so well. In Rescuing Robin Hood, players are assigned roles as one of Robin Hood's band of merry men and women. There is some minor asymmetry here which will affect your game. Across four rounds, players will be looking to fight off the Sheriff of Nottingham's soldiers to rescue as many villagers as they can, so that on the fifth day, they can siege the castle and rescue their fearless leader. How to Play Players will draw four cards from their eight dealt villagers, and then track their accumulative powers of Wit, Brawn, Stealth, and Jolliness. This is the total shown on their four drawn cards and their leader card chosen at the start of the game. You will then attempt to fight off the three groups of soldiers protecting the villagers set up for that round. The Soldiers are lined up each round based on the scenario card you are using, face down protecting the villagers. Only the final soldier will be face up so you can see what skills they have. Your choice of how you attempt to fight them off will be largely determined by what area you score the highest in. But it will also be in part, chosen by what skills the other players around the table have, as unused brawn can be given to other players. If you attack with Wit, you will play against each solder one by one. Deducting the soldiers wit score from your total as you go. Each time you fight, you can stop if you choose and remove the Soldiers you have so far outwitted. But if you continue and end up becoming outwitted yourself, all the soldiers you had so far defeated remain in play. To attack with Brawn you will need to take on an entire row. This is an all or nothing attack, but of course you can chose which line to attack, and can take unused brawn from the other players. You can also attack with stealth which requires players to take on specific guards of your choice. You can pick which guards you want to attack, face up or face down but they must all be attacked at once. You don't have to take on every guard in a row or take them on in the order they were dealt, but if your total doesn't beat the chosen soldiers accumulative total, they all remain in play. How many will you dare to take on? Players can use their Jolliness to boost either of their other scores, or pass unused jolliness to the next player in the way you can do with brawn. You can also boost your attribute scores with Cookery skills, or use your Prayer ability to move soldiers position in the line, or two Prayer skills to defeat a solider altogether. Some villagers and leaders also come with a Scouting ability which allows you to flip face down cards over so you know what you may be up against. Players need to work together and ideally each focus on different types of attacks so the brawn can be shared. One player taking out a row with their stealth followed by fighting a few others on another line with their wit, before passing over their unused brawn to the next player to take out the remaining guards; is a much more efficient way then each player all using brawn themselves. You will have two attacks each turn, and any villagers left unsaved will remain captured. Any villagers saved will move to the Major Oak, where at the end of the round players can recruit them to join their next attack. As such, your hand is constantly improving, giving you a better chance against the harder soldiers that appear in the later rounds. Once you have battled through days one to four, day five begins in which your attempt on saving Robin Hood begins. All players will discard down to four, keeping their strongest villager cards. These are then used in one final assault which plays just like any other round, except now you must begin by storming the castle which has a score of 24 in all areas. If you get through this, you must then defeat the two rows of guards protecting Robin and all the unsaved villagers. If you are successful here, you win the game. However, you can go on, now with Robin in your team and one extra turn granted to you, to try to defeat the guards protecting the Sheriff, and take him on in one final battle. His score is determined by the amount of imprisoned villagers in the game prior to the castle assault. This variable can be huge and sometimes, quite difficult to take on. What I like about this game. Playing Rescuing Robin Hood is a constant juggling of numbers. Your attributes scores and the villagers you will potentially end with. There is a delightful mix of push-your-luck and deck construction, all whilst building up to the end-game finale. This mix of mechanisms works very well, and creates and constant sense of tension. Players will be thinking about their potential final four villagers, and what type of villagers they need to recruit to get the ideal final fab four. The three different ways to attack bring a real sense of engagement. You will feel very much involved throughout this game. On other players turns, you will add your strategy and advice as players pick the right way to take on the assorted guards. The choices on your own turn very much affect the other players around the table. This is a co-operative game after all. Players working together to combine their skills will always have a better chance. I found playing Rescuing Robin Hood very addictive. It's hard to win this game every time. Especially with the final hurdle of defeating the Sheriff. But the game is quick enough to play multiple times, and as such, I have never played this game just one time. Each session always ends up with at least two games as I try to overcome the final battle. So far, in eight games, I have only done this twice. The game is not difficult, but it has a good level of balance between your powers and the soldiers you are up against. There are plenty of scenarios to set up the game, based on the player count, with different options for each. This is to add variety and extend the games replay-ability I expect, but really it does not make a huge difference. The variety here comes from the Villagers which you are dealt and recruit, and the choices you make in how you fight, and the luck you get therein. The game also comes with a back story for all the villagers in the game. This was a kickstarter extra. It is a nice to have, but adds nothing to the game. The art is great. It has a very stylised, simple form, but works very well for the theme and game. It feels playful, bright and vibrant. I like that the effort has gone in to make all the villagers unique and their powers all make thematic sense. Game Variants The game also comes with an accelerated mode which allows you to play the same game in three rounds instead of five. I tried this once and it is fine, but does feel a little rushed and takes a bit of the "event" out of the game. But is a nice option if you are in a rush. The Expert mode adds challenge cards to the game, a different way to score points based on the challenges you face, with a target score shown in the rule book. This is very enjoyable and a nice add on when you have got used to the game. There is also a solo mode, one where you can play two hands yourself, and another which gives you two extra days to recruit villagers. Overall, I have really enjoyed this game. I will certainly keep it in my collection as it adds a unique twist to the push-your-luck deck construction genre, and feels quite unique in how it plays. I would like to work out ways to fairly play with more people, I am sure variants will appear soon! I think this could be an excellent game in an eight.

