Elida

This is a puzzle game that makes you find a trail through four rooms, collecting money, and possibly finishing missions. It`s my suspicion that it is inspired by a video game.

You play a man with a jetpack trying to fly through some rooms. Along the way there are obstacles to avoid, and there are some scientists there. So you need to navigate through the rooms. To mark it off you have polyominoes tiles to lay down on your sheets, to show where you go. Some gadgets may help you along the way, but you have your work cut out for you. The game ends after three rounds.

This is a fun little game with a good real time presence. In multiplayer you are fighting others to finish the road, but as a solo gamer, you only fight to get as many VP at the end as possible. And this review will be based on solo plays.

As a big solo gamer, I brought this game into my collection around New Year`s Eve. First the retail, then the Deluxe version. In the solo mode you have to remove from the start two of each shape tiles, and then you need to remove the mission and gadget cards. After that you remove the tiles used from one play to the next, until you have played the three rounds. Then you tally up the VP from money you gathered and missions you finished, and gadgets giving you some extra VP.

You can feel the real time, when you try to avoid the obstacles, and you want to finish missions, or get those coins, and you try not to use too many tiles. In a solo game that will mess you totally over when you hit the third round. Till now I have ended not being able to finish room #4. I can see this on the table late at a gaming evening, or at a party, even with non-gamers. Rules are easy to learn. You choose one tile, put it on your sheets, one after another, so they follow all the way to the end, and then you score between rounds. If you choose one that you don`t find fitting, you simply put it back, and then choose another one, with a different shape. A thumb rule; you need to start with at least one square on the tile outside of the sheet, and end with at least one square on the tile outside. And the squares are easy to see on the tiles. With the Deluxe version there also comes a Solo Challenge book, where you find nice, little challenges if you don`t feel like playing the entire game. I won`t say it`s quick and easy, but it is very thought provoking, and you wring your brain to find that one and only solution it has (even if you will get the same result in different ways). It comes with the answers. They are still quite replayable, as long as you don`t have a photographic memory, because you can start over, and be just as stomped about the solutions.

Components are cute. I wish the room sheets had been tiles instead, because they are thin and slide a bit. The tiles are neat. I still fear breaking them, but I think it demands a bit in regular play. Even though you would think it would feel very samey, it will bring with it diversities to bring something new to each play. All four sheets of all four rooms are two sided, so there are so many different setups. There are also expansions, especially in Deluxe version, that will contribute to make the game new. One of the downsides are that you can only play it up till 4 players (though with Collector`s edition you can play with 6). It would have been fun to see this game being played with more people by the table to see the frantic race. But for me it`s important that there is a solo mode in the game, and it is tough! I haven`t scored all too well yet. I also love the fact that there are Solo Challenges, because I can set up the game while making dinner or doing something else, and go back and forth to it, trying to solve the puzzle.

This game can reach a big range of people. And it`s an easy game to explain at a party to bring up the mood, if need be. As a solo game it`s a nice wind down or start up game. It doesn`t demand much setup, especially if you have already sorted it out for solo play. And the box is fairly small, or you can bring only the necessary stuff in order to bring it along on vacation. And you don`t need much table space, so you can play it just about anywhere.

Although, as I write this it`s Covid time, and parties and travel is not in our immediate future. But sometime soon…I hope.

Crypt is a dice game where you compete to bring back some good treasures from your father`s tomb.

Yeah, your father is dead…such a shame. Now set your servants to work.

Each player has three dice which represents servants. They are sent into the crypt to bring back treasures, represented with cards. The cards have an image, a value and a color. These colors are also connected to collectors, that give you some extra bonuses. Instead of rolling the dice you set the value on your own. If you want two servants to work for one treasure, you set both dice to the same value; i.e. two 3s, which equals 6. When all dice are set, one player, holding the torch, gets to set any remaining dice if they want. That happens when dice are getting bumped off a card because someone else set a higher value to their dice on the same card.

What happens next? Going into a crypt is hard work for the lowly servants. Each player rolls their dice for each of the cards they obtain. If the value they set on the die/dice is higher than what is rolled, the servant is exhausted, and left in the box for later returns.

The game plays over several rounds, and the one with the highest score/best treasures win.

With this game you also have an opportunity to play solo, against your father`s ghost. Then you roll your father`s dice to see if he kicks out some of your dice, and you try to get a good score in the end by gathering the treasures and keeping your servants with you at the end of the game.

