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Mars Expedition: Sol 43 WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-2 You’ll like this if you like: Solving increasingly difficult logic puzzles Published by: Queensell This is a free review copy of the game. See our review policy here . This game looks just like any other game. And it has components just like any other game, but it plays very differently. This, as it says on the box, is a logic game. And if you think that is a small subtle difference to a usual board or card game, then fair enough. But I would say it sets it apart in a significant way. And I would go as far as to say that if you like logic puzzles, then you will love this. Adore it even. But if you are not a fan of logic puzzles, this will not be for you. The game will draw you in with its theme and components, but the gameplay may frustrate or even disappoint. But for fans of logic puzzles, this may well become one of your favourite games. I for one am addicted. So, with that said, let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Mars Expedition: Sol 43 Logic Game There are 43 unique missions in this game. For your first experience, it is strongly recommended to start with Sol 1 and work your way up from there. It will not only teach you the game in manageable bites, but it will also ramp up the difficulty in a way that you will become a master at this game, rather than become frustrated at the harder levels without having the necessary experience to solve them. That said, if you have played this game a lot, feel free to take aby level to start with or play as a one-off mission. Place your chosen Sol card face up in front of you next to the main game board. The card will show the components used in this mission, and the positioning for them on the main board. You can decipher this simply by looking at the symbols on the left and top of the main board. For example, in the below mission, Sol 4, you have a Base, Drone, and eight rocks. The Base is positioned on the row showing the Triangle, in the column with the shape half filled on the left hand side. Make sense? Let's do one more. The Drone starts on the second to bottom row on the second to last column, again, matching the symbol shown on the Sol 4 card. once you get a hang of this, set up for each level is very simple, and they all work like this. There will just be extra components in the later rounds. Mountains, Tornados, Gravitational Anomalies, Minerlas. All sorts. Place all the necessary pieces out on the board and add either one or two Drones to the starting location depending on if you are playing single or two player. In solo, you are now ready to play. In a two-player game, you now must now shuffle the deck of cards and deal five to each player. Place the remaining cards face down in a pile next to the wind dice. You are now ready to play. How To Play Mars Expedition: Sol 43 Logic Game The game mostly works the same in solo or two-player mode, except that in a solo game, you are racing against the clock in terms of how many turns you can have. On the back of the setup card for the solo game you are playing, it will show the mission and how many turns you must achieve this mission in. In a two-player game, you still need to complete this mission, but turn numbers are not irrelevant; it is simply a race between the two players to see who can complete it first and gain the most points in doing so. Missions range from simply getting back to base, as seen in the early Sols, to collecting minerals and substances, photographing specific locations, and navigating various weather and gravitational phenomena. Players will take turns, with the white drone always moving first, to move their drone in order to complete the missions. In solo mode, simply move the drone until you either complete the mission or run out of turns. The drone always moves in the same S shape: one forward, one to the right or left, and one forward again. You can do this in any way you like, moving in any direction, but it must always be done in the S shape. As the missions advance, you will encounter new rules, components, and factors that affect your movement and goals. I do not want to spoil it here as I think a big part of this game is experiencing that for yourself. But I will go as far as to say that certain things will move your drone for you as you advance the levels, and you need to really think carefully about how and where you move to complete the mission in the best way. This is a logic puzzle after all. In a two-player game, the first player back to base scores one point. There are also points for collecting various artefacts, taking pictures, and taking the shortest flight during the game. You can track this by keeping a logbook, monitoring your moves. This is not essential, but key if you want to score like this in a two-player game and cannot keep count in your head. You can play a single mission or a series, the complete set. As you get to the later levels, separate secondary boards are used to show close-up details of specific areas where your movement has new rules. All simply explained when you get there; again, I do not want to spoil that here. Is It Fun? Mars Expedition: Sol 43 Logic Game This is incredibly easy to review. If you like logic games, buy this. I think you will adore it. The theme is great fun and is used in a very clever and scientific way. The components all look great, and the development of the levels is perfect. They ramp up in difficulty in the perfect way, adding new things at the right time to keep things interesting and moving at the right pace. I adore the single-player mode that works just so well, and find the two-player game to be completely different, with obviously a lot more player interaction as you mess around with each other's plans. It makes for a very different experience. One that I personally do not like as much, as I want to focus on the most logical way through each level, and being messed around with is just frustrating! But it is fun, you just need to go into it with the right attitude. If you do not like logic puzzles, this may come across as too similar level after level, and not inspiring enough to keep you coming back for more. But if that is the case, why did you buy a game with logic puzzle written on the front? But joking aside, I can see why this game would appeal to those of you who do not like games like this, the cover art is fantastic and it has a very intriguing theme. But do not look past the simple fact that this is a logic puzzle first and foremost. I have very much enjoyed going through the SOL's one by one in single player. I have played only ten levels in two-player mode. In two-player, I would give this a 6. It is just too frustrating a game to play with people making you skip turns or moving their own Drone in a way you did not expect. It is very clever and works very well. It is just not for me. But I can see others enjoying that a lot. In solo mode, I adore this and have found great peace and solitude in working my way through the levels one by one. It is incredibly satisfying to get right and noodle your way through. I feel engaged as I play and smart and gratified when I complete a mission. Failing is fine. Set up and go again. And setup is a breeze once you get the hang of reading the symbols, which takes maybe one or two quick games. It is very intuitive. As such, this is a simple recommendation. If you like logic puzzles and this theme interests you, buy this. If you don't, maybe this is not for you. I, for one, adore it.

Order here - Tales Of Tails WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Cute animal themed push-your-luck games Published by:   Hobby World Designed by:   Denis Saidashev This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . When I look at the box art for this game, I get a real sense of the brilliant 80s children's cartoon, Dungeons & Dragons . And I loved that show! So, I was keen to try this game, simply from the box art. I knew it would have nothing to do with the show, but nostalgia is a powerful tool. Tales Of Tails is less about 80's cartoons though, and more about Dogs finding gold in a spiralling maze! Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Tales Of Tails Each player takes one of the Doggo player boards along with seven matching Paw tokens and places it in front of them. Each character has its own unique skill, so be sure to check that as you make your choice. Five tokens are placed on the board directly, whereas two are left off to the side. You may be able to get these later in the game. Next, shuffle the Quest cards and deal two to each player, placing the remaining cards back into the box. Each player will choose one of these Quest cards to keep as their own personal Quest, placing this face down in their play area. Keep that a secret! The second card is placed face up in the middle for all to see and is now a common Quests, open to all players. Now, find the starting heart-shaped room card—set to the appropriate player count—and place it in the centre of the play area. You can use the two-player side for higher player counts if you want a more challenging game. Next, stack three round tokens onto this card with round three on the bottom and round one on the top. Shuffle the remaining room tiles and form a face-down deck. Shuffle all Potion cards into a separate face-down deck, dealing each player one card from the top. Players will place this Potion card next to their player board face up for all to see. Give the first player token to the last player to pet a dog, and you are now ready to begin. How To Play Tales Of Tails Players will now take turns to do one of three actions across the three rounds. The first action is to explore the dungeon. Here, you will simply draw the top card and place it onto any open space in the dungeon you choose. The only rule is you must connect at least one path from this new tile. You can rotate it however you see fit and place it next to any other previously placed tile. The second option is to escape the dungeon. Here, you simply need to plot a route from the starting point to any exit. An exit is a way out of any tile that has no other tile next to it. You can move through as many tiles as you wish, but if you encounter a trap or monster, you need to be able to defeat or survive this encounter. This is done by having the correct symbols on your player board or any previously attained cards that match the amount needed as shown on the card you are currently encountering. If you do not have the necessary symbols, you can still get through traps and monsters, you just cannot take the card after the round to gain the benefit from the monster cards, and will take a forfeit from any traps that were not disarmed. Any card you activate, be that a defeated monster, a trap you have not disarmed, a room with a coin, potion, or artefact you want to collect, a treasure chest you can collect (with a key collected previously), a portal you use, or a Stray Raccoon you want to recruit, simply place one of your paw prints onto this room. Trace your route to an available exit, and that is the end of you turns this round. The final option available to players is to take a nap. This is what you will do if there is no available route of the dungeon for you, be that because the monsters are all too strong and you cannot defeat them, or survive an encounter with them, or you would simply prefer to gain an extra paw print. Taking a nap ends your action this round; you will not gain any benefits from any rooms, but you will move one of the two paw prints you placed next to your player mat during setup onto your mat, so you have an extra one for any subsequent rounds. When the first player escapes the dungeon, the remaining players will then take four, eight, or twelve cards from the top of the deck, depending on if there are one, two, or three other players remaining in the dungeon. These players will then only be able to draw from the reduced deck to explore the dungeon for the rest of this round. They need to plan and find a route to escape before this deck runs out, or otherwise, take a nap. At the end of the round, all players will take the cards with their paw prints on and gather them up. They will score any rooms with coins