We talk with Giuliano, the lead Editor behind Golem, the recent Essen Spiel smash hit from Cranio Creations. We discuss how the game took on this intriguing theme and the efforts the team at Cranio creations went to ensure they covered the Jewish heritage in the right way. We also talk about what makes this game so exciting, why Giuliano thinks it became such a hot game at the recent Spiel, and Cranio's plans for 2022.

Clank! A deck-building adventure WBG Score: 8 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Marvel Legendary, Hero Realms, Deep Sea Adventure Published by: Renegade Game Studios and Dire Wolf Designed by: Paul Dennen by @stevegodfrey77 I’m sure at one point all of us have had to sneak round the house. Either because we came in late one night, got up early or even just snuck downstairs for a midnight snack. I also think it’s safe to say that in at least one of those instances that you’ve made a noise that sounds not too dissimilar to a volcano erupting! If that’s happened to you then good news because game designer Paul Dennen has made a game about exactly that!!! Except he’s made it into a fantasy theme with a dragon or something. If you go down to the keep today… In clank players are playing as thieves who are delving deep into a dragons keep to try and bring back valuable artefact to the surface to see who is the best thief. Because nothing says genius thieves like silly bets involving dragons! Clank! Plays like a standard deck builder to a point. First you draw five cards from your deck and either play them all one by one or all together, either way is valid but you must play all of your cards even if they have a detrimental effect. Aside from the text on the cards which will trigger when played, each card has either a skill icon which is used to buy new cards from the supply. A sword icon which is used to fight monsters or a boot icon which lets you move through the dungeon. Clank has a difference to regular deck builders which is obvious when you see the huge board. Clank has you using boot icons on your cards to move through the dungeons various paths to delve deeper and deeper into the keep to collect artefact, treasures and gold. Each boot lets you move to an adjacent space on one of the multiple routes down into the dungeon but not all the spaces can be accessed easily. Some routes require you to use two boot symbols to move, some are only accessible in one direction (Harry Styles not included in the box). Some will lead you into crystal caverns but require you to stop. Presumably to take the fantasy equivalent of a selfie in the beautiful looking cave. Some routes can only be accessed if you have the key which is available from the market space inside the dungeon, because where else would you set up a successful business venture than in a dark keep guarded by a dragon! The last obstacles are monsters in the tunnel which make you take damage for every monster in the tunnel unless you use a sword symbol on your card. I mentioned detrimental effects on cards. This usually comes in the form of clank. Clank is basically noise and each time a card informs you to add clank you add one of your coloured cubes to the supply. But a little bit of noise is fine right? Well yes, that is until the dragon attacks. These occur when a card is replaced in the market with one showing a dragon symbol. All cubes in the clank space are added to a bag which also contains some black dragon cubes and a number of cubes are drawn from the bag depending on where the dragon is on the rage track. Black cubes are set to the side whilst any coloured cubes are placed as damage on that players health track. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The game can end in one of a few ways. First, once a player has gained an artefact and got back out of the dungeon. From then on their turns will be spent moving along a track activating a dragon attack but pulling out extra cubes depending on the space they’re on until the 4th space which will knock out all the other players, at which point scoring will happen. The other way is if either everyone makes it out of the dungeon, everyone is knocked out or a combination of both. Either way you’ll score up all your artefact, treasures, gold and points on cards…….there is one twist however, if you are ever knocked out and you’re not out of the depths of the dungeon then you don’t get to score! I’ll get to that later. “I am king under the mountain” I’m not the biggest fan of deck builders. I have one or two that I like but it’s not a mechanic that I gravitate towards. Throw in a new spin on it like Clank! does and I’m invested. At the core of it Clank! is a really simple deck builder, in fact I’d be happy to use this game as someone’s first introduction to deck building. But the simplicity means that it doesn’t detract from the rest of the game. The game makes every card important throughout the game. Most of the time (when I play deck builders anyway) there comes a point in the game where money for new cards stops being useful. But here buying new cards, while maybe not useful for your deck can still net you victory points so you never find yourself wasting those skill cards even in the last throws of the game. Deck building isn’t the only cool mechanic though. Clank! Has you delving into a dragon's keep and searching for treasure and like a lot of great games this has lots of paths to victory. No seriously, there are literally lots of paths you can follow as you go deeper to search for your ill gotten gains. With those paths comes the temptation to explore and head deeper into the dungeon because that’s where the better artefacts are hidden and this is where the push your luck comes into it, that’s where the tension comes into it. It’s a great feeling getting down deep into that keep but then you notice one of your opponents has started racing for the surface and that’s when that all encompassing panic sets in and you realise you have to get the heck out of dodge. That tension really sets the game apart as you race desperately for the surface and that feeling of just making it out can feel amazing, but when you just miss out, whilst being a little frustrating is also part of the fun you're sure to have while playing Clank! “Do you think flattery will keep you alive” Clank is not without its niggles though. It’s highly possible that you can end this game without scoring any points. Now usually I’m not a huge fan of this sort of rule in games, it makes the hour or so’s game play feel like you’ve put all the effort in for nothing and a bit pointless (literally). I’m willing to forgive it here though as, like I said above, it does add to the tension and is part of the fun. I’m aware though that this isn’t going to be the same for everyone though. The other thing is how quickly the game can end. We played one game where a player went into the keep about halfway, picked up an artefact and a few treasures and then “just because he could '' went and escaped the dungeon and triggered the end stages after only a short time playing. We still enjoyed what we played of the game but it did leave a bit of a sour taste. It is a valid strategy within the game, not a winning one by any means, but it’s not one I liked the experience of. Ultimately he lost the game so at least karma had our back! Clank! Is a lot of fun and mixes a simple deck builder with push you luck to create something that is brilliantly thematic and tense. For me Clank! Is a great way to introduce people into two staples of board gaming with a unique take on them both and a fun theme…….oh and a Dragon Meeple which is one of the coolest meeples I own. Thinking about it now, I probably should have led with that!