This is a quick, easy, little game, that can be played just about anywhere. It has a nice, new take on dice placement, as you don`t roll the dice to place them, rather to see if you get to keep them in play the next round. The fact that the game comes with an official solo version is an added plus for me these days, since I mostly play solo games. The artwork helps set the mood for the darkish theme, drawings are good. The dice are somewhat small, but they have a small box to fit into.

So you are about to cast spells? Go ahead. Just keep in mind, it will be a messy business……

Mystic ScROLLs is a fast paced dice game where 2-4 wizards frantically are trying to put together spells to cast. They all start with a given number of dice and their special spell cards. As they fullfill one of their spells, they leave the dice on the card, and take in the same amount of dice. In the end the dice pool will be exhausted, and someone will have to call stop! After that each wizard count up their lives recieved from the spells. Then they inflict damage to the one sitting to their right, unless a card says otherwise. The goal in the game is to stay alive (duh…?) . Oh, but there`s more. Each round a spell card accessed by all will be presented. The first to snatch this spell card gets it immediately call stop. The game ends when there is only one wizard left, victorious.

Overall the game is very engaging. Either if you keep your eyes on the dice, or scream, giggle, and yelp frantically, all focus is on your task ahead.Keep in mind what surface you use. Slippery tables will make your dice roll on the floor. And don`t think for a second your opponents will stop and wait till you pick it up.

So what do I think of it?
I like it a lot!
Two things are sort of wrong with that.
1. Me and dice are not on talking terms
2. I don`t really enjoy frantic stress games.

Still this hit my sweet spot. I believe it has something to do with the theme used. Wizards. It fits my interest in fantasy. THe special spells for each wizard suits them well. They each have a skill they exel at. What might be a bit off with the game is the extra spell card you can obtain. More than once we were so into our own spell cards that we simply forgot it. Other times someone would be so focused on this spell card, and disregarded their special spell cards. It might also be loud and noisy, so don`t sit in a room where someone are working at a heavy strategy game. You might get an angry look from someone.

I enjoyed the design of the game, the dice were looking good, the art on the cards are clear and vibrent. Overall a good game for a filler. And you might want to play it again and again. I had it at a gathering, and many of those I played with liked it so much we had to set it up once more, and once more, and even once more after that… 😛

Go wizard it up!

This game is played in real time. Everyone strive to solve a single puzzle using the colored robots on the board. There are small symbols strewn around the board. When a chip is flipped, you start searching for the shortest way to get the properly colored robot to that mark, for example red robot to red sun. The robots can`t go diagonally, and they need to go all the way to the wall, or to other robots. Moving one length is 1 move. Then the robot needs to take another way for the next move. Or another robot moves into its way.

When one player finds a route he calls out the number, for example 8. Now they all fight against an hour glass finding a new route that is shorter before time runs out. The one who has called out the shortest route gets to try it out on the board. If it is correct he gets the chip as a VP. The game is then played till all chips have been solved.

Ricochet Robots is one of the first games I got in touch with becoming a gamer, and I still fancy it quite much. There`s something special about multiple gamers gathered around a board watching robots. You really get engaged in playing the game. Very good as a filler, or just to have a nice time.

We all know what happened at Pompeii. Now we get to experience it for ourselves.

The game is comprised of two different phases, first a kind of population phase, then a phase where you save as many of your people as you can.
Everyone have their own color cubes. They recieve four cards at the start of the game. The stack of the rest of the cards will contain Omen signs, before the card of the volcano eruption comes.
In phase one you need to populate the city. You do that by playing a card. Each card has a number and a color house. That relates to a house shown on the board. So you play the card and set out one of your cubes. If other cubes are already in the house, no matter which color, you get to set out relatives, in other houses of the same color or in one of the neutral ones. So, if there is one other in the house, you get to set out one extra cube, with two, you get two. And so on. But some houses are split in two, so you need to check out where to put your people.

When the vulcano eruption card shows itself for the second time, phase two starts. Cards are removed from the game, and you take the bag with lava tiles in them. First player draws a tile from the bag and looks at the small symbol in the corner. It corresponds with a symbol on the board of where the lava comes from. He sets it on the board and gets to move two of his men. Now you need to look at the squares at the board. You get to move as many squares as the number of people that are on the beginning square. So if there are three, you get to move your man three squares. Then you find another man to move. You can not go diagonally. The goal is to get as many of your men out the various gates on the board. The only time you get to move the same man twice is when he is the only one you have on the board.