on at the end of the game, subtracting any traps that were not disarmed, and gaining any defeated monsters and recruiting raccoons, slipping them under the left side of their player board so the symbols showing the additional fighting power are only now visible. You will do the same with any keys gathered, slipping them under the right side of your board. You will now be strong to fight your way through the dungeon in any subsequent rounds. Take off the top round tracker from the central tile and start again with another round. Do this three times and then at the end of the game, players will total their coins, and the player with the most gold collected wins the game. Ties are broken by the number of monsters defeated. Remember to total any coins gathered from completed quests, be that your own personal quest, or any shared common one. Is It Fun? Tales Of Tails Card Game Review This game comes very close to excellent. As it is, it is good, but there are a two main things that hold it back a little. Let's go through them to see if this is for you or not. First, the number of tiles you will put down in the first round that you cannot really encounter can be frustrating. There will be monsters that are too powerful, treasure chests that need keys you do not have, doors you cannot get through, and traps you cannot disarm. It can be annoying to see all this opportunity that is unavailable to you. As such, you will find you take a fairly simple route through the dungeon, as long as there is one, and will not build your engine much at all. This then means the next round could well be the same. You really do need to try and defeat a monster or two as quickly as possible in order to level up so you can take on more monsters and harder foes later on to gain the bigger rewards. In three rounds, this is tough to do. I do wonder if this should have been five rounds instead. The game over the rounds is lovely and quick, finished within 15-30 minutes depending on player count; so I think another couple of rounds would have been fine. And it would allow you to build up your powers so you can have that big meaty round you really need in this game to make the rest of it worth it. There can be a lot of tile placement and dungeon exploring without the payoff in some games. Second, this is very much a push-your-luck game along with tile placement and dungeon crawling. Often, a perfect route will be available to you, but if another player escapes the dungeon first, this route is now blocked to you. You cannot pass through a room that has another player's paw print on it. If the other direction has a Dragon you simply cannot take on, or a trap you cannot disarm, this can be frustrating. And it leads to players jumping ship quickly and taking the sometimes only suitable route very early. This, compounded with the above point, makes the game quicker, engine building even harder, and the chance to develop interesting routes out of the dungeon even more difficult. Outside of that, this game is a lot of fun. As mentioned, it plays very quickly. Turns are rapid: draw a tile, place it somewhere. The sense of trepidation as you build routes that may or may not be for you, and waiting to see if other players take them before you have the chance to do so yourself, is genuinely exhilarating. But also, as mentioned above, it's frustrating when it does not pay off for you. There is a fine line in push-your-luck games like this, when the thing you are pushing your luck against is other players, and not the game itself. It is fine to lose out on something to the game, but to lose out to other players can be annoying, and does create runaway leaders sometimes in this game. If one player takes the only available route that gains them coins and power-ups, and other players have to take either weaker routes or perhaps even take a nap, this then means in later rounds, that first player really does have a big advantage to simply further their lead. I like the idea that when someone is out, the game then has a clock attached to it, with a limited amount of cards available to the remaining players to explore. This stops the game dragging and the player who escaped sitting there for ages waiting. But it does also mean the dungeon size is controlled largely by one player, the first one to leave. And the others have to go along with basically whatever is left. I think it would have made more sense to remove this rule, let other players build as they like so that the first player to go is less likely to do so as quickly as they know the other players then have an advantage to build for as long as they wish. There is still the advantage to go first by having first choice of route, but then it does not cause all the other issues mentioned. Perhaps there could be a bonus to the first player out, so there is still some incentive to get out, and not just take it in turn to build a huge dungeon. Limiting the number of cards to the other players when the first player leaves is a real issue for me. That said, this game is still fun. It is very light and quick, and will appeal to younger players from the art, theme, and simple gameplay. But I find for myself, playing with my children, it can be frustrating, as I see a game that could well be an 8 or even higher, limited by a few issues that just don't make sense to me. I still enjoy playing and look forward to playing the game more. It is so quick to set up and play, and teaching new players is a breeze. It does have a lot of appeal. The rule book is not the clearest, though, so I hope the basic rules add some clarity for some. But again, this layout, perhaps delivered from a language translation, does cause some issues for me, along with the above points, about exactly who this game is aimed at. It is a little too hard for a proper family game, but the art, theme, simplicity, and game length suggest it is more aimed at a younger audience. It is perhaps simply a filler for gamers who want a quick dungeon crawl game with elements of engine building, push-your-luck, and tile placement. And you either need to go into it with the above understanding or one or two house rules to overcome this.

Dream Catcher WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Dixit, but you want a change. Published by: Magellan Designed by:   Mihail Rozanov This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Dream Catcher is an intriguing game. The concept is essentially Dixit , but with a touch element. As such, it is hard to review fairly. If Dixit did not exist, this could well be a 9 or 10 out of 10 game. But Dixit does exist. And this is just a variation of it, and we must take that into consideration. That said, the game itself still offers something quite unique. It is just based upon something that already exists. I will try to take all of this into account within this review. So, let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Dream Catcher Place the nine cloud tokens onto the table face down with the dark side facing up. Next to this, place the four circular choice tokens, and the large Dream Catcher token. Now, shuffle both decks and place the Dream cards face down next to the Touching cards in a separate deck. Deal four Dream cards to the first player (known as the Lead player) and five Touching cards. You are now ready to play. The lead player will study their cards and choose one Dream card to pick. They are looking for a Dream card that somehow links to at least one, but preferably more, of their Touching cards. Now, the lead player will randomly place their four Dream cards face up on the table for all to see. They will take the four Choice tokens and place them under the cards, being sure to place them face down, and the token with the star on underneath the chosen card. They will now hand over their chosen Touch cards to the other players. They must choose at least two, but can use all five if they wish. The lead player decides which players get which Touch cards. Each player who received a Touch card now studies their Touch card, without looking. Running their finger over the raised lines on the reverse of the card, to try and identify in their mind's eye what is on the Touch card. They all show simple objects or symbols. As hard as it feels to begin with, they are all achievable. Players can discuss out loud with their fellow teammates what they are feeling. They must be sure they do not look at the card themselves, or show it to any of the other players. The Lead player must remain silent at this point. As players start to think they have deciphered what is on their Touch cards, they then need to try and link that image to one of the four Dream cards. Which Dream card was the Lead player trying to make them think of with the Touch cards they chose? The Dream cards show a complex image with mixture of people, objects, and places. Similar to cards as seen in Dixit. When the group has made a decision, they will place the Dream catcher token on the chosen card. The Lead player then flips the Card choice tokens over to reveal which card had the star underneath. If the players chose correctly, you can flip over one of the nine cloud tokens to reveal a star. One point for the end of the game. If they chose incorrectly, remove one of the nine cloud tokens. The player sitting clockwise next to the Lead player now becomes the new Lead player, and they begin the next round. The game continues until all cloud tokens are either flipped or removed. The players then score as a team based on their stars on the cloud tokens. Seven or above is the top score. One to three is the lowest. Four to six is the middle ranking. The rulebook offers some flavour text for each grade. Is It Fun? Dream Catcher Party Game Review If you have not played Dixit or similar games, this will feel revolutionary. If you have played those games, then this will be a little gimmicky; clever - but potentially limited in terms of its replayability. This is down to the number of Touch cards. There are 83 in total. And after five games, we have started to see a fair few of these cards repeat themselves. Players are now able to guess what they are, based not just on what they touch, but what they remember from other games. Meta knowledge plays a huge part in how easy this game can become, which is a bad thing. The satisfaction in those early games of deciphering an octopus shape and then seeing something similar in a card after five minutes of blind panic and confusion is wildly satisfying, though. I just worry that this revolutionary feeling is limited to the number of cards in the game. Like Dixit, which has benefited from numerous expansions, this game would be considerably improved by more Touch cards. Or, being able to create your own would be even better. Some mechanic where you can draw your own shape, not too complex that it cannot be worked out, but specific enough to find the correct card. Perhaps in a time limit. I am unsure how this would work. How could you create a component that lets you make your own 3D touch cards? I have no idea. But that would make this game a lot better. A unique and new Touch card each time would make this game amazing. That said, as is, even with the limited Touch cards, and the strong leaning on the giant that is Dixit, this game is still a lot of fun. I own Dixit and will keep this game in my collection as it offers something different and unique, and I could see it coming out after games of Dixit to offer my friends that next surprise. If Dixit has landed, I can see myself saying as I place this down, "OK, now try it with just touch rather than words!" That appeals to me greatly. There are also chunkier shapes such as the ones below. Unlike the more simple line drawings, which are all a lot easier to decipher, these thicker shapes, with chunkier parts, are more complex and take longer to work out. Although, sadly, they are also the easier ones to remember on repeat plays. As such, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Dixit but wants something a little different. If you do not enjoy games like Dixit, this will probably just frustrate you even more. But fans of those games will find something that is trying to push the boundaries of this style of party game, and on this occasion, I think it has landed very much on the side of fun!