Just One WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count 3-7 You’ll like this if you like: Codenames, So Clover, Wavelength Published by: Repos Production Designed by: Ludovic Roudy, Bruno Sautter By @stevegodfrey77 Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car. Some of you may recognise these as the activation words for Marvel's the Winter Soldier. But why did they pick those words? Well it’s a little known fact that those were the clues to a Just One word that the Winter Soldier couldn’t figure out. He’s never forgiven himself for it. Just One…..Rule book. Setup of just one is simple, give each player an easel and a pen, draw thirteen cards from Just Ones generous one hundred and ten card deck and your ready to go! Gameplay is equally as simple. Players will be working together to win as many of those thirteen cards as possible and then comparing their score with the chart at the end to see how well you did. As the active player you place a card (unseen) on your easel in view of the other players then announce a number from one to five. Players then. Have to secretly write a one word clue that they think will help you guess the word. The players then reveal only to each other their words. If any of those words match they are eliminated and the active player then has to guess with what words they have in front of them. Guess right and they win the card, guess wrong and they lose the card and another from the top of the deck. They can also pass to just lose the card they have. Just one…….Strategy Party games aren’t necessarily known for their strategy and whilst Just One is no different, there’s definitely a thought process that you go through. You see the trick for Just One is to be obvious enough for the player to get the clue, but not too obvious that you double up clues with other players. I guarantee that at least once per game something like this will be going through your head. “I can’t write that, that's too obvious, I know I’ll write this, but they may not get it. What if everyone else has the same thought and I can now write the obvious because no one else has. Ooh but then what if everyone else Is thinking the same as me and we all write the obvious!” If you’re lucky enough to get your brain out of that vicious loop then you’ll most likely end up doubling up with someone else and cursing your decision. But rather than being frustrating, you just both end up laughing, the rest of the table groans and this in turn leads the guesser to say “oh no”…..and it’s brilliant. Just One….concept The concept of just one is a great, fun and simple game but what really pushes this game over the edge to brilliance is the interaction between the players! That moment when you all turn your boards around and someone points to someone else’s board and shouts “what’s that?! Is honestly hilarious and then watching the other player try and explain what it is without giving anything away and then giving up and just saying “urgh I’ll explain it later” brilliant. Some clues will make sense when you know the answer but when you see one that doesn’t it makes you even more eager for someone to guess the word just so you can find out what the heck they are on about! There will be the usual aah’s as some one gets it wrong but then they loud cheers as they get it right, especially if they get it from just one or two obscure clues. Just One……Pitch So why did I decide to review Just One? Well the main reason is to get past the initial pitch. On the face of it Just One doesn’t sound like the most exciting concept, write words and guess them and let’s be honest if you were pitched that at a game night it doesn’t exactly draw you in, in fact a new person to our group almost bailed on the game based on that pitch! The other reason involved that same person. Once we’d got him to play the game, after the second card had been guessed he turned to me and announced that he was going to buy the game the next day because of how much fun he was having and how much he thought his family would enjoy it…..after two cards! It’s always a wonderful thing when you can introduce people to new games that they love and if, by this review I can convince Just One (yep I went there) more person to try this wonderful game then I’ve done my job. Just One……problem Just One is a party game and that brings with it the usual party game problems. First off any party games lives or dies on the group playing so if party games aren’t their thing or if your relatives are busy sleeping off the Christmas roast then maybe this may not go down as well. Also the minimum three player count may not be everyone's cup of tea. In this version everyone gets two boards meaning that you can now write that two word clue across your boards making guessing that little bit easier. It’s playable at three and still fun but it does lack that greater interaction that comes from more players. Just One……summary Just One is a hugely fun party game which is our groups main go to at the end of game night. It always gives us a great laugh regardless of whether we’re doing well or failing miserably. In fact I’ve had just as much fun watching this game played as I have playing it. It’s endlessly repayable with around 550 words to cycle through and whilst the scoring mechanism is fun to aim for and adds to some of the tension, so many times we’ve just carried on till until we have to vacate the premises. Guessing words has never been so much fun!