So the lava spreads from there the first tile with a symbol is laid. That means that the lava spreads from several places on the board. Here too, the tiles can not be laid down diagonally. Any men finding themselves on a square when a tile is placed, gets thrown into the vulcano attached on the board. The game ends when there are no moves left, or when the last tile is laid down. Either way, the remaining men on the board gets thrown into the vulcano. The winner is the one who has saved the most of his people. With a tie, you need to check the vulcano. The one with the fewest men in the vulcano will then be the winner. Run fast!!

This is a fruity game, where the goal is harvesting the most points by the end of game. Pun intended….

Before the game really starts each player places in turn one of his workers on the rondel wheel, taking the fruit signified on the tile he sets it on. When all workers are placed the game can start. In his round the player may choose to either move one of his workers, deliver goods to a region on the board, or use a special action tile. Moving one of your workers makes you collect fruit from the main supply. You move from the tile where your worker is, as many steps as there are workers. So if there are three workers, in either color, you move three spaces. Then you take the number of fruits as workers existing on the tile you land. So if there are two workers, in either color, you take two of that fruit. There are two points on the rondel wheel that will supply you with a donkey cart. When you pass those points, you take in a donkey cart as well as the fruit you land on. If the general supply is exhausted all fruit of that type have to be returned before the active player can take in his share. This also goes for the carts.

When you are ready to deliver fruit to one of the areas, you will need the proper fruit and a cart. The topmost tile in each area signifies what is needed. You might be expected to deliver one of each to one tile, two types to another, and the all in the same type to another. Some tiles show a question mark as the fruit. That means that you can choose which ONE fruit you would like to deliver. In all you can deliver nine fruits with one cart. That means you for example can deliver to 4 oranges to one tile, 4 almonds to another, and 1 fig to a third. When you have picked up all your tiles, the next in those markets are flipped over and ready for delivery.

You third option is using a special tile. It can give you advantage on moving on the rondel wheel, or deliver more fruits one time. When you have used it, the special tile is out of the game.

So now, you only need to score the most points by hauling in the best markets to deliver to. There are VP for being the first to have tiles ranging from 1-6, as well, which will help. Depending on how many players there are, the game ends when a number of the markets are emptied.

I love this game! It is easy to pull out to newbies and non-gamers, easy to learn and easy to teach. There is a special charm, to, I feel over the components, that make it fun to play.

This is a card game which will take just about the same time weather you are two or seven. Each takes a wonder to build. With it comes some resourses, but hardly enough for what you need to do during the game.

It goes over three ages, where you are dealt cards at the beginning. Choosing one card you pass the rest to one of your neighbours. Then all simultaniously place the cards and deal with any cost or action required. Some cards are generel resources, some increase your army, some give you advantage for paying your nabours for the loan of their resourses, and so on. There are even some cards that you get to lay down for free if you already own a named card at the table. This will show itself on the card in question. So there are endless possibilities in scoring points!

When you are left with two cards in hand from age 1, you place one card in front of you and the other in a discard pile. Now you check towards your neighbours, to the left and right, who wins the battle, and scores or loses points for that. Then starts age 2. When all three ages are passed, the final score is tallied. In between all this, you have to consider when to build your wonder. Usually there are three parts to your wonder, which requires specific resourses. They will help in the final score, and if you have bonus cards that score, as well.

I find 7 wonders an easy, fun game. One that can easily be introduced to non-gamers. Once you have played one age, it is easy to understand the way of the game. What can be demanding is seeing the strategies, see how the priorities are. Do you want some resources to be available to your nabours? But you also need them yourself. So you often have to think through what to put down. Most cards tell quite clearly what they provide. Some you might have to read about. I just love this game! 😀

This game hit the table during a gathering I attended, and it hit the table time and time again.

The concept is easy enough to understand. There is a parade in Wonderland, and it is for us to make the best parade without anyone turning sour…. A fast paced, thought provoking card game!

OK, how do we do that? There are already six cards in line on the table, and each player sits with five cards in hand. Now you lay down the card that provides the best outcome for you at the back of the line. The deck consists of five colors, with numbers ranging 0 to 10. So starting with the six cards, if you then lay down a seventh, you need to check a few criterias; first you count off the number showing on the card you just put down, example; yellow card, number 3. You count off three cards from the your card. They are safe. Then you check the next few cards if they are yellow, has the number 3, or a lower number. If any cards match these criterias, you put them face up at the table in front of you. Sort the cards in their colors, and make sure all numbers are visible. Don`t fret, we all have to take in cards eventually… 🙂

The game is played untill either the deck is exhausted, or one player has five colors in front of him/her. Now we count minus points. Then all players, including the one ending the game, gets one more turn. That leaves you with four cards in hand. You keep two, discards the other two. Then at the same time, all players reveal their cards at the piles they already have in front of them. All cards count as minus the number that shows, apart from 0 which goes for 0, of course. However, if you have majority in number of cards in one color, you lay them face down in front of you. Now they count as -1 for each card. There is a kind tie break here. If two or more players have equal amount of cards in one color, they all get to flip their cards. The player that is the closest to 0 wins.

