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It was over 10 years ago now that as a college freshman I was introduced to this small red box, covered in German writing. We had the manual printed in English so that us new comers would know what each of the development cards would be.

At its core is a simple yet fun resource collection and expansion game where you race your opponents to collect 10 victory points.

The game is fun to play with either 3 or 4, but suffers from the fact that randomness plays a bit too much into the results of the game when using the dice (the Deck in the Traders and Barbarian’s expansion fixes this). This is a double edge sword as it allows people with imperfect strategies to be competitive and win, but it can frustrate those players who had a grand plan and find the probability doesn’t go in their favor.

I’ve been playing settlers for over 10 years now and it was the game which got me into ‘modern/european’ board gaming. I still play it to this day, though I prefer the Seafarer’s and the Trader’s and Barbarian’s Expansions.

Highly recommended for all types of gamers, it has its flaws but it is still a classic!

Ever since its release 4E has gotten rather polarizing reviews. There are those who love it and those who think it has ruined D&D.

Having played and DM’ed 4E over the past two years (with 3/3.5 experience before that) I’ve appreciated the fact that it is the best edition yet.

Things that make this the best edition yet:

* Combat – It is streamlined, Standard/Move/Minor actions make it flow so much better than previous editions. No more Fighters with 8 attacks and Druids + Pets whose turns last 5+ minutes each. Players no longer dread getting into combat, it has become a fun part of d&d.

* Skills – The skills are enablers for players and DM’s, they arn’t restrained by not having trained X, Y, Z skill. By making the skills more generic it allows players to be more creative when using them and DM’s to be more accepting of different situations.

* No XP Drain for item creation and Death, always a poor consequence.

* Multi-Class Nerf, I understand that for some people the multi-classing is essential to their character’s story; however they have done well in scaling back the excessive munchkins people wanted to play.

In my experience this edition more than others allows for DM’s and players to keep with the first rule of improv. Just say yes! It does this by simplifying the combat rules and dropping alot of non-combat rules for just DM discretion. If a player wants to do something let them try, incentivize them for creativity and good role playing. Let the players drive the role playing and be willing to adapt and encourage it.

Le Havre, a successor to Agricola, is effective at distilling and refining the challenges of Agricola to make the overall game one of the best.

The game is all about the francs, it is the currency and victory condition for the game. During the game francs can be used for buying buildings or ships, paying entry into buildings or buying food.

Unfortunately for you the francs are not easy to come by and take a great deal of resource collecting, resource upgrading and selling. This gets to the main point of le Havre, Shipping.

Ships are the cornerstone of the game, providing constant food source and the ability to make bank by delivering goods for francs. Given this, the warf (ship construction) and the shipping lanes (sell goods) become the highly contested actions in the mid to late game.

Worker placement is quite strategic as when you take resources you do not move your worker, and thus you can occupy a building and effectively block your opponents for a number of turns.

The things that makes this game really stand out to me over Agricola is that victory points (francs) are useful throughout the game and that your aren’t scrambling at the end trying to fill all of the gaps in your farm.

Overall a great game assuming your opponents are patient and can appreciate the balance needed between gathering, construction and shipping.

At first glance Heimlich & Co. is a simple game. Roll a die move pieces around a circle, and everyone collects points when someone lands on a certain square.

Where it shines is in the mechanics, when you roll the die you can move ANY spy, in any combination, e.g. roll a 3, red moves two and green moves 1. This mechanic is important because everyone’s color is a secret. So you are able to advance another spy to a point lead only so everyone else focus on them while you slowly have your spy climb up the ranks.

Point’s are tallied when a spy lands on the location of the ‘secret dossier’, the dossier then moves to a location chosen by the person who moved that spy.

Given that everyone scores points when you land on the dossier there is a lot of power in its replacement. Too far away from everyone on the board means you don’t know where you’re spy will be when it is landed on again. Too close and the spy who is two ahead of you might increase his lead.

Overall its a great bluffing and game theory challenge as you race your spy to the top. Lots of fun to be had and it is a quick and easy to teach game.