The Networks WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Wingspan, 7 Wonders, Roll Player Published by: Formal Ferret Games Designed by: Gill Hova by @stevegodfrey77 I’m not a betting man (which goes a long way to explain why I’m rubbish in Casinos) but I’ll bet that at least once this month you’ve probably been flicking through the T.V. and used the words “All these channels and there’s nothing on!” You’ve probably even decided that you can do a better job than the people in charge of the station. If you have, then The Networks may be the game for you. Wheel of Fish! In the Networks you are the proud new owner of a public access T.V. Station. (If you’ve ever seen the 1989 film U.H.F. Starring Weid Al Yankovic you’ll know what I mean.) It’s your job to compete against the other stations to commission new shows, sign new stars, and end up with the most viewers after five seasons to win the game and the hearts of the viewing public. This means something. This is important. To setup give each player their player board and starting network tokens and cards. Lay the scoring track on the table and place out season one show cards, stars and ads on the table based on the player count, then give each player some money based on the number on the score track and player order. Your turns in the Networks are boiled down to three simple actions. Draft a card from the table, play a card from your green room or drop and budget (the games version of passing). When you take a card you can either take a Star, paying the price on the card. Take an ad and receive the money on the card, take a Network card which will give you a bonus or take a show and put it on the air. When you take a show you have to replace a show in one of your time slots, either 8pm, 9pm or 10pm. Each show has a preferred time slot on it. If you put the show on in its preferred time slot you will gain the higher number of viewers in its first season, if not you’ll gain the lower number. Before you take a show you have a couple of things to bear in mind, first how much the show costs, and second if it has any prerequisites. These prerequisites could require you to attach a star or ad to the show straight away from your green room. If you can’t, then you can’t take the show. The final action lets you place a star or ad from your green room to a show if it allows it. Once a round ends you receive any money owed from ads on shows and pay out any money owed from upkeep from shows and stars on shows. Then you score up your viewers from the current seasons of your show and any shows in re-runs. Then all your shows are aged one season. This means that the amount of viewers you get for that show at the end of the next round is going to change. I’m kind of a big deal, people know me. The Networks is a game that’s going to get players talking from the minute you start setting up, whether it’s from the starting shows you give them or from when you begin placing the Stars and season one shows, because if there’s one thing I haven’t mentioned is that everything is based on parody. The shows are mostly parodies of popular shows and the stars are parodies of celebrity tropes like Grizzled action star, reality TV judge and dashing lead with some of them even resembling some famous faces. If the parodies from season one don’t grab people’s attention then the cards from season two onward certainly will. All of these cards are based on real shows. In fact it provides some of the games best conundrums. There’s a certain joy from sitting round the table watching your fellow players debate with themselves over whether or not they should take their favourite show or take a card that is actually going to benefit them in the long run. For a lot of people it’s an obvious choice but for many of us, having the chance to put our favourite show on the air is often too tempting. I’m not even mad, I’m impressed. The Networks doesn’t just hang everything on its ability to parody though. In fact the parody is just second in the ratings to what is a solid foundation of a game. Each round will keep you thinking and planning for the next show you’re going to be placing on the air. The main mechanic that keeps this going is the aging of each show. At the end of each of the five seasons (twice in the last round) your shows will age, this means that the show will either lose viewers or in some cases even gain them as they progress through the seasons. I love how this mirrors the progress (or not in some cases) of individual shows. Regardless in each case shows will eventually drop down to zero. This means that you constantly have to put new shows on the air, which in turn will require money and new stars and ads which means that keeping your economy going is essential if you want smooth running of your station. Clearly resting on your laurels is not a thing you can get away with in The Networks. Just getting your shows on at the right time is not always the best move however. In fact the game gives you special “genre bonuses”, These bonuses will trigger when you gain either three or five shows of the same genre in your archives and on the air. This means that sacrificing a few viewers to put a show on the wrong time slot to help you become the next Sci-if channel or Comedy Central may be a better move to get you those bonuses which will you give you free stars, ads, and viewers! 60 % of the time, it works every time. There’s a lot to enjoy in The Networks but it’s understandable that it’s not for everyone. Like any game with parody it’s purely subjective and your individual tolerance for the jokes in the game will vary. Whilst I’m not saying everything is laugh out loud funny it does bring a smile to my face every time I see the cards and I’ve played this game a lot. Similarly the art in the game has divided a lot of people, more so than I’ve seen for other games. However if you’re someone where art is a deal-breaker in a game then one look at the front of the box will let you know your tolerance for the art style. Me, personally, I like the art, the tone and the style fit really well for the game. That escalated quickly. One thing that’s evident in the Networks is how well it scales. The Networks is a joy to play from Solo play, which works by cleverly using the Network cards, right up until it’s full five players. One thing that may put people off the two player count slightly is that the game uses a dummy style player which uses a rondel and the network card system from the single player game and it’s a bit fiddly for my liking. I’m in a glass case of emotion. Like any open drafting game there’s a definite tension to be had and The Networks is no exception. There’s nothing more tense than sitting in hope that the show you desperately need is still going to be waiting for you on your next turn, this is even more tense when you realise you may need to hire a star before you can take that card. That’s two turns of lying in wait hoping that you won’t have to curse your fellow players as they unknowingly (or sometimes knowingly) foil your plans. This definitely gives you an interesting puzzle with multiple interesting decisions to make. You Stay Classy. The Networks is a game that will make you smile and keep you thinking throughout its runtime and its sure to leave you with a great series ending rather than a damp squib which will upset the dedicated fan base. If the star of UHF Weird Al Yankovic is the king of musical parodies then The Networks is the Weird Al of board game parodies. Stay classy board game fans, I’m Steve Godfrey?