Even though this qualifies as a filler game, short, easy to learn, and all that, there is a lot of counting involved. You need to check your cards constantly to see how they fit into the ever changing parade. I found it quite fun that a filler game had a bit of depth to it.

Pack & Stack, also called Zak Pak, is an easy enough game. But also annoyingly tricky. In turn the players roll the dice and pick up their matching boxes for packing in the car. Each player is then dealt a face down car card. These cars can hold X levels of boxes, that can be placed in the compartment. Upon flipping the car cards, you now need to choose the car most suitable for the boxes in front of you. If none strikes you as a good car, you could chance the top of the face down stack. But that is quite risky! 😉 Now, it`s time to stack the boxes in your car, or as many as possible. This can prove very difficult. You might not get all your boxes on, you might end up with too few boxes for the car. On a rare occation you will match all your boxes to the space in the car. When everybody have placed their boxes as best they can, now we count the inevitable losses. The one with the least loss, recieves money accordingly, while the others lose their money equal to the minus points scored. The game is played until one player is left with money, and the rest is broke… Yeah, you can get broke here… 😛

I think this is a fun game, good filler between bigger games at game gatherings. For a party game, you get so engaged and eager at the grabbing of cars and trying to place the boxes. It`s quite a brain teaser. Have fun packing and stacking the cars!!

Using cards you move your horse on a racing track to win the big prize. But during your run you have to pay tribute to Caesar himself, stopping by his balcony. The game contains to tracks, each with their obstacles.

This game is a cut throut racing game. You`ll try to sabotage for your opponents, you`ll try to get a head start in some of the narrow ways, you do your best to perform for Caesar.

I love this game, it`s easy to teach and easy to learn. It`s also a quick game, good for a filler. And it is fun and entertaining.

This is an easy card game. You start with having a camel. He can take a weight of 50. You don`t want to be the one to break his back! The cards are compiled of different wights, some on the plus side, some on the minus side. Also there are some special cards that can change turn order, or make you chose how much weight you put on. A feather helps you win the game if the weight is at 50. Then you`re the only one to score. Otherwise the one who breaks the back don`t recieve points, while the others score the number cards in their hands, summing up plus and minus.

It`s a fun card game, you try to throw off the others, and playing it late at night is even more fun. It is also good as a filler game, if you have just like 20 minutes to kill, and laughter is a short way away. I am always ready to sit down and play it. Not much thinking required, so if you`re tired, then it`s just that much more fun!

Stone Age is an easy, entertaining game. You start up with a small tribe to go out to build huts, gather resources and even make a few babies! In turn you place your workers at the area you wish for. You have many choices; resources like wood, rock, clay and gold, food. You also have huts you build out of the resources you get hold of. Cards give you prizes, like extra food or resources. Houses on the board gives you the chance to store food, so you don`t need to hoard so much of it, one for making babies, which in turn gives you more workers for the following rounds, one house for making tools to use in order to recieve more resources. All in all, you have an abundance of choices.

After you have placed your worker, you can not go back in the same area to place more at a later time. Exept for the hunting field, where you require food, there is a limit to how many can occupy the area at the time. In the house for making babies, you need to place two of your own. Resources are resolved by rolling dice, one for each of your worker at that area; ie: if you have three workers at the area for wood, you roll three dice.

The game is played in rounds. Each player resolve their actions in turn, and they chose what to do at which time. This is important in order to get enough resources for what you wish to aquire. At the end of each round you will have to feed your tribe, so you need to make sure you have enough food by the end. You gather up your workers, and a new round starts. Then the game is played until either the deck of cards are spent, or one of the piles of huts are spent.

This game is fun and easy. Easy to learn, and then also easy to teach. It all depends on the luck of the dice, but you also have to work up a strategy as well. When do you need extra workers? Do you need more tools? Which cards will you go for? And so on. This is one of my favourite games, among other reasons because of its easy game mechanics. As soon as you have played through the first round, you know how the game is played.

Your goal in the game is building towers. The tallest, the most towers, stash them up in order to earn more points. To do that, you need to buy parts for the tower; base and top are most crucial. After that you can buy windows, shields, and other parts to make the towers tall. But you also need money.

