I am reviewing this edition pictured. There is an earlier edition from 2001 with most of the same dogs but there were a couple of different dogs and the art work was not(in my opinion) as nice. Basically, you ,as a dog, wander the streets marking your territory, begging for food, hiding from the dog catcher, drinking from a public fountain, burying bones, delivering newspapers, escaping from the pound and occasionally fighting with other dogs. Each dog has it’s own deck of cards showing success or failure at the six different actions a dog can take and how many action points it has to take actions on a turn. Smaller dogs are generally more likely to succeed at begging but more likely will lose a fight. When you spend action to do an activity such as beg you turn over the top card of the dog’s personal card deck and look up the results. If you are just walking or drinking water or marking your territory,done by leaving a pee marker on a lampost by the way, that costs action points but not a card. The game play is fun and innovative and has a light strategy to it as to what to choose and when to choose it, for instance you cannot beg at the same location twice in a row on the same turn, but you can beg at location A, then go to B and beg and then return to A to beg again if you have enough action points,however, it is also legal to arrive at A and beg and end your turn and then beg at A again on your next turn. There is supposed to be a kickstarter version of this game with some rules changes and new dogs coming out in September that I will be watching for.

Orange Nebula published a beautiful looking adventure euro

Gameplay/replay

Running in almost opposition to another favorite of mine, Dark Domains, you play a wretched adventurer thrown off of a boat who washes ashore on an island where you are found by your first companion, as a fire of inspiration is lit within you you vow to explore this new island while seeking to redeem your past misdeeds. Each round you (in any order) move, activate your power and your companions’ powers gaining stats and abilities, and use (and possibly gain control over) a building. Controlling buildings your opponent uses gains you honor (VP) as does gathering new companions, claiming relics, gaining new traits, upgrading your movement speed, and vanquishing monsters.

Movement is done between the hexes, you can move up to 2 spaces initially, you can go through occupied spaces but not land on occupied spaces

Using your or your companion skills will cause you to exert influence to gain one of 3 basic stats as well as possibly activating a companion’s special powers. Influence is limited however (more on what that might mean later)

Activating buildings allows you to use a building based off cost. Some you can repeatedly use, some you can only use at most once per turn.

You also have free actions. Spending 3 cubes from a stat for example can give you a specialization tile which counts as 2 cards from that stat (which can help you win majority of that stat at end game) You can combine 2 different base stat cubes to get one advanced stat cube and returning a cube to your influence supply. You can recall influence from a companion (causing them to abandon you and costing you honor, told you there’d be more on what limited influence might mean later) as well as other free actions

As an aside, this might be the most organized rulebook I have ever seen. Almost every time a rule is mentioned, they tell you what page in the rulebook you need to go to to get further details. Why don’t ALL rulebooks do this?! Also the Game Trayz inserts hit it out of the park again. If I were Dictator of Board Games I would require ALL board games to have game trayz and rulebook’s like Vindication. One more thing, and sit down for this one, they have a start player rule that is not ridiculous. It is based off the numbered spot you randomly start on. No “start player is the last person to purchase wood pulp from a prominent clergyman” or something like that

The Bad

Depending on the random game end conditions, the game might end really fast, this might be fixed by playing again though, so is it bad? Who can say

In conclusion

Play it now dagnabbit!

With a few slight changes, Brass Birmingham adds to an already great classic.

Gameplay/replay

Brass Birmingham is played over 2 eras, the canal era, where each player may only build one building per city, and the rail era, where those shackles come off and the more expensive rails start replacing canals to link shipping between cities. Each round, players take 2 actions by playing the cards they have. These actions include

Build: Discard a card with the city you are building in, or the building type that matches a building symbol in a city you are connected to

Ship: discard a card and flip a manufacture, textile, or pottery by paying the shipping cost in available beer

Take wild cards: discard 3 cards (one to take your action, 2 to be replaced) and take a wild city and wild building card, you my never have more than one of each in hand

Build rail/canal: discard a card and pay the cost for a canal (3 money) or rail (5 money and a coal for one, 15 money, 2 coal and a beer for 2)

Take a loan: discard a card, take 30 money, move your income marker back 3 full units

Develop: discard a card and remove up to 2 tiles on your building mat to access more advanced buildings

When your turn ends draw 2 more cards (if available)

When a round ends you either take income or pay debt, when you have no cards left the era ends that round.

When the era ends you score flipped buildings (shipped or fully emptied goods buildings) and connection points per rail or canal you built. The game ends after the rail era scoring is done

The Bad

This is an overwhelming game when you first learn it. Once it clicks you realize it isn’t that complex rules wise (turns are always discard a card and take an action) but for novice hobby boardgamers this always seems to overwhelm them initially

In Conclusion

I highly recommend you learn this one, it is one of the best board games ever created