Macaron WBG Score: 6.5/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: The Crew, Skull King, The Fox in the Forest Published by: Sunrise Tornado Game Studio Designed by: Ta-Te Wu If you like trick-taking games and Macaron's, you're in for a treat! Macaron from Sunrise Tornado Game Studio is a deliciously delectable card game which pits one to five players against each other in a battle to become the number one pâtissier in France! Your aim in the game is to prepare the mot amount of boxes of Macaron's each round. Boxes are made by winning tricks. Tricks are won in the traditional trick-taking way. Each player will lay a card. the highest card from the leading suit will win. In Macaron, the suits are based on the different flavours of Macaron's. Almond, Strawberry, Blueberry and many other waist busting varieties. As with all trick-taking games, there is a way to select a 'trump' suit. In this case, the Royal flavour. In a solo game, the royal suit is chosen by the most popular suit in the automa's hand. In a two or three player game, the royal flavour is chosen by the player to the left of the starting player. In a four and five player game, voting tokens are used so each player can have a say in this important choice. As well as the royal suit, in Macaron there is also one suit which is set as the 'Allergen.' The 'Allergen' is a suit which can still be played and win a hand in the usual way, but when any 'Allergen' card has been included, the trick wont win anyone any points. This is a clever addition I have not seen in a trick-taking game before and brings some interesting choices to the game. Another interesting twist, similar to contract whist, is where players need to make a "bet" to guess the correct amount of boxes they will win each round. If they guess correctly, they will gain a bonus point. If they get their bet wrong, they will loose a point. The bet does not have to be exact, players just need to guess the level on the score track that they will finish that round. So there is a margin of error here. But it adds an interesting dynamic where on occasions you will be looking to lose hands in order to get your bet right, and gain your bonus point. The bet idea works brilliantly with the Allergen rule. The Allergens are a great way to spoil another players attempts to make their bet or to aid your own goal. If you win with an Allergen card, you get to lead the next hand, despite not getting any points. It adds a lot of control to the game. There are some great trick-taking games on the market. Some have brought in co-operative trick-taking. Some with some clever story-driven games. But the core mechanic has stayed true to the age-old rule of play a card, highest card wins. Ultimately, if you want a trick-taking game, it seems the only decisions you need to make it theme, art, and player count. Sunrise Tornado Game Studio seem to make great games in this way. They pick a core mechanic and make a game that stays true to that mechanic. Here with trick-taking, and seen also with Boba Mahjong, a card game coming to kickstarter based on sets and runs. I like games like this. No frills. Just solid, well built game play. However with trick-taking I do feel there are a number of games that do this well already. Perhaps there is no more that can be done with the mechanic. It may be that this is all people want with trick-taking card games. However I do feel there is room for some development here. And the betting and Allergen rule here is a nice addition. However, whilst theme and art remain the key driver within this mechanic, Macaron gets my vote! It looks good enough to eat! The bright, vibrant art stands out and suits the theme here beautifully. Set-up on a table, on a mid-Sunday afternoon with a selection of real Macaron's to nibble as you play, I am unsure of a better way to while away the hours.

Kingdomino Origins WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Queendomino, Carcassonne, The Castles of Burgundy Published by: Blue Orange Games Designed by: Bruno Cathala This is not an easy game to review for one simple reason. I love Kingdomino and Queendomino, and trilogies are always tough! In truth, the trilogy was already complete with the roll-and-write two-player game, Kingdomino Duel that came out in 2019. But this feels like the more natural third game, where Duel was more of a spin off. However, where Queen advanced significantly on King, delivering a lot more complexity and options on top of the solid gameplay, Origins seems to be more of a re-skin of Queen. As such, I feel this review needs to cover two main points. Should you buy this game if you own King or Queen? How does this game stack up against King and Queen? Let's cover the first bit first as its quite easy. If you own King but not Queen, and love it, get this. It's brilliant and takes it on quite a few steps. If you own Queen then you probably don't need this too unless the theme really grabs you or you are a huge fan of this series of games. Origins is better, but it doesn't offer that much more than Queen. But you could always buy this and re-gift your copy of Queen to someone else? That’s my plan! Anyone want Queendomino? Great, let's get into the second part. It's way more juicy. When compared to Kingdomino, Kingdomino Origins brings the game on leaps and bounds. However, when compared with Queendomino, this is more of a re-skin. There are a few original elements, a few parts of simplified, but not enough for a new game in my opinion. I own Kingdomino Origins and Queendomino, and I think I will probably never play Queendomino again. Origins for me is the better game. But I don't want games to make other games obsolete. I want new ones to offer new things. New strategies. New options. Although, have you seen the volcanoes!? With the origins story out of the way, let's get to Origins proper. This is a great game. As a stand alone game, without considering what came before, this is a very good family game, perfect for a light filler experience, or quick mid-week game session. I love the theme, the components are fantastic, and find this a perfect game to bring to the table with new or younger players. If you have played either of the first two games before, you will know how this works. Players will take it in turns to draft one or two (based on player counts) of four available domino tiles to add to their play area. You are looking to build the most point worthy 5x5 or 7x7 region as possible. (Again, depending on player count!) Points are awarded for each different type of land, with the size of the area multiplied by the amount of fire symbols they have within