On each area the first person to lay down a card sets the color for that area. You can still go there to buy parts, if you instead pay two cards. To put out parts for your towers you need to put down a card AND pay for the part; one coin for each part. Minimum requiered is that a new tower has a base and a top. After that you can expand as much as you like. You score points immediately after that. When everybody have used up their cards, the round ends, and you score for all your towers. Then a new round begins.

In the end you also score for having the tallest tower in each color and having the most towers. Winner is, of course, the one with the most points in the end

In this game you need to have some imagination. All you need to do besides that is have a good hand for rolling dice.

You simply roll the dice, and start making a story out of the images that turn up. Of course you need to be quick, have your wits about you. It`s fun and entertaining, especially at night.

The symbols on the dice open up for a lot of interpretations, and you need to be spontanous in driving the story forward. In all probability it`s more like a party game, rather than anything else. It`s a quick filler game, especially at night, with a glass of wine on the side.

This is a co-operative game. Players recieve roles as scientist, medical personell, engineer and such in order to find cures for four viruses raveging the world. They travel around building research stations and removing virus, in form of cubes. And they have to try to contain the decieses, as it suddenly can come an epidemic.

It`s all a race against time, constantly thinking ahead, what`s needs to be done. The good thing in this game is that we work together. That has made it easier even to learn the game, as we discuss together what the best move is for everyone. It`s also a good twist that you can set up the game from easy to advanced, all in accordance to how hard you wish to fight in the game. We tend to sit pinned in front of the board when we play it!

You are set to program a robot, to search out flags inside a room. They can get stuck in a loop, suddenly turning a completely different way than expected, and might even get shot at by the other robots! But it`s all fun and games! Might be a bit difficult at first understanding exactly how it works. I struggled with it the first times I played to plan properly, make decisions to help me further on. But eventually I learnt a few tricks. Highly enjoyable the more you play it and the more you master it.

Ancient Rome. Time to put on a show.

The game is played through five rounds with five phases each. You start off with a small arena, with two tiles in your color. In phase one you invest. Here you can buy upgrades for your arena, as some shows require bigger arenas to run, new shows for the bigger arenas (you start off with two small shows at the start of the game), or season ticket, which gives you five more on audience, or an emperors lodge.

When all players have performed one of these tasks (or passed), it`s time for second phase. Now you go to marked, to buy some more assets for your show, like warriors, horses, ships and so on. The active player bids on one of the five markeds, holding three asset tokens. Minimum bid is 8. If the active player loses the bid, he moves on to the next marked, untill he eventually wins a bid. Only then is the empty marked restocked.

Once you have bought at the marked, your phase two is over. In phase three, there is a possibility to trade between the players. That way you can get hold of assets that you ar missing for your show. All trades have to go through the active players, and future arrangements are not allowed.

In phase four it is time to put on the show. There are six dignitaries roaming the streets of Rome. You start off rolling a die to see if any of them visits your show. If you have emperors lodge, you roll two. You cannot split the die between dignitaries, but you can use them both on one. They can only go one way. You announce the show you are putting on, and count off if you have it all. Missing one or two of the assets, you will find at the bottom of the program what it will do with the score. Then you check for extra points, like dignitaries within your arena, maybe you have bonus tiles for having majority in one asset, season tickets and medals, that you get from landing a dignitary on a special medal tile on their track. The medal can also be used to track a dignitary back 1, 2 or 3 steps, so he might reach your arena. You move on the point track equal to the final score, and recieve the same amount of money.

Should you run a show later that scores lower, you stay at the previous score, but you recieve the money for the current show. However when you score higher on the next show, you do not move equal to the number, simply to the actual number; example – last round you ended on 14, current round you scored 26, so you move to 26, not 26 spaces from 14…

Then comes phase five. Closing ceremony. All players discard an asset used in the show. A horse breaks his leg, a warrior gets impaled…well, you get the drift. 😉 Then the first player marker goes to the next player. The leader recieves a token for three extra audience, and the one with lowest score gets to take an asset from the leader. Now it starts over from phase one.

Since you only get to do one thing in each phase, you seem to have to little time to get everything done. This is where the medals can play a vital role. If you sit pretty on at least two medals at the beginning of phase one, you can pay them in to do two things in that phase; so you can upgrade your arena from three to four, and buy one of the biggest shows, that requires an arena the size of four. That`s a good thing!

This game I tend to play alone during late evenings alone, as I find it very fun to play. It is easy to learn, and I find the components very well made. I constantly try to teach it to new people, and I have had people asking for it when I don`t have it with me. I just love this game to death!!