Kavango WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Card games with interesting layers and scoring. Published by: Mazaza Games Designed by:   Matt Brown , Zara Reid This is a free review copy of the Delux version. See our review policy here . I previously previewed this game here . But I wanted to write a full review as well because this game is good. It is very good. But I saw a very strange review on The Dice Tower where it was rated a 4, 5, and 7 out of 10 from the three reviewers there. Which to me was very interesting. I simply do not agree with their criticism. But I felt I perhaps may be a little biased. I met the designers a few times at various conventions over the years and thought they were delightful people. They gave me a copy of the preview version of the game to test, and have since sent me a full final version. I was concerned I was defending them from this criticism simply because I liked the designers. Usually, I like to get my reviews out as quickly as possible. I don't like to create a backlog of reviews. That stresses me out. And as I typically play new games five or more times over one week, I feel I can get a good feel for them within a short period of time and my reviews out within the first month of receiving them. But for Kavango, despite thinking like this, I wanted to pause. Give myself a few months. And see if, after time, I still felt how I originally did. My first score for this game on BGG was a nine. Would I still feel the same way after months of play and many different games of this in many different scenarios. I have tried all play counts. With gamers and with non-gamers. With people who love heavier games like Ark Nova, and with those who prefer lighter experiences and were initially intimidated by this. I feel that now, after time, I can review this game as fairly as possible. I am sure I still have some bias, but the games I don't like that come from the designers I do, I simply just don't really talk about. I send them back with reasons for why they don't work for me. This game however, has seen may repeat plays. There is a reason for that. So, with that said, let's get this to the table and see what we can gain from the Dice Tower review. But first, how does it play? How To Set Up Kavango Each player takes a landscape board and places it in front of them along with the matching Protection board, which you can place above this board to the right side. You will need space on the left for cards. Then place the main board into the play area so that all players can reach it. Place the bank of coloured cubes and card trays alongside this. Now, all players take the matching animeeple and completion tokens matching their colour and add their animeeple to the zero space on the score tracker, and their tokens next to their player board. Then, each player takes one, two, or three cubes from the bank matching their colour, depending on if players want to start with an easy, intermediate, or expert difficulty rating for the game. I recommend taking three for your first few games. It's a lot more fun to be able to do things! Next, shuffle the goal cards and deal one to each player. You can remove these for a simpler game, but I think they add minimal complexity and give some nice direction for each player. Give each player one Conservation expert card as well; this will give each player a unique power to help them in the game. Explanations for all cards can be found in the rule book, but they are mostly self-explanatory. Next, deal out two C cards for each player, and draft one at a time until all players have two cards. These are added to each player's Sanctuary on their player board on the right-hand side. These cards can be added to each player's main board later if they meet the requirements for these cards. Like the goal cards, they simply give each player some direction in the early game. Now, set up the cards for round one. The process for this is shown on the player aids and card tray itself. Deal out three Action cards, two for a three to five player game, and six A cards and six B Cards. Five of each in a three to five player game. These 12 or 15 cards are dealt to each player. Finally, deal four research cards into the central board, face up so all players can see them. You are now ready to play. How To Play Kavango Play now proceeds through three rounds, starting with a draft phase. All players will look at the cards and pick one to play immediately. If the card they chose was an Animal, this will be placed directly into any space on their player board. This is the main way to score points in the game. But you can only add animals if you meet their criteria. This is broken down into two main areas. Each animal will have a minimum protection level required in order to be safely housed in your sanctuary, along with specific food requirements. There are three protection criteria, Habitat and Poaching, as shown on your own Protection board that each player controls for themselves; and Climate, which is a shared level seen on the main board. During the next phase, players can add cubes they have to either one of these three trackers, filling them in from left to right. There are four levels for each, and you need to fill the complete section for each one in order to meet that levels requirements. The Climate protection is a shared tracker that all players can contribute too. Players are encouraged to all work together on this tracker with a reward of 10 points at the end of the game if they added at least eight cubes to it. Climate is everyone's problem after all! Each animal also has specific food requirements, shown by various symbols. You will need to have the same or more of these symbols in your sanctuary already, either on other animal cards previously placed, or in your tucked producer cards (more on that soon) in order to add new animal cards into your sanctuary. For example, this Honey Badger requires level two or higher Poaching, and at least one Bee, one Small Mammal, and two Invertebrates. If you have a Water Snake and one other Invertebrate, this Pygmy Mouse, and one Bee for example in your play area already, you could add the Honey Badger from your hand to your player board in any position for free. If the card you add from your hand is a Producer, you will add this into the appropriate column, tucked under your player board in the top right. Producers are seen in the A cards only, and are identified by the Producer symbols on the top left of the card, instead of showing a points amount, and the simpler art without the text. Producer cards do not get you points like animals, but they allow you to build up your engine so you have the right things needed by other Animals cards that you will be able to successfully place later. There are a limited amount of each Producer type, and gaining the right ones in round one will be crucial to your success. The third thing you can do with cards is to simply discard them. This can be done with previously played cards in your Sanctuary as well, although this should be a last resort! Each discarded card will gain you one cube. Each cube is worth one million. Cubes can be used to advance levels in the three protection levels or by purchasing rewilding cards. Rewilding cards cost $4m can be bought on the next phase, and can act as any of the Producer cards. Critical if you do not gain the Producers you need in round one. The final thing you can do with cards is play them as action cards. There are only a few in each round, and any action cards must be played immediately before being discarded. Action cards give you various powers, such as the below cards which allow you to swap an animal in your sanctuary with one from another player's board, gain $2m from the bank to spend on climate protection and gain a point, or gain a rewilding card for free. Pretty valuable when you consider they are usually worth $4m! When all players have chosen and played their cards, they can then decide if they want to complete any of the four research cards drawn for that round. There are three different levels for each research card, and the further up the levels you go, the more money and points you can claim. You can only claim each research card once though. So, you must decide if you want to do it early in order to gain much-needed money to help you advance further in that round with other goals, or do you wait until you have reached a higher level to be rewarded with higher riches later on? Place a completion token on any research card you want to complete now, and then take your money and points as shown by that level on that card. With any money you have, this is the phase of the game where you can now advance your various protection levels and/or buy rewilding cards. When all players have done this, players pass all remaining cards clockwise to the next player. The round continues with players taking one card from this new set of cards, playing that card, and then deciding if they want to complete any research cards and invest in any protection levels once more. Continue like this until all players have played ten turns. Any remaining cards are simply discarded. After the round ends, players will complete any additional research cards they have left that they can now complete, and then four new research cards will be added for the next round. The next round's cards will be dealt to each player, with round two seeing the number of A and B cards reduced to three cards each, and six C cards added for one to two players, and five added for three to five. In round three, you simply have 12 or ten C cards (based on player count) along with the usual three or two Action cards (again based on player count). At the end of the game, players will score points for all animals in their play area, plus ten points for meeting the criteria of three different conservation awards. The first is for adding eight or more cubes to the shared Climate protection. The second is for having at least one of the eleven different types of species in your play area, and the third is for reaching level four on both your own personal Poaching and Habitat protection levels. Players will also score points based on their own private goal cards, and any final research cards from round three. The most points wins. Is It Fun? Kavango Board Game Review I adore this game. I find the simplicity in rules and mechanics incredibly refreshing. The game looks like it will plays like something far more complex and it gives you the satisfaction and personal reward of playing a much heavier game, but it does so in a light and relaxing experience. The card play is so rewarding. Choosing which Producers to go for, to match with the Animal cards you want to get is highly satisfying and an interesting process to go through. But this all happens within a drafting game, where of course, you will not always get all the cards you want. If you see more than one card you "must" have in your first hand, it is obviously unlikely you will get the second, so which one do you go for? Choices like this are fascinating to me. But there are always ways to recover from any card losses, with the rewilding cards being a huge blessing when needed. And if you miss out on something juicy in one hand, there are always more coming your way in the others. I think the game looks and feels incredible too. The production levels are fantastic, and the art is simply stunning. Everything about this game screams quality to me, and I simply adore it. Everyone I have played it with has enjoyed the experience too. Some have said it was a lot lighter than they thought, but this was a good thing. And of course, thinking a game is heavier than it is based on the number of components and size of the box but then finding out it is a lot simpler for me is a good thing. But players do need to have their expectations managed. And it must be said, the size and weight of this box, and number of components, do create a feeling this is a medium to heavyweight game, when it is in fact rated a 2.28 on BGG, and I would say even that is a little high. This is very much a medium to lightweight game at most. So, set your expectations accordingly. But, it still gives you a wonderful feeling of playing a game full of meaningful decisions, interesting card play, rewarding scoring, and challenging interactions with other players. So, what about those Dice Tower criticisms? Well, let's get to them all, one by one. For the record, this was reviewed by Wendy, Camila and Zee. I tend to agree with Wendy and Zee on most things. Camila, I have often found I disagree with a lot of her opinions. We obviously have different tastes. First, they talked about the focus being too much on the goals. For me, the main area to concentrate on is the animal cards. You will want to do well in the goals, but you do that by finding the right animal cards. The goals add a level of focus for each round, with the opportunity to gain money throughout or big points at the end. This choice is a wonderful addition to the game to keep your money coming in if you need it, or a big points reward at the end if you can get to the final goal. Second, they talked about turn order issues. The only time turn order comes into affect in any kind of significant way is when you play an Action card at the same time as another player, and even this has minimal impact on the game. There is an element of importance to turn order in terms of which card you take from your hand, as you always get first choice from the hand you are dealt, but so does every other player with every other hand. But they also suggest issues around the shared Climate goal, that I will come to shortly. They talk about liking the passion behind the project, and they say this can be clearly seen. I agree. But they say they think the game is too long for the simplicity of it. I would agree for game one. But play this again and you will fly through it. There are only three rounds, and each round you draft one card and play it. I have played three-player games of this in 40 minutes. This criticism screams of a reviewer who has played the game once or twice. The game is very light but can take a while to play for your first game. But after that first learning game I believe the weight to length is on point. They also say the player boards are too big, and you can simply stack the cards instead. This is true. Stacking would be a disappointing way to play the game, it would take away a lot of the theme and delight from the artwork. But the boards are too big; this is a table hog, and they perhaps could be designed better. They talk about the theme not coming through, and how it simply disappears when you play and that you are just matching symbols. I could not disagree with this more. Of course, that is what you are doing, but I struggle to see how most people would not name each card based on what it is, and at least glance at the artwork, and think about what each card needs based on what it is, rather than simply the icons on the left of the card. I suppose this is down to your own play style. But it does seem unlikely to affect most players in this manner. But then the reviewers on the Dice Tower do go on to say the irrelevance around the placement of the animals on their board affects this lack of theme. I agree here, the lack of relevance to where you place the cards is disappointing. I would like for additional scoring to be made available based on specific groupings or placements on the board. But you can place cards anywhere on your board and this does not affect anything. I disagree this makes the game theme-less, but it does remove some additional scoring layers that could have made the game more interesting. The main criticism though seem to be around the simultaneous nature of the game, where players draft and play cards all at once. This links back to the earlier turn-order issue. They say players can all contribute money to the shared climate protection level in different orders which is a problem. They say if it is simultaneous, it all should be played this way, or not at all. I am unsure quite what they are saying here, as players all play at once in the choose card and play card phase, then in the complete research and invest phase, you can decide here if you want to place money into the shared climate goal or not. They say players will simply wait to see if other players do this first. Sure, you can do this. But there are ten points up for grabs if you add at least eight, and other players may not have cards that need higher Climate levels. If you do, then you need to add cubes there. If it helps other players, then so be it, but you will get ten points for doing so if you place enough, and you can now place your cards that require this level. There is no way you can reach the higher levels alone, so you need to assess if other players are looking at cards with higher Climate levels or not, perhaps even talk it through if you want. Or look at the C cards they were given during set up. It is all part of the strategy. It is the only area of the game where there is some cooperation, so it does stick out, but in a good way. I don't think games have to be 100% one thing. I like a mix of cooperation within what is otherwise a competitive game. It also develops the theme that all players have their own poaching and habitat levels to worry about, as would any landowner or country looking to protect their animals. But climate is a shared concern for all humans. This is very thematic, and I think they completely missed the point here. Feeling like you don't want to do something that you need to do to place a card you want to place, just in case it may help someone else, is incredibly petty in what is a light, quick, fun card game. Personally, I like helping people in real life and in board games too. Positive player interaction is a good thing in my opinion. It never bothers me. They talk about the player powers in the Conservation cards not being balanced, and this is true. Some are way more powerful than others. I have added a small house rule to address this by sorting the cards into categories and each player taking a card from one category per game, rather than simply being handed any at random. So they are right about this point, as I should not have had to do this. I tend to avoid house rules. But this is necessary in the game to add more balance. If you want a heavy or a light game that either plays over two hours or under 30 minutes, you will be disappointed. But if you are looking for a clever card game that hits the light to medium weight sweet spot in the middle of this, playing under an hour (quicker with more experienced players) that offers interesting choices and clever scoring, this could well be for you. In my preview, I suggested this is Ark Nova lite. That may be a bit of a stretch in retrospect, but I stand by the sentiment. It is perhaps though more Ark Nova very lite!