it. The only real difference compared to the first two games is the fire, which has replaced the previously used crowns. Oh, and the fire can move! In Kingdomino, when you started to build a large area of one particular territory but it didn't have any crowns in it yet, there was always the threat that you could end up with a large pointless part of your game. Queendomino offered some different options here, and Origins does the same. When you place a tile with a volcano, you can then take a fire token to add to your tiles. Depending on the number of craters in the volcano, depends on the type of fire token you can take. There are single flames that can move three spaces away from the volcano tile. Double flames which can move two spaces. And triple flames that can only move one. This gives you the option to create a higher scoring area, without necessarily having the right tile. I like this addition. Thematically it makes sense. Volcanic eruptions happen right? And the strategic option to place your multiplying fire tokens where you like, rather than where the tiles are going; which are often limited, brings more choice to the game. When played in Discovery mode, the movable flames are the only real difference to Kingdomino. But like Queendomino, Origins has a few different ways to play the game. In Totem mode, each tile now comes with an bonus item. The grass lands will encourage Woolly Mammoths to come and graze. Fish appear in the water. Mushrooms in the woods and flint in the quarries. When you draft tiles, these items will come with them and stay on the tiles until the end of the game. Well, unless fire comes to burn them away. If you have the majority of any particular item, you can take the totem tile for that component. At the end of the game, the player who holds the majority will score the points on the totem. Three for the Mammoth. Four for the fish. Five for the mushroom and six for the flint. You also score one point for each component itself. This simple addition adds a new scoring opportunity to the game and makes the choices for tiles a lot more fun. It evens out the options, making everything an attractive option. I love the look and feel of the wooden components and the back and forth with the totems is a fun and very tangible way to track your progress during the game. It is not dissimilar to the Queen component in Queendomino. The final mode is the tribe mode. This removes the totems, but keeps the flint, mushroom, mammoth, and fish now as currency. Neanderthal characters are now available to be recruited for various costs. They will score you bonus points based on a variety of options. Generally by what surrounds them when placed, such as nearby components, people, or fire. This is my favourite addition. It is similar to the buildings in Queendomino. Although in Queendomino you would gain a resource when you bought most buildings as well as gain point scoring options at the end. In origins you just get the point scoring options. But I like the multiple scoring options this provides. If this was a brand new game, the first to come out of this series, I would probably score it a lot higher. For a light tile-laying point salad, there are not many better options. But this is not the case. There have been other games prior to this, and this version of the game, despite being my favorite of the three so far, does disappoint a little by not offering anything new. They have tightened up the mechanics. I am glad it was made and will keep this in my collection. But making Queendomino obsolete is a shame. It would have been fun to find a way to make them work together, either at once with different mechanics or in sequence in a campaign mode perhaps. However, to judge this game on its own merits. This is a fantastic game. It plays so smoothly. It feels like the third game in its tightness. The scoring is fun. It looks great, and is very easily teachable to all ages and abilities. I for one am glad they took this game in this direction. But would hope any further versions bring something new to the domino laying world.

Whirling Witchcraft WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Century: Spice Road, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Race for the Galaxy. Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group Designed by: Erik Andersson Sundén I have spoken a lot recently about judging a book by its cover, or not as the case may be. Whirling Witchcraft is a great example of this. When I first looked at the box art for this game, I thought this was going to be young-adult fantasy game. The art is quite striking! The game is actually a rather light take-that game suitable for all ages and a lot of fun. It offers some very interesting mechanisms and incorporates the take-that mechanic in a really innovative way. Let’s get brewing! OK, before we do that. We probably need to talk about the Quacks sized elephant in the room. It does feel a little like this game is AEG’s answer to the hugely popular push-your-luck game of potion brewing, The Quacks of Quedlinburg. Thematically there is some similarity and I understand the comparison. But Whirling Witchcraft is completely different mechanically. There is no push-your-luck in Whirling Witchcraft, but there sure are a lot of magical mixtures being concocted. It certainly seems appropriate to me to try and make a good game like Whirling Witchcraft, to be as universally attractive and deliver as high a profit return as possible. If this means using a successful theme from another game, really what is the issue? But really, what theme could you use now-a-days that wouldn't lead to someone accusing you of taking it from somewhere else? With that done, let’s talk about the game! In Whirling Witchcraft, each player is given player board, cauldron, personality card, and four recipe cards. When the game begins, players are looking to add as many of their recipe cards as possible to their tableau of completed recipes. The recipe cards allow you to take ingredients from your player board and add ingredients to your cauldron. You want to do this for a very interesting reason! All ingredients added to your cauldron are given to the player to your right, your nemesis. They must add them to their own player board. If there are any ingredients that cannot be placed on their board due to their capacity being reached then they must be handed back to you to place in a separate area on your player board, your Witches Circle. The first player to get five ingredients in this space wins the game. It takes a few turns to get your head round this mechanic. You are trying to get ingredients