Uwe Rosenberg has made his fair share of crunchy economic games. This one is by far the toughest to get things going o on yet that I have played

Gameplay/Replay

For as hard as it is to succeed at playing, it is surprisingly simple in execution. On your turn you have two options, place your one and only worker on a building, or take all of an available resource from the board. Where this game gets brutal is in how rounds play out. You need goods to build buildings and boats, but you also need money and food to meet your feeding requirement (which increases incrementally throughout the game) at the end of the round (which consists exactly 7 actions divided between 2-5 players) In most cases that leaves you precious little time to get anything moving. Grab those fish, take them to the smokehouse (if it is even available) and hope that is enough food for a round and a half so that maybe in the next round you can get a building built (which is where you get the VP. Many buildings you build can be used by other players for a modest coin or food payment, and at times that can give you just enough to get by for the round. It is a tight unforgiving game. But that’s what makes it a good one as well.

The Bad

Oddly enough the good is also the bad, you feel like you are working your a** off and accomplishing nothing of note. And it is not newbie friendly,it took me 12 of the 15 game’s rounds for it to click how I needed to go about my business, which by then was far too late.

In conclusion

If you love heavier euros, this is a pretty good one, as soon as I was done I felt frustration coupled with a desire to try again. Overall I recommend it for the heavy gamer

Teotihuacan: City of Gods is an interesting little game with a modular board and a very different take on worker and how they interact, yet this will feel familiar if you played another of Daniele Tascini’s games, Tzolk’in. To be clear this is not a bad thing necessarily, just something I noticed right away

Gameplay/replay

Much like Tzolk’in (get used to seeing this) you play over a set number of turns which are separated by eclipses (when scoring for that round are done). You have a modular board where you move workers represented by colored 6 sided dice 1-3 spaces and take said space’s action paying cocoa based off the number of different color dice with the power of the action based off how many of your color dice are there and the pip count on your lowest die after which you raise the pip count of one of your dice in that location, pray for god track elevation (much like Tzolk’in) locking your die to the space until someone else prays there or until you buy it off of the lock with cocoa, or take cocoa based on how many different color workers are there. Actions vary from gathering gold, wood, or stone (much like Tzolk’in) to building path of the dead buildings for vp and movement on the path of the dead, to adding to the pyramid in the center of the board for vp. Between rounds you score points based off masks you gather, path of the dead placement, and participation in building the pyramid. At this point workers must be fed (much like Tzolk’in) cocoa based off how many you have and how many have a pip count of 4 or 5

If a die is promoted to the 6 side, it ascends, moves to the 1 space on the board, and you get a bonus but a turn toward the eclipse happens as well (meaning like in Tzolk’in, certain events accelerate the game forward)

After the 3rd eclipse, the game ends and round points and final points for getting to the penultimate space on any god track are awarded. Most vp wins

The bad

This is a slightly more difficult game to learn, though to the thick rulebook’s credit, it does have a first time play instructions that allow you to jump in with less time than learning the more traditional version would take. Also, as I have often repeated, this game seems like Tzolk’in’s brother. Probably aa more complex brother and it plays differently enough to distinguish itself, but it cannot be denied the similarities are many and prolific. If this would annoy you, it might be a turn off

In conclusion

It’s a heavier one, but worth learning. I like the promoted workers and how you have to plan accordingly because while powerful workers are good, feeding them is a task and one the game penalizes you for failing to do so a well timed 5 to a 6 can be a game changer as can a poorly timed 3 to a 4. Still a worthy heavier euro to add to the collection if you like that sort of thing. I would advise try before you buy however cause it has a lot of moving parts

The newest game out of the Race for the Galaxy universe is a Puerto Rico-esque version, and the results are quite fun

Gameplay/Replay

Taking a page from the role selection that made Puerto Rico and San Juan the games that they are, New Frontiers presents yet a third way to experience the Race for the Galaxy concept. Each round consists of a player selecting one of several actions that do things that all players participate in, but you get a special benefit for choosing such as

-Explore: pull 7 planets out of the bag, each player in turn order starting with the leader picks an unsettled planet and places it on their planet board, the leader gets to choose a second world from leftovers.}

-Settle: Settle a planet on your board through settler meeples paying credits or using military as appropriate, otherwise take 2 settlers, Leader gets a free settler. Planets are worth VP

-Discover: Purchase a tech, leader gets a 1 credit discount Tech is worth VP

-Produce: produce a good on all non windfall production worlds, leader gets to produce one good on an empty windfall world

-Trade/consume: May sell one good, man then use each consume action you have. Leader gets 1 vp

-Leader Get 2 credits

-Move to front of turn order

-(Optional) Introduce an endgame goal and gain 1 credit which everyone gets VP from doing

After all players have chosen different roles and everyone carried them out, the roles reset and it all starts again. 4 things can trigger endgame; Running out of VP tokens, having 7 or more settled planets, having 11 or more discovery tile spaces on your board covered, or the settler meeple pool having less than 5 meeples in it. Most VP wins, credits left break ties

The Bad

Credit crisis is a fairly easy trap to fall into, I have played 3 times so far and seen it happen twice. Also the military path is a difficult path to pull off in this game

In Conclusion

All that said, I recommend this one quite highly and this might be my favorite 2019 game so far. With the random techs and multiple starter player boards each game is different. A fun time.