Buy Here - Wingspan WBG Score: 8 Player Count:1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Everdell , Lost Ruins of Arnak , Furnace . Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Elizabeth Hargrave This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . I cannot imagine there are many people within the hobby who have not heard of Wingspan by now. Card Game of the Year 2020. Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner in 2019. Swiss Gamers Award Winner in 2019. Wingspan certainly is one of the big hitters of the modern era. But, if you are new to the hobby, somehow missed this one, or are just interested in how WBG sees this mighty game, then read on. I hope to have a fresh take for you. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Wingspan Board Game I won't go into the full set up in this review. There is a great video here if you want the full 'Rodney' details. Suffice it to say, the game comes with a lot of components that make setting up this game a lot easier, such as the card tray, which holds everything neatly when in the box and then displays three cards beautifully when set up. The trays the food tokens come in are equally useful for both storage and setup. Place all these out now around the table. In the box, there is also a bird feeder dice tower. This looks stunning, is easily assembled for your first play, and fits back into the box fully made, so you won't have to dismantle and remake it each time. Place this out now with the dice in it and give each player a board and cubes of their chosen color. How To Play Wingspan Board Game Again, I won't go into the full rules here. The video above will do a better job of that. But I will cover the basics to give you a flavour. On your turn, you will be able to do one of four actions. You will do this by placing one of your coloured cubes on your board. This will also show you how many turns you have left. The first option you can choose is to play a bird card from your hand onto your board, paying the appropriate food and egg cost shown on the card you are placing and the column you are placing it into. Then lay the card into the best-suited environment on your board. If the bird has an immediate effect, you can use this now. The second option is to gain food, gaining the symbols on the leftmost uncovered slot in the top woodland area on your board. Generally, here you can choose the food shown on one of the dice. The food is used to feed the birds when you place them in the above first option. The bird cards, when placed, will make later turns in each row more powerful. The order you do everything is crucial. Sometimes this game literally is chicken and egg. The third option is to gain eggs. The fourth is to draw new bird cards. Again, you will spend a cube and take the amount of eggs or cards as shown on the leftmost available space on your player board. The more birds placed on your board, the more powerful your subsequent turns become. When placing birds, you can also activate any birds in that row that have relevant brown "when activated" powers. So, the order in which you place the birds is also important. Each round has its own specific bonus to aim for, such as a certain number of eggs or birds in a specific habitat. You can either score this based on who scored the most each round, or in a more friendly way where all players can score the maximum bonus if they achieve five of the specific task. A player will mark this using one of their action cubes. Once this is done, all players will take back all their other remaining cubes from the board, replenish all face-up bird cards on the display, and start the next round. The game runs like this for four rounds. As such, each round you will have access to one less cube to use as an action. So, as the game develops, your actions will have to be carefully considered. The later rounds will fly by! Players will often want one or two more turns to complete certain scoring options in their early games. It has that delightful frustration of always wanting to do a little bit more. After the final round, players will score points for all bird cards on their board. Each player will score points as per their own bonus score card given to them at the start of the game and any subsequent bonus cards they may have gained during the game. Then each player will add the points scored from the mid round goals, and one point for every egg, cached food token, and tucked card on their player board. The highest score wins! Is it Fun Wingspan Board Game Review (Bear with me, we will get there...) Wingspan has a huge fan base. I think this is down to three main things: First, Wingspan is a gorgeous-looking game. The art on the cards is stunning. Each one of the 170 cards is unique and shows a beautiful, accurate picture of a real bird. People like this. It feels educational but not boring. It is interesting, true to life, and visually pleasing. The box art is also wonderful—clean and instantly striking. On a shelf, people would be intrigued to find out more. Second, Wingspan plays well, incorporating some solid mechanisms in a highly accessible way. Mix the visual appeal with solid gameplay, and you have the scale to win fan-voted awards. Winning awards gains more sales, and a positive cycle of new games being sold and new fans coming to the game begins. Finally, I think Wingspan grew to have such a huge following because it is good. But there are a lot of people out there who love it, and some who really don't. When anything gets this big, it will inevitably polarise opinion. Often, the extremes are more emotionally led, and I find a mean average can help. But those extremes sure do create a lot of hype. And that brings more sales too. So, the art draws attention. The attention draws fans. The fans draw awards. The awards draw more fans. And the whole time, it turns out the game is good too. Hmmm... Let's take a quick look at those extremes for a moment, though. The people that absolutely love Wingspan may come from a few groups. One such group may be those who have been introduced to modern gaming through Wingspan but haven't played many others, and so find it incredible compared to other older "classic" games. This is a wonderful thing. Well done to Wingspan for bringing so many more fans to this great hobby of ours. But this may explain why some views are so high in comparison. They have nothing better to compare it to. I would also wager there is a large group of fans of Wingspan who become such passionate supporters of the game due to the theme: twitchers, birders, and ornithologists, drawn to the game by the setting alone. Prior to Wingspan, there really were not that many mass-market games about birds, believe it or not! Their opinions would be positively biased by their love for a previously neglected topic within games. In the way that a mean average works, I would suggest we can discount these hardcore fans' opinions to get a more balanced review for the masses. I am not discounting their genuine and absolutely sound love for this game. I am just using a mean average for the purposes of a review, and a rather labored point. So, for balance, let's look at the other side of the fence. There seem to be two main groups of people who really do not like Wingspan. The first is those who find anything that gets this big hard to love. People who will avoid popular bands, films, and books simply because they get huge press or mass market attention. Wingspan won a lot of awards, and with that, put a lot of people off. Not just because some people avoid the popular or obvious, but also because these awards were a popularity contest rather than an objective result of mass game testing. It was frustrating to some that Wingspan won best card game, for example. It sure does use a lot of cards, and they are fundamental to the core mechanics of the game. But many would argue that Wingspan is not a card game per se. Catch me at my most pedantic, and I may be inclined to agree with that! So, this can turn some away. The second group, who seem quite passionate about this game's inability to tickle their own personal gaming itch, are those perhaps more familiar with the hobby prior to Wingspan coming out. Perhaps they enjoy more mid or heavyweight games, and they find Wingspan to be too light. Frustrated by such a simple game's popularity, they become irritated by so many people thinking that "this is what modern board games are about." They want people to experience a deeper game, to try something with more weight, and feel Wingspan stops people from trying what they may see as a more true reflection of modern board games. I don't necessarily subscribe to all these points, but I certainly can see merit in all these arguments. I raise them purely to work towards a mean average. However, let's look at the stats. On BoardGameGeek there are 176 ratings of 1 currently recorded as per the day of writing. There are 138 scores of two and 307 scores of three. Now, let's compare that to the scores of 10, which currently stand at 9,600! There are 15,000 scores of nine and 25,000 scores of eight; the mean average starts to climb up a bit. And the low scores and arguments start to get somewhat drowned out! I wonder how many people reading this would be shocked by the above. I thought, personally, that there would be far more lower scores, the vitriol for this game being so loud in the industry. But I suppose that is because, like all things in life, sadly the negative reviews and lower scores can often be shouted with a much louder voice. I would wager, although I have nothing to back this up, that there are many more people from the positive categories I mentioned above who have not scored Wingspan at all on websites like this, as they are not on BoardGameGeek. Even more people who are new to the hobby would add their own 8s, 9s, and 10s but are not doing so, simply because they are new to the hobby and not on BGG yet. Whereas the active gamers who dislike Wingspan due to their many years in the hobby almost certainly would be present on scoring sites like this, in much higher numbers. So, you could argue there are many more unscored "Tens" out there than there are unscored "Ones." Maybe Wingspan isn't as polarising as we have been led to believe. The numbers certainly don't back it up. Maybe it's just good? Well, that was all very interesting, if a little subjective! But it didn't really answer the question, Is this fun? To save this argument between myself from continuing, I will answer that now. Yes, Wingspan is fun. I felt it needed some context, considering this review is coming three years after its release. A lot has been said about this game, both in the VERY positive and also in the VERY negative. I wanted to find a balance in trying to understand why the extremes exist, while looking for the facts to see if those extremes are as balanced as I had been led to believe. But what I am left with, after the dust has settled, is just a solid game. One that looks great and is produced to very high standards (that admittedly perhaps increases the cost a little too far, another irritant for some), but that delivers a stunning table presence that has brought many new people to tabletop gaming. For that alone, Wingspan deserves a lot of credit. But let's take away all the hype, awards, history, and criticism and just look at the game. Wingspan is a good, low to mid-weight game that incorporates some interesting card play and clever engine building, coupled with an interesting depleting action selection mechanic and multiple ways to score. As a game on its own, it is solid. If you like birds, you will love it. If you are new to the hobby and want something accessible that takes you to the next step, this could be a firm favorite for you. If you enjoy hand management and simple tableau building, this may be the one for you. My advice: ignore the hype and give it a try. One of your friends probably already has a copy. It sold loads, don't you know?