into your Witches Circle, by completing as many recipes as possible. In order to complete your recipes, you need available ingredients from your player board. But you cannot have too many ingredients there as you may explode when you are given extra ingredients. But you also cannot have too few as you will then not be able to complete as many recipe cards. It is a delicate balance. But this is not about pushing your luck. You don’t get to control how many ingredients you have. You are always trying to cut them down as much as possible by completing as many recipe cards as you can. There is no point in the game where you are thinking about weather you will complete one more recipe card or not. If you can, you generally always will. This is more about the efficient use of recipe cards. At the start of each new round you will be given the unused recipe cards from the player to your right. Each player will then draw back up to four recipe cards. You will then need to see how many of the recipe cards you can do this round, and most importantly, in which order you will do this. The order is important as the ingredients you have available on your player board may not allow you to complete all the cards. But in one set order, you will most probably have more opportunities than others. The recipe cards have a top and bottom section. The top section shows you the ingredients you need to add to the card in order to fulfill it. The bottom half shows what the card will produce when completed. The produced ingredients are taken from the main supply, you don’t need them, you are producing them. Anything left on the bottom half of your recipe cards at the end of this round will be added to your cauldron. As such, you want as much put on the bottom sections as possible. If you don't have the required ingredients on your player board, you can take the ingredients from the bottom section of a completed recipe card. Hence the order you activate the cards being important. You may also want to do this as you can see the player to your right to whom you are passing your cauldron to, is closer to exploding on one particular ingredient than another. You may be able to use one ingredient you have produced on one recipe card that they are doing well on, to help you produce another ingredient on a second recipe card in which they are close to maximum capacity on. You need to pay attention to how your opponents are doing throughout the game. Equally, in regards to the player to your left who is passing you their cauldron, you need to see what you think they may be passing to you come the end of the round. And in turn, try and make sure you have enough room for what they may be passing you. This juggling act is highly enjoyable when you are in the midst of it! What I have explained so far alone would make for a decent game. There is a nice race element, mixed with the development of your recipe cards to keep most players interested. This is a short game. Most experiences I have had were completed in around 20 minutes. But there are two other elements that add a nice layer to the game without any more length. The personality cards and the arcana powers. For the personality cards; the game encourages you to only add them in once you are more familiar with the overall rules, and use generic personality cards for your first game. The arcana is included in the base rules, but something I feel would be better suited as a modular expansion instead. The game still works perfectly well without it, but becomes more accessible to younger players with this removed. With the arcana included, each player is given a arcana card and three arcana tokens. On top of some of the recipe cards there are arcana symbols printed, showing you when you can activate that particular arcana power. The arcana card shows two rows of numbers going from one to six, with the odd on the left side and the even on the right. When ever you play a recipe card with an arcana symbol on, you can move the arcana token one position forward. Whenever it is on one of the even spaces you can activate its power. The Cauldron allows you to add one ingredient from the general supply directly to your cauldron. The Crow allows you to remove up to two ingredients from your player board. The Spell Book allows you to take a specific type of ingredient from the general supply to use in your recipes as many times as they need it that round. This is a little vaguely explained in the rules so caused some debates in our household! When used well these powers can significantly increase the amount of recipe cards you can fulfill, and in turn, the amount of ingredients you are passing to your neighbour. It is great addition once you have played the game once or twice, but I found it useful to remove from the game for new players, despite this not being suggested in the rule book. The card you track your magic on is a little disappointing, the tokens tend to slide about a lot and it can become tricky to keep an accurate track of your available arcana if you knock it. But the actual idea is a lot of fun. The personality cards are a nice added element to add to the game. It gives each player a slightly different set-up and some minor asymmetry to their player powers. The change from these being added does not feel as significant as the arcana, so I find it interesting these are an additional add in and the arcana isn’t. Playing Whirling Witchcraft is an enjoyable experience. My children enjoy the slightly removed take-that mechanisms deployed within this game. You are constantly trying to get your opponent’s player board to explode so you can get the necessary ingredients in your witch’s circle. But as all players are always doing this to each other in a circle around the table, it does not feel cruel. It’s not like when you play a card in a typical take-that game, and have a choice who to play it against. In Whirling Witchcraft, you can only ever do this to the player to your right. And all players are always doing it. It’s not a choice of action, nor is it a choice of whom you do it to. You still get the fun that comes from take-that, but none of the meanness or sense of having to pick on someone. For this interesting use of take-that, I feel this game must be highly rated. It offers something unique for me, whilst delivering an engaging and enjoyable experience suitable for all ages. I would like to see some pimped-up components for the ingredients over the standard coloured cubes, and perhaps a duel layered board to sit the cubes in. But the fact I am thinking about upgrading this game already does suggest it will get a lot of plays from me!

Juicy Fruits WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Viticulture, Takenoko, Bohnanza. Published by: Deep Print Games, 999 Games, Capstone Games Designed by: Christian Stöhr I'm going to cut to the chase. Juicy Fruits is a fantastic game. In this review, I would like to explain why I think so highly of this game. I would also like to explore why I think they chose such a light, fun theme. Oh, and have you seen the size of those chunky fruit components?! Appearances can be misleading. At first, this game looks like a simple family game. The bright art. The childish name. The fruity theme! One would be forgiven for dismissing this game as a light game only suitable for your children. But once set up, you may quickly change your mind and go too far and think this now looks too complicated for your kids to play! Just look at all this stuff set up for a two-player game! And it's not even all in shot. But get beyond all the 'bits,' and the mechanics and turn structure of the game really are very simple. Move your fruit picking tile. Then do something with your collected fruit. This could either be fulfill an order from one of the ships on your board, or buy a tile from the main board. Lets look into these options in a little more detail. On your board at the start of the game, you will be presented with an island surrounded by 12 ships. Each ship has a specific requirement to send it packing, and in turn, collect the available points from this vessel. You will also have five different fruit collecting tokens. One for each of the fruits in this game. On your turn, you can first move one of these fruit tokens to collect that specific fruit. For every space you move the token, you can take one fruit. At the start, you will only be able to move each token one space, but this quickly changes as you clear ships from your board creating more space. As you take turns moving these tokens and collecting fruit, you will slowly increase your stores of collected fruit, and instead of completing a ship order, you can look to go to the market. On the main board there will be a variety of business tokens available for purchase. These range from advanced fruit collecting tokens that allow you to collect multiple fruits with one tile at increased efficiencies, to ice cream carts, and buildings that offer bonus points. Each building has a cost based on the row it sits on, which is randomly determined at the start of the game. But also delivers instant points, again based on the row, and the added benefit each token brings. Some offer just points, or fruit picking upgrades, but the spit colored tiles offer an interesting choice. There are a lot of points up for grabs with these, 12, 15, and 18 per token depending on which ones are in the game. But they require a large 4x4 tile to be placed permanently on your board, blocking movement for your fruit picking for the remainder of the game. The Ice Cream cart tokens allow you start fulfilling ice cream orders. Once bought and added to your island, when you move the ice cream cart (instead of one of your fruit picking tokens) you can exchange previously acquired fruits for different ice cream orders. At the bottom of the main point, ice cream order tokens will be available ranging from eight points up to 16. This is a great way to increase your overall point total, but also control the end of the game. On the far right of the main board, a time track will countdown the end of the game. Each time a pile of ice cream orders is exhausted or a building is bought, the time token moves down one spot. When this reaches the end, that signals the final round. Players could happily all work towards their ship orders without any danger of the game ending. But as soon as someone starts buying from the business board, not only is the end-game timer started, so too does your considering need to be switched as the good business tokens will start disappearing. Playing Juicy Fruits is so much fun. There is constant progression being made. You are constantly feeling like you are making progress, advancing your own score and developing your fruit picking powers. Turns are quick, and will move round the table fast, even in a four-player game. The game does not feel frantic, but it certainly keeps your interest throughout. Players are all farming on their own boards, but the business board is open to all. It could be that a specific business token you are working towards goes to another player before you get a chance to acquire it yourself, especially in a three and four player game. But there are always good options available. The only thing you really don't want to miss out on is an Ice Cream cart if there are less of them than players. Although it is possible to score well and win without an ice cream truck, it is rare from what I have experienced. On the reverse of the score track is an advanced variant. It adds a third step to each players turn. Once you have collected fruits and either served a ship order or bought a business token, players will then turn their attention to the Juice Factory. Each player will have two of their colored discs at the starting position, and on their turn, can advance one or both discs one arrow space each. Some moments are free, others require fruit payments. There are multiple points to be awarded as you move along. Any spots occupied by a disc are blocked off to all other players, so this adds a bit of a race game as the final two spots offering eight and four points, will be blocked by by the first two discs that reach there. The Juice Factory is a nice addition to add to the game after a few plays for some variation and a small increase in strategy. It does not add much more to the game in terms of length or complexity. Just choices. You will find you will fulfill a few less ship orders, and perhaps buy a few less business token as you use your fruit elsewhere. But I enjoy the small added element of strategic thinking required. Juicy Fruits is a light game. There is no doubt of that. But it moves fast enough, and has enough choices that anyone can have some fun with this game. You cannot take it too seriously or expect this be anything it isn't. Those with whom I have played this with have all come into the game thinking it is a very light game. But they all come out saying it felt like it actually had some decent choices and strategy. I am conscious I don't do the opposite here and pitch Juicy Fruits as being a medium weight game. It is not that! I would like to encourage you to pitch it to your friends and family as a light game so they can find their own little strategies in it themselves! I think this is why the game chose this theme, name, and box art. They want this game to be seen as a light game. And then surprise and delight those who scratch below the surface. The headline with this game has to be these brightly colored, chunky fruit components. Each fruit is uniquely shaped so those who suffer with colour blindness will be able to determine them all apart. They feel great in your hands, and will reward you with an aesthetically educed rush of adrenaline every time you get one! Juicy Fruits is a firm family favorite in my house hold. It plays quickly, my children (6 and 8) love it, and both my wife and I will get something from playing too. I love the look and feel to the entire production, and will enjoy this for many years to come.