Order here - Countdown To Chaos WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Feeling smart about yourself! Published by:   Joe Mills (I) , Tristan Rogers , Dan Wiseman Designed by:   The Detective Society This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . This will be a SPOILER FREE review Countdown to Chaos is a new, short, escape room-style puzzle that acts as a prelude to the larger, more complete experience, Murder on the Moon, which we will be reviewing on the site shortly. This is a single one-hour experience that tees up the story you will experience in Murder on the Moon. It is fully replayable; nothing will be destroyed or messed about with. However, once you know the answers, it has limited replayability for the same player or group as the challenge is somewhat gone at that point. But for a one hour puzzle, this sure does seem like it could be fun? But is it? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Countdown To Chaos Get a piece of paper and pen to take notes, and make sure you have a device that can get online to hand. A phone, tablet or laptop will all work just fine. Open the envelope and take out all the components. Find the letter with the QR code and read this. You are now ready to start. In fact, in reading this letter, you have already begun! How To Play Countdown To Chaos The idea of the game is to solve a mystery that will unravel itself as you play the game. The opening letter will give you all you need to make your start, along with prompting you to head to an online portal where you can "talk" with someone involved in the story. On this platform, you can also ask for help and get clues if you ever get stuck, which is handy if you do stall. But within this hour-long experience, you will find there are around five main set pieces, mixing online and physical clues together, that you will need to piece together to find your ultimate answer. Answers will be entered into the online portal, which will then tell you where to look next for the next part of the puzzle. The story, as explained in the opening letter, so this is not a spoiler, tells a tale of a private company looking to launch a new Moon mission. But "rumours of espionage are rife!" And it is your job to find out who is behind this sabotage, what they are trying to do, and stop them before it is too late. But don't worry. It won't ever be too late. You do not play in real time. There are no ways for wrong answers penalised you when entering anything incorrectly into the portal. It will simply nudge you in another direction. There is no end game score or final grading. You will simply get to the end and be told "Congratulations" and then be encouraged to check out the next game, Murder On The Moon, with a very cool little set piece I will not spoil here. But it certainly made me glad I had a copy of the next game. Is It Fun? Countdown To Chaos Escape Room Game Review If you are buying this as a one off, I could suggest you will need to seriously consider the price of the next game too. You will feel incomplete if you do not play that as well. You absolutely can just play this one game. It will be fine and is a complete experience. But the story will end abruptly on a bit of a cliff hanger, teeing up the next game - so take note of that. But it can absolutely be played as a one off if you want. And the one hour or so you will spend playing this will feel enjoyable to anyone who likes to solve puzzles. There is a nice variety of styles and ways the puzzles are presented to you. The difficulty was just perfect for me. The game says it has a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5, which I would say is about my level! Nothing was too taxing, but the payoff when you find the answer was enough to make me feel happy about my time spent with this game. I needed one clue from the portal, and the way this presented itself was very good. I entered the wrong answer for an early clue, where one of three answers is needed, and they are all very similar. I had not noticed that and entered one answer thinking it was close enough. The portal then simply said to me it thought I might be wrong and suggested I look again. It was a satisfying way to get something wrong and did not make me feel like I got too much help to eventually solve the puzzle correctly next time. There is a small amount of cutting out needed with the above clue, but you don't need to be accurate. Just cut the two circles out so you can move them independently on top of one another. I tend not to like too much "arts and crafts" in games, mainly as I am not good at that part of it. But here, it was minimal, and you really do not need to be careful. I was a little unsure of the art. It looks a little AI-generated to me. No artist is listed, and I have not asked anyone for confirmation on this. It is just my assumption. But if you look closely at these people, there are a few anomalies usually associated with AI. But it is fine, and fits the purpose perfectly. I am just not personally a fan of AI art in games. That said, this may not be AI art. It's just an assumption. If you are a fan of puzzle games like this, then I would heartily recommend this game. But really, only if you are willing to spend the extra money on the follow-up, Murder On The Moon. This game is just under £12, and Murder On The Moon is a penny under £70. So, it does feel a little like those magazines where the first week it's only £1, but there are then 25 more weeks at £9 a pop! I would much rather this simply be one game at £82. But I understand the world doesn't work like that, and it certainly is not this publisher's fault this is how consumerism or marketing works. I am just personally not a fan of it. But with the marketing and cost aside, this is an excellent little one-hour experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who enjoys puzzle-style games such as this. There certainly is a lot that goes into the story, writing, and web design for these games, so personally, I think the cost is quite fair. And the experience and enjoyment I get out of them certainly merits the cost.

Order here - Post Office Card Game WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Quick, simple, card placement games. Published by:   Hobby World Designed by:   Evgeny Petrov This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Post Office is a 2023 polyomino tile laying game from Hobby World, where players are looking to bring some order to the chaotic nature of a Post Office run by animals! The game was illustrated by Natalya Kondratyuk , a comic book artist, who also worked on the comic, Post . A graphic novel that won a prestigious Russian comic book award, the Kommissia . The game has now been turned into a simple card game version, that offers a similar feel, but in a much more condensed experience. But is it still fun? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Post Office Card Game The game comes with 36 cards, either marked with a single dice pip or two dice pips. For a four-player game, use all the cards. With three players, remove any nine cards. For one or two players, remove either set of 18 cards, keeping the other set. For a single-player game, shuffle these 18 cards, then remove nine at random. You can mix these up, but for a more balanced game, it is recommended to use the sets. Shuffle whatever you are left with and deal one card to each player as your starting card. Place this face up in front of you. Place the remaining deck face down in front of the players. How To Play Post Office Card Game Players will now draw two cards from the top of the deck. In multiplayer, players will keep one card and pass the other to their left. Taking one new card themselves from their right. In solo mode, you simply keep both cards. Now, all players place both their cards into their play area. When you place a card, you must cover at least one space of one existing card. You can never go under previously placed cards, and you can cover as many slots as you like on previously placed cards, as long as the number of uncovered slots increases by at least one after the placement of this new card. On each card, you will find a mixture of images, either mice or different types of packages. The idea of the game is you are looking to create rows and columns with three or four different packages. A row or column with three different types will score you three points at the end of the game. Four unique packages will score you six points. If you have any packages repeated in any column or row, you will score nothing. Any uncovered mice will score you negative one. Most points wins. In the solo game, there is a simple score tracker to show how well you did, ranging from under six points to over 25. Is It Fun? Post Office Card Game This is an incredibly simple game to learn, teach, and play. Games typically last for me around five to ten minutes. I like to do a best of three to get a more complete game experience. The cards are all very cluttered. On each card, in the six spaces, you will see two Mince, two unique packages, and two blank spaces. The makeup of this is obviously different on each card, but the setup remains constant. Your goal is to find the best way to lay out and orient cards so that you can build up rows and columns for three or four unique packages. This is easier said than done! You may find you are adding a unique package to a row, but in doing so, are inadvertently adding a duplicate package to a different column. In a game where you create a simple and small tableau, adding only two cards each turn, it is surprisingly easy to miss things like this! But as you play more, you will find there are ways to manipulate your array to maximize your points efficiency. And like many games, your enjoyment will come not just from aiming for a better score than your opponents, but bettering your own scores, game after game. I enjoy the simple, relaxing nature of games like this. They are simple and fun to play, and you can fit them into any part of your day, considering the small impact they have both in terms of time and space. The game comes in a tiny box and takes up minimal play space when you play, so it can be taken with you and played in most environments. The cards are perfectly square, though, with no rounded edges. They are actually quite sharp, so watch out. And the card stock, though thick and high gloss, has no linen finish, so perhaps could be a candidate for being sleeved. If you enjoy simple card-laying games, with pattern building and simple but interesting scoring, this could be one to check out. It has a tiny footprint both in terms of cost and size, so it fits easily into any collection, handbag, or pocket. Well worth checking out if you are looking for a new portable game.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components may change in the final game. You can follow the crowdfunding here . Golem Run comes from the genius minds behind other such brilliant trick-taking games as White Hat , Tricking with a board; Justice , trick-taking with deduction, and Tolerance , asymmetric trick taking with some very clever post trick card play. This new game comes to Kickstarter in early 2025 and combines trick-taking with a race game. With a Golem theme! The game is set in the dwarven society of Odrixia, the same world as Justice and Factory 42 (I have not played this one yet). In the game players are Golems... no, that isn't right. We are Golem owners... wait, no, it's not that either. What are we then? Oh yes! We are the crowd! We are the crowd watching the race! Not seen that theme before. The game unfolds over multiple hands of tricks, concluding when the first Golem crosses the finish line. Players will be dealt or drafted cards (depending on which version of the game you are playing) and will then use their cards to wager on which Golem will win and to try to anticipate the bets of others. This is done through a simple trick-taking mechanic that has some very clever nuances. Let's get into it. But first, you need to set up your race track. The game comes with four race sections that are double-sided. Place the first one down (the one with the three starting spaces - shown via the cog symbols). Pick the side you want for each piece and slot them together. Each player will choose one piece and a side for that piece in turn order, starting with the Race Marshall (starting player). When placing pieces together, players can do so however they choose, as long as touching pieces have at least four touching hexes. The Race Marshal then shuffles the deck and deals 12 or 14 cards to each player, depending on the way you have chosen to play: Quick or Tactical. For Quick, deal 12 cards, and that is it. For Tactical, deal 14 cards and then start a draft. Here, players pick four cards from the 14 in their hand, passing the remaining ten to their left. They then choose four more cards from these ten, passing the remaining six. Pick four from these six and discard the remaining two cards. You will now have 12 selected cards. Each player now chooses one card from their hand to be their Centre Bet, placing it face down in front of them. The colour of the card indicates the colour of the Golem that player thinks will be in the lead come the end of the round. The number of green Speed Dots on this chosen card indicates the number of spaces this player predicts the Golem will be in the lead by. Then, all players place one card face down on either side of this. The card to the right is their prediction as to what they think the player to their right has just bet as their Centre Bet. The card on the left is their prediction for the player on the left. Players will now play rounds until either a player runs out of cards or one Golem crosses the finish line, starting with the Race Marshal leading the trick. This works by that player playing either one or two cards. If you play two cards, both cards must be the same number. The suit of the chosen card(s) is the suit of this trick. If you play two cards and have two suits, both suits are in play for this trick. Booster cards (plus ones) can be added. This does not count as another card, but rather as a booster to one other played card. Alternatively, the lead player can wait and wager. This means they forfeit the opportunity to play the first card and let the next player choose. Once a card or cards have been played, all other players must follow by playing a card or cards of the same suit. Wilds (black cards) can be played as any suit. If you cannot follow suit and choose not to play a Wild, you can play any card. Following players can add Boosters too. Following two cards, players must match at least one of the suits played, and the two cards must again be the same number. Again, if you cannot play two matching cards, you can use Wilds or play any single card. Following players can also choose to Wait and Wager. When you wait and wager, you will, of course, have more cards for following tricks, increasing your options. When you do this, you can take your three face-down cards into your hand and replace them with any three cards. The winner of the trick is the player who played the highest value card of the lead suit, or the highest value card in a pair with at least one card matching the lead suit. If any identical cards compete, the trick goes to the most recent card played. If all players wait and wager or all cards played are wild, then the trick is considered to be under inquiry. In this situation, all cards bar the current winning cards and play another trick with the same lead player. Determine the winner of the second trick as normal, then the winner of this second trick takes the winning wild from the first trick, adding it to the cards from the second trick. This gives them more options in the next step: moving the golems. The winning player of any trick now uses one or two of the cards played to win the trick to move the Golems on the race track. The Golems move the same number of spaces as shown by the Speed Dots on the card chosen. Golems must always move so that they end their movement closer to the finish line, but this does not have to be in a straight path. They cannot retrace their steps, they must use the full move possible, and they cannot move through other Golems' hexes. However, when a Wild card is used, players do not have to move closer to the finish line, but they also cannot end further away. Boulders block movement. Water can only be waded through if there are no Wilds in the winning trick. And fences can only be jumped if there are Wilds in the winning trick. This will continue until one player runs out of cards or one Golem crosses the finish line. Then all players reveal their three Bet cards. Anyone who guessed the lead Golem correctly gains one point. Ties are friendly. Points are also scored if you guess the lead of the Golem in first place correctly, equal to the distance between them and the second-placed Golem. Players will also score two points for any correctly guessed Suit in their other two Bet cards that match their neighbour, and points equal to the number of Speed Dots for any matching card there. Any player with cards in their hand can then return one of these cards, but they keep the rest for the next round. However, you must then lose points equal to the highest Speed Dot score in your remaining cards. You cannot move below zero at this point, though. The position of Race Marshal moves one space to the left, and a new round is started, dealing players cards up to 12 or 14 (depending on the style of game you are playing), taking note of any cards they may already have in their hand. Golem Run is an incredibly entertaining trick-taker. The cards in the trick being used to move the Golems—on which you have all placed your bets—is an intriguing mechanic. Games move pretty fast, and the Golems' movement will be somewhat unpredictable, making the prediction of the betting round a little chaotic for some. Especially in round one, where you really have very little to go on when predicting your neighbours' intentions. But as the game goes on, you will start to get a feel for which Golem the other players are trying to get to win. Although players can switch their allegiances as the game progresses, and either bluff on one Golem before switching to another, or simply change focus when one Golem moves ahead of the others. It is an interesting addition of bluffing, betting, deduction, and hidden information to a simple trick-taking game. This is more of a bluffing and betting game added to the trick-taking than a race game. A race is happening, of course it is. But you don't win if a specific golem wins; you win if you bet correctly on a specific golem and if you can deduce what the other players are up to in their own mischievous plans. It is a fascinating blend of mechanics, feelings, and tactics. I think this may well be my favourite trick-taker from designer Ren Multamäki yet! I am excited to see this hit Kickstarter in 2025, and would encourage anyone who enjoys clever trick-taking games to check this out. The blend of deduction, bluffing, trick-taking, and racing is a master class in blending mechanics. Trick-taking games are always fun. I particularly like this designer's style of adding in other elements to the trick-taking form. And I feel with Golem Run, there is the perfect combination of a fun theme, good-looking art, simple gameplay, and intriguing mechanics. This could be a real winner on Kickstarter in 2025.

Order here- Sellswords: Olympus WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Card laying games with ever changing game states Published by: Level 99 Games Designed by:   Cliff Kamarga This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Sellswords was first published in 2017, and now Level 99 Games is bringing it back with a fresh new reprint. At the time of writing (15th December 2024), this is currently available for pre-order from the publisher. You can use the link in the game title above. But why are they bringing it back? You presume because it is good, don't you? Well, let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Sellswords: Olympus First, separate the Terrain tiles from the rest of the deck. Then, shuffle the remaining cards and deal seven out onto the table. The cards are double-sided, don't worry about which side you deal. Now pick a first player at random, and then each player will take one card at a time from the seven in the middle until all players have three cards. Note, the power of the card you choose may have powers that affect this, but more on that later. When both players have three cards, discard the final card into a discard pile, and deal out seven more. Repeat the process until both players have six cards, again discarding the final seventh unchosen card. Players must now decide who will be red and who will be blue. The red player must turn all their cards to the red side, and the blue player... well, you get the idea. Now place one of the Terrain tiles at random into the central playing area, setting the unused Terrain tiles to the side. You are ready to begin the game. How To Set Up Sellswords: Olympus Players now in turn order will place one of their six cards from their hand into the central playing area. Players must always place a card orthogonally next to a previously placed card. And can never form a row or column to be longer than five cards. You are building a five-by-five grid. The first card must be next to the Terrain tile then all subsequent cards can be placed next to any card. When you place a tile down, you will do two things. First, you will check the card's abilities. Each card has a written ability shown on the face of the card. This could do one of many things: rotate other cards, move other cards, flip other cards, and many more. Once you have carried out the placed card's ability, you will now battle any adjacent cards next to you that your opponent currently owns. For example, if you are playing blue and you placed a card down next to two red cards as shown below, you would battle both cards. Battling works simply by comparing the adjacent numbers on the two cards. So in this example, the Blue Architect card would defeat both the red Hydra four to three, and the red Cerberus, three to two. This double victory would mean both the red cards are flipped to their blue side, swinging the victory into the blue players favour. Play continues like this until both players have played their six cards. Mid-game scoring then takes place, where both players score one point for any row or column where they have two cards, two points for columns or rows with three cards, four points for four cards, and seven points for any row or column that has five of their coloured cards in. Players will now repeat the steps shown earlier, where seven new cards are placed into the central area, and they take turns picking one. This is done twice, so both players have a second hand of six cards. The second round begins until all cards are laid and a 25-card five-by-five grid is formed. Final scoring then takes place, where cards in rows and columns are scored just the same as the mid-game point. Note, some cards with stars on them, like below, offer end-game scoring options too. And some of the Terrain tiles will do the same. The other types of cards in the game are split into three main groups: cards with mandatory effects, those with optional effects, and cards with ongoing effects. Note the type of card and its specific unique effect when you place it, and how it may interact with other previously placed cards, especially the ongoing effects. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Sellswords: Olympus Card Game Review Sellswords is an ever-changing game where players constantly battle to and fro for ownership of the cards. There are some intriguing and subtle tactics that you can deploy throughout the process, making this fast game deeply strategic. Starting with which cards you draft, taking note of the cards your opponent takes, and then, of course, which order and location you place your own cards in. This is a back-and-forth, tug-of-war between two players, where card ownership will change multiple times throughout the game, and you need to strategically plan ahead to make your specific hand pay off. If you have a card with two strong numbers, ideally you will want to wait for a situation to arise where you can place this card and use both those numbers. Using just one wont be the end of the world, especially if the unused high number in in a open space. It will at least have a good defence ready for other cards placed next to it. But it would be nice to flip two cards with it when you place it, wouldn't it. Likewise, if you have a power that affects more than one card, you will want to wait for a situation to arise where this card can make full use of that benefit. It may be that you can manipulate the game board to develop in this way using your other cards. You need to think ahead, plan accordingly, and be one step ahead of your opponent at all times. Now, of course, this is very difficult. Because all the while you are doing this, your opponent will be doing the same. But both players will know what cards the other player has. They all see them in the initial draft. And they are double-sided, so you cannot really hide them from your opponent during the game anyway. We play with the cards on the table so you can see them all easier. But this does also make it harder for the other player to see them, rather than being held up in each player's hand. Laid flat on the table, the angle does make it hard to read them unless you stand up and really peer over. But either way, if you want to see the other player's cards, you can. But even with this knowledge, can you predict what order they will play them? And where they will use them? All this combines to make for a delightfully strategic game that offers constantly interesting choices, making you feel fully in control of your destiny. All in a package that concludes within 20 minutes. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, fast, fun two-player card game that creates a back-and-forth swing feel, with interesting and satisfying scoring options.

Tolerance WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 3-5 You’ll like this if you like: Trick taking games with a twist Published by: Dragon Dawn Productions Designed by: Tony Cotterill , Ren Multamäki This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Tolerance is made by a publisher that likes to make card games, specifically trick-taking card games. But the idea is they all come with a twist. We have already reviewed White Hat on What Board Game, a trick-taker with a board and no suits! And Justice , a genius little game that incorporates deduction into the usual trick-taking fare. Now, we are looking at Tolerance, another trick-taker set in Reformation England during the 16th and early 17th centuries. The game plays out over three rounds, each representing the reign of a monarch: Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I, and King James I. At its core, Tolerance highlights the pain and conflict caused by disagreements over beliefs, particular religious ones. But what is the twist? Well, let's get it to the table and find out. Spoiler, its a good one! How To Set Up Tolerance Every players selects a Player Board, a Score Sheet, and a Role Card. For your first game, it's advisable for everyone to opt for the Bertram the Balanced side. In subsequent games, participants can either select Roles or have them distributed randomly. Unused Roles should be placed back in the game box. For your first game, it's fine to be open about this and which role you have. But for later games, when you are using the asymmetric roles, keep your role and agenda secret! It's not the easiest thing to hide, but there you go. Next, set aside the Monarch cards, and shuffle the Suit cards. If you want to know how many there are in total, ask Bill & Ted . Count out 35 cards for a three player game, 47 for a four player and 59 for a five player. Then add the Monarch card for the current round to these cards, and shuffle this deck. Mary for round one. Elizabeth for round two. And finally James for the last round. Now deal 12 cards to each player. The player who was most recently involved in religious activity, whatever that may be, can now pick the starting player. They can pick themselves if they wish. In round two and three the player that has the lowest score chooses the starting player. You are now ready to play. How To Play Tolerance Players will now play 12 rounds of tricks, three times. Each round playing one card from their hand to form the trick. The starting player plays the first card, and the card they play determines the suit of the trick. If the first card played is a wild card, then the first player can choose any suit. Each other player then must play a card from their hand following suit if they can or by playing a wild card. If they cannot follow suit, they can play a wild card, declaring the suit of that card themselves. It does not have to be the lead suit if they wish. The highest card of the lead suit played wins the trick. The player who played the winning card can take the cards in the trick and then applies any end-of-trick effects on any of the cards. More on that later. They will then place the cards into the respective scoring tracks. Again, more on that later. The winning player now leads for the next round. The end of round effects are conducted in Rank (number) and Suit order. So, the 14 of Nobel's first, down to the one Wild. The end of round effects apply only to the other cards played in that trick, apart from the Monarch card. Each card has its own effect and target. Cards can do one of six things. Let's look at them all. It will help make the rest of the game make a lot more sense. Royal Execution - The will 'kill' any one card on any players tableau from this round. Note only the Monarchs have this effect. And it happens after all 12 rounds are done if the Monarch has survived. Killing means you move the card to the bottom cemetery section of the player board. Collect Taxes - You can take money to the value shown on each living card of the specified type. If no type is specified, take from all living cards. Watch out for the cards that never give money; they only take! Such as the Clergy, Bailiff, and Deceitful Lover! Record your taking on your score sheet. You start with five coins and can note any more gained on your score sheet, along with the Piety. Then, when you score any multiple of ten for each, check off one of the Pennants below. Even if you drop below these numbers later, your Pennants remain. Collect Piety - Collect the value shown in the eye symbol on each card that is living from the trick. Again, do this for the specified type, or all cards if no type was specified. The Piety will either be Catholic or Protestant Piety. It's different, don't you know? So distinguish your different Piety between the two religions as you score when you collect your Piety. That's a weird sentence. Condemn - This is another way to kill a card. But only if the target cards' Piety is lower than the Piety of the card you are using to Condemn. You can only Condemn people if you are better than them. It's like social media. Convert - As above, but instead of Condemning a target card, you convert them. Through vigorous, open, and honest debate I suppose. Kill - A good old fashioned, your dead type of card. Once all the cards have had their effects, the remaining living cards are now placed into their (potentially new) religious position on your board. And the next round begins. Once all twelve rounds have been played, all players now score their cards. This can be done one by one to create a bit of a story and have some interaction, or you can do it all simultaneously if you are looking for a quicker, more efficient game. Your choice. Do you even like your friends? All living cards will score one coin for each Catholic in round one, each Prevailing card in round two, and each Protestant in round three. If at this point you have less than zero money you must take out a loan. You will now have one money and a loan card. You can only take one loan car per round, and you must pay five money in a future end of round phase to pay off the loan. If you don't, you will lose three points at the end of the game. Players will now score one Piety for each living card in your Catholic and Protestant piles. Finally, all players now score points based on their own role shown on their player board. You will score points for each card you have in your tableau. You will score based on their suit, if they are alive or not, and depending on the round, if you have at least one Guild member, or if you have the most. Each character role scores differently and is clearly shown on the card as below. At the end of round one and two, you will now start a new round by dealing out 12 new cards to each player. At the end of the third round check if you will run through the end of game scoring shown on the role cards. Here, players will score additional points for Money and Piety equal to the amount shown on their role card (between minus one and four) multiplied by the number of Pennants checked off on your score sheet. The maximum you can multiply here is six. Add your Pennants bonus to your total, remove three points for any remaining loan, and this is your final score. Is It Fun? Tolerance Card Game Review So, what is the twist? Well, I suppose its religion and 'death'. In that you can score cards based on their religions. But religions can change, and cards can die! I am joking of course. The twist is the cards won in each trick are not simply piled up and put to the side of the winning player, but they are used. But only by the player who won the trick. And so when you play a card you need to be thinking both about can you win the trick and which card to play to do that. But also, if you cannot win, what card and power do you want to give to your opponent, and which cards do you want to keep back to try and win with on later rounds. It adds a huge layer to the very simple process of trick-taking. And I love it. It does make the teach for this game a little difficult. Certainly more than your usual trick-taking game. For what is a very simple game, I have personally struggled to teach this game to a few groups. I asked each group why that was the case afterwards, and they said because they found the theme to be a bit dry and the cards to initially seem a little cluttered. However, I, and a few others I played with, adored the theme. It's history. It's real. It felt deeply thematic to me when a Catholic Witch Hunter killed a Protestant card with lower Piety than it. When a Bailiff took money from me, rather than give me money, that made sense to me. When my Valiant Knight killed a Peasant, it all felt like the world was turning as it should! It's brutal, it's harsh, and it's quite dark. But it's real. And executed brilliantly. As while it is true, the cards do look a little busy at first, this is more to do with the line drawing style of the art than the layout and amount of information on them. After a round or two, I found all players were able to read them very quickly and simply. But it does affect the initial teach, no doubt. I love the asymmetric style of the game. This is another twist in this game's mechanics. There are not many asymmetric trick-takers out there. And as much as this is more about how you score rather than how you use the cards or play the game, it certainly affects which cards work for you, and which rounds you will want to win. And this asymmetric battle between players, when everyone is vying for slightly different things, makes this game an absolute gem. If you like trick-taking and asymmetric games, I would say this is a must-have for you. Certainly, it is well worth playing to see if it works for your group. But I would wager if you like those two mechanics, this could well be a huge winner for you. I personally really enjoy this but did struggle to find willing players to enjoy this with me. It is strange how formal and unapproachable this game appears to new players at first. It really doesn't play like that. I would encourage anyone put off by the theme and art to give this a try. I think you may well just love it.

Order here - Noir WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Simple deduction games, with some killing! Published by:   Level 99 Games Designed by:   D. Brad Talton, Jr. This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . This may well be one of the easiest games to pitch that I have seen in a long while. Noir is a simple-to-learn, quick-to-play (15-minute) card game that comes in a small box with four variations that all feel quite different. It works just as well for two to four players, but could be open for more in a team play situation. If you like deduction games and want something light and easy, this is a dream. But, is it any fun? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up And Play Noir There are four game modes here. I will go through them one by one. Killer Vs. Inspector: How To Set Up Killer Vs. Inspector: 2-4 Player Game. Separate the Suspect cards from the Evidence cards and place them in alphabetical order in a five-by-five grid. Shuffle the Evidence deck and deal four cards to the player acting as the Inspector and two the player acting as the Killer. The Killer will look at both cards and use the first as their secret identify. The second will be there disguise. The Killer will then Kill one card in the five-by-five array by flipping over one card that is above, below, next to, or diagonal to the card they were assigned as their Identity. The Inspector then chooses one of their four cards to be their secret identify. ideally, not the one just killed if they had been dealt that one! How To Play Killer Vs. Inspector: The Killer will now take their turn, carrying out one action. The Inspector then has one action. This continues until either the Killer kills ten people, or the character chosen by the Inspector as their secret identity, or the Inspector correctly identifies who the Killer is when next to that card, or successfully guesses who both the Killer's identity and disguise are. Both players on their turn can shift one column or row one place in either direction, moving all cards one space. This is done to move closer or away from certain cards. Both players can also remove previously killed cards and collapse the board down, bringing all remaining cards together to form a new smaller grid. The Killer is also able to kill at will, any other card next to them, as well as being able to switch between their identity and disguise at any point. The Inspector can accuse any card next to them of being the Killer. If they are right, the game ends and they win. They can also try to solve the identity of both of the Killer's cards. But if they guess wrong here, they lose. The game ends either way if this is the choice of the Inspector. The Inspector can also use the cards in their hand, placing one Evidence card over the matching Suspect card, and the Killer then must reveal if they are next to this card. The Inspector then draws one more Evidence card to keep a hand of three at all times. Spy Tag: How To Set Up Spy Tag: 2-4 Player Game. Lay out the Suspect cards into an alphabetical five-by-five grid. Then deal each player an Evidence card. In a four player game, separate into two teams. Team mates will share their Evidence cards with each other. This is the only time in the team game players can secretly communicate in the game. All other communication must be open for all to hear. How To Play Spy Tag: Players will now take turns to try and identify who the other players in the game are. You will do this by carrying out one of three actions each turn. You can either move one row or column one or two spaces, shifting all cards in either a row or column one or two spaces in either direction. Or, you can ask if any one other player is next to one specific card. The card you pick must be adjacent to your own identity, so this will reveal some information to the other players about your own identity. The other players must answer truthfully. Or finally, you can try to capture, by picking a card adjacent to your own, and if any other player is this character, you capture them, take that card as a point, and that player is then dealt a new Evidence card as their new identity. The first player to do this two times is the winner. Dragnet: 2-4 Player Game How To Set Up Dragnet: Lay out the 25 Suspect cards into a five-by-five grid. (You're sensing a theme now, aren't you?) Shuffle the 25 Evidence cards and deal each player two cards for their hand, and one card to be placed face down in front of them. The face-down card will be each player's own personal Secret Suspicion. Players may look at their own Secret Suspicions, but they must keep it, as the name suggests, secret. Then draw the top three cards and place them face up on top of their matching Suspect card, and leave the rest to create a face-down deck. How To play Dragnet: Players will now take turns to perform one of four actions in an attempt to create a line in the main grid that contains only innocent characters or Secret Suspicions. The first action is a Targeted Shift. This lets players place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card and then shift the row or column containing that Suspect one space in either direction. Cards that move outside of the 5-x-5 grid in this way will be placed into the empty space created at the start of that row or column. The second action is to Question. This is where players may place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card in the grid, and then take an adjacent previously placed Suspect card from the grid and place it into their hand. Then, all players must honestly say if any of their Secret Suspicions cards are adjacent to the card that was just picked up. The third action allows players to Rethink. Here, players can again place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card in the grid, but this time, they can then pick up their Secret Suspicion and swap it with the other Evidence card in their hand. They will then draw a card from the Evidence deck to replenish their hand. The last action allows players to Solve the case, by picking any row or column, including diagonals of five cards. Then players must raise their hand if their Secret Suspicion is in that line of cards. If the number of raised hands matches the number of cards without Suspect cards on top, then this player wins the game. If they are wrong, then the player who guessed misses their next turn, and all players who raised their hand may swap their Secret Suspicions with a card in their hand if they wish. When the Evidence deck runs out, all players may attempt one Solve action in turn order, and then if no one wins, the game ends in a tie. Buddy Cops: Three Player Game How To Set Up Buddy Cops: Once again, lay out the Suspect cards into an alphabetical five-by-five grid. Shuffle the evidence deck and leave it nearby. One player will be a Killer, another the Profiler Cop, and the third an undercover cop. Take the appropriate reference card. Each player now draws three Evidence cards. The Killer picks one as their Secret Identity, placing this card face down in front of them. The other two are set aside as Disguise cards. The Killer player then flips over a card adjacent to their current Secret Identity on the grid, "Killing" them. Each player acting as a Cop now picks a living Suspect in their hand to be their own Secret Identity, placing this card face down in front of them. The Undercover cop then hands the other two cards to the Profiler Cop, checking the Profilers Secret Identity as they do this. The Two Cops must not speak as they do this or for the rest of the game. The game then begins. How To play Buddy Cops: Play rotates between the Killer and cops, with the cops taking every other turn, in between the Killer. So the Killer goes first, then the Police. Then the Killer, then the Undercover cop, then the Killer, and so on. The Cops are looking to Accuse the right Killer. The Killer wants to make 13 Kills, or simply kill both Cops. The Killer has three actions. They can Kill, just as in set-up. Shift one column or row one place in either direction, moving all cards one space. Or Disguise themselves by picking up their two Disguise and swapping their Secret Identity with either card. The Undercover Cop can take one of four actions. They can Shift just as the Killer above. Fast Shift, which is the same but two spaces. Disguise themselves by drawing a new card from the Evidence deck and picking a new Secret Identity from this card or their current one. The unused card is given to the Profiler. Or they can Accuse the Killer by choosing a Suspect adjacent to their current Secret Identity, and if they are correct, the Killer must reveal themselves. If you pick the Killer's Disguise, they must discard this card, but they do not lose. The Profiler Cop can Shift or Accuse, just as above. And they can also Exonerate or Deputize. Exonerate means they will place a card from their hand onto the matching card in the grid. The Killer must then sat if any of their Disguises or current identity is adjacent to this card. They do not have to say how many of their cards are adjacent or which one. Just a simple yes or no. Deputize means they can choose a card from their hand matching any living card in the grid and place down to replace the Undercover Cops current identity. Their old Identity is placed to the bottom of the Evidence deck. Is It Fun? Noir Card Game Review The four games in this box all feel quite similar, but they certainly have their own flavour and style. The first and fourth are by far my favourite, with the last being the best of the lot, and the one I have played and enjoyed the most. There is a really interesting moment in Buddy Cops when one cop is killed by the killer. This does not end the game as the killer needs 13 deaths in total, or two dead cops. But it does create a shift in the game. When a cop is killed, the two players acting as the cop must switch roles. The old profiler gives all their evidence cards to the new profiler along with their reference card. The old undercover cop takes these and gives their reference card to the other player. The dead cop then draws cards from the top of the evidence deck until they find the first living card. This becomes their new secret identity. Any other drawn cards are discarded face up. Then the new undercover cop looks at their partner's new identity. After all this has happened, a lot of information has been shared between the two cops. They are one life down and closer to losing. But they have also gathered a lot of new intel and shared more between each other. It's a great little catch-up mechanism that adds incredible tension to the game. All four games are short and tense. They offer an incredibly smooth and fast deduction-style experience with just two small decks of cards. It really is incredible what has been done here with so little. I think there is something for everyone with the four variations. More ruthless players will enjoy being the Killer in the first and fourth games, whereas the more 'sleuthy' players who enjoy the deduction side will have fun acting as the Detective or Cop in these two games. The second game, Spy Net, is more for families, I feel, and the third game, Dragnet, suits players more into puzzle and pattern building games. I would recommend this game to anyone due to its versatile nature, and my family and I can enjoy the first and last game a lot more over the coming years. It is portable, simple to teach, and quick to play. It creates a lot of fun table talk once the game is over, and a real sense of tension as you play.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. I first looked at this game when it was called Ecolapse. You can read the preview for that here . I said it was "mind-blowing," and I stand by that. It is a brilliant game. But, for whatever reason, the game did not get picked up in that form. So, designer Steve Eggleston has reformatted the game, come up with a whole new theme, and polished a few rules. The result is Beetown Beatdown. The game plays largely the same. But gone are the troops, and in are the Bees. In what was previously a five-round game where you had to race to turn eight troops into Refuge sites three times to win; now, you turn ten Bees into Hives over three rounds. Also, previously the game system worked mainly using a tech tree that increased the power of your actions as you played. But now you simply upgrade your actions to make them more powerful. It is a cleaner and more efficient system. I do like tech trees, so it is a shame that part went. But the result is the same, and the process of developing your engine remains incredibly satisfying. But back to the start. Beetown Beatdown, much like Ecolapse, is a race game. Who can gather resources, expand their Bees, and build their three Hives first? You only have three rounds (now broken down into Seasons) to do this. But I found that quite often more than one player would have three or more Hives by the end of the second season. As such, games were often decided by the player with the most Hives, rather than the first to three, which made for very exciting and close games. ns this race game more into a resource management game. It is a game of efficiencies. A classic euro style experience. But unlike many euros, delivered in minutes, not hours. Especially with two players. Three players will encourage more fighting and often led to the game moving into the third season. But I still found games concluding within an hour. So, how do you play? Players take turns to perform one action. They can either use one of their four Worker Bees to carry out any of the four actions, or one of their four Drones to carry out any action that at least one of the Worker Bees has already done. Drones can perform any action, but only if they are copying something a Worker has done before. The first action for each type of Bee is free, but the second action will cost one resource, the third two, and the fourth will cost three. This is indicated by symbols revealed when you move the workers down from their starting position to the action spaces, so you won't ever forget. The Workers use Pollen, and the Drones use Nectar. Managing and gathering your resources effectively will be crucial in order to use all four possible Bees. But that will be rare in rounds one and two. The way your total number of actions is determined by your ability to manage your resources rather than the rules is something I love in games. Taking those extra turns when the other players are having to pass feels great. Resources are gathered by collating all resources on the map that are on a hex with one of your Hives, or the hexes surrounding them. But only the hexes that either are unowned or that you own. You own a hex if you have a Bee or Hive on it. During the action phase, players can add more Bees to the board and move them around to explore new unexplored hexes, gathering more resources as they do, growing their control of the board, and increasing the resource-gathering potential for later seasons. This is an area control battle that can turn to war! This part of the game, spending resources to add Bees to the board, expand your territory, and gather more resources feels a little like Blood Rage to me. Not thematically, of course. But in the spending something to add dudes to the map - to get more resources - to have more turns. That cycle is a very satisfying thing to noodle out in your head. If you ever move a Bee onto a space owned by another player, (either with a Bee or Hive) you must then immediately commence battle. Bees are angry little things, don't you know. This is done through very interesting new battle cards that offer all sorts of clever options. It is here that I think the game has improved the most. Previously, players had somewhat limited choices based on ten pre-set cards, consistent among all players. They were great cards, but the options were a little more limited. Now, players are dealt five random cards from a huge deck of brilliant, unique, and varied battle cards. Options to link them are everywhere. And the chance to pull off some audacious moves in battle are very high. It is a brilliant development of the game. And just check out the fantastic character and names too! Tell me you don't want all these characters as bobby head models! The other option in the game on your turn is to Extract or Build. Extract means that you will permanently end a particular hex's resource-generating possibility for a one-time hit. It's a dangerous move to make too early, especially if it is near one of your hives—remember, your hives generate resources on all neighboring hexes each round. So, you need to be careful with how often you do this and where you do it. But it can be a powerful way to get the resources you need to take the one extra turn you so desperately desire. Build is the final action, and what everything else you are doing is leading up to. There are two ways to build Hives. Either you convert ten Bees on one hex—located anywhere on the board apart from next to any existing Hive—and replace them with a juicy new Hive. You will also need to pay one Pollen for each existing Hive you have, plus one. So, later Hives do cost a fair bit. But as you only do this a few times in each game, it shouldn't be hard. And when you build one, it feels great. A real sense of achievement. The other way to build Hives is by removing eight Honey upgrades from your player board. Not the best thing to do too early, as your engine will greatly reduce in efficiencies, but a killer option for a later or final turn in the game! And on that, let's talk about the upgrading process. At any point in the game, you can convert two Nectar into Honey. Honey can then be placed onto any of the four upgrade slots on the bottom of your board to increase the efficiency of that action for the cost of one Nectar per Honey placed You can either move extra spaces, add extra Bees when you recruit, take more resources when you extract, or reduce the cost of building a Hive. Or, as mentioned above, use them to build a Hive. It's a genius way to make use of a resource you previously used to increase your engine during the game, to then have one final use of it before the game ends. You don't see this often in games, and I wonder why. It is a brilliant feeling to pull off one final killer move. The Honey can also be used to play extra cards during combat. You can play one card for free, and then as many as you like from your hand of five, spending one Honey for each extra card played. It is a very powerful resource, and worth investing in. If you haven't already guessed, I still love this game and think this new version is even better than the last. I preferred the previous theme, but still like this one. I just find it looks a little childish for my own tastes - a look that doesn't suit the game for me. But the actual game, rules, mechanics, and flow are all brilliant. The final version of this game would be a 9, close to 9.5 for me. It offers so much in such a short, quick gameplay experience. The game feels heavy, crunchy, and full of great decisions. You need to maximize everything you do and ensure you are increasing your number of turns, resource generation, and Hive production capabilities each round. And doing this feels so good. But it is all wrapped up within a game that is incredibly accessible, simple to teach, and quick and easy to play. It really is a brilliant game. I hope this version finds success and final production copies are made in mass numbers. This game deserves to find lots of loving homes.