Pentegarn

The 3rd installment of the popular Azul series comes in with a couple of new twists on the classic Azul game play

Gameplay/Replay

The game is played across 6 rounds. Much like Azul and Azul Stained Galss of Sintra, the basic play is setting 4 tiles (diamond shaped this time) on each platform and then taking turns removing like tiles while putting the rest of them in the center. Only this time you can also take one wild tile if there is a wild tile there with them. Instead of placing them on your mat like other Azul games, you put them off to the side (that’s right, this Azul is played in phases) until all the tiles have been selected in turns. If you choose to take the start player from the center you lose 1 point per like tile you take while taking the start player tile (though you cannot drop below 0). Once all the tiles have been selected, the second phase happens

Phase 2 of the round starting with the new start player, you place tiles on your map. You can use 1-6 like colored tiles (wild tiles are acceptable, but at least one of your tiles must be the color you are playing) and place them on the matching spot marked 1-6 of that color on your board. Points are then scored based on how many tiles of that color are touching (1-6 points) You place until you choose to pass for the round, and while you can keep up to 4 tiles between rounds (except for round 6) any more unused tiles beyond 4 cost you 1 point per tile. After 6 rounds you score complete sections of the map along with a binus if you cover all 1s, 2s, 3s, or 4s.

The Bad

In 4 player games running out of tiles before filling everything is a possibility. We just worked with what we had for a short final round, which was slightly annoying.

In Conclusion

As Azul games go, it is probably the most strategically deep of the 3, and despite the tile shortage in 4 player games, it is still the best of the 3

The newest game from Jamie Stegmaier is looking to be as big of a hit as Scythe is.

Gameplay/replay

The game is played over multiple turns. Each turn you have 2 options. Either take income (which you are limited to doing 5 times throughout the game) or you advance one of your 4 tracks which are science, military, tech, or explore. Each track will make various things happen, science tends to give you additional advancements on one of your 4 tracks, military often allows you to conquer a territory adjacent to one you control, tech allows you to discover inventions, and explore allows you to discover new land on the map. All the tracks also allow you to remove buildings from your player track and add them to your capital city, a 9×9 grid where you place buildings and landmarks (a reward for being the first to achieve a new tier on a track) allow you to gain points for every full 9 length line or column and a good of your choice when you finish a 3×3 section.

Income turns allow you to collect income based off of how many buildings you have built, advance one technology, score points based off lines and columns in city, land conquered, and play a tapstry card, which either gives you an immediate bonus, or sets a special rule for the next er for your civ.

The Bad

This game calls itself a Civilization game and if you have played other civ titles like Nations or Through the Ages you will soon realize this is quite inaccurate. What it is however is great engine builder with a civ theme painted on. Also the game is crammed full of incoagraphy that will be confusing to new players. Additionally,the tapestry and invention cards are random and varied. That can frustrate some players.

In Conclusion

Misleading description aside Tapestry is still a very good game, one possibly on the level of Scythe. It looks good, plays well, and each time you play it will be different giving you tons of replay value. Highly recommend this one..

Up front I will say this: I absolutely loathe co-op games. I turn into the annoying general alpha gamer whenever I play them, I am awful at stopping myself from doing so, and therefor I avoid them. Yet I played this anyway

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle flies in the face of the traditional co-op, in that 2 people who both despise co-ops played through the entire thing and LOVED it

Gameplay/replay

It plays as a team deck builder played across 7 game sessions. You start with an easy adventure where your only 3 goals are defeat Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle, and Professor Quirrell before all the locations are corrupted by the dark arts. Each turn you gain coins, damage, hearts, and possibly more cards and use them to damage the villain, remove corruption, heal yourself or your allies, ad buy new cards to add to your growing deck. However the villains strike back every turn and can stun you if you take enough damage, disrupt key abilities like healing, removing corruption, drawing cards, or sometimes even buying new cards.

The interesting thing about the game was like the young Hogwarts heroes I was also learning how to more effectively battle Voldemort’s minions with each new game, and once the later games open up new mechanics, you have to fold these into your playstyle and work together playing to each other’s strengths. For example, whoever plays Neville gets to use healing cards more effectively, so him purchasing more healing cards like ‘essence of dittany’ is a good idea. As the new scenarios get harder, we got better at the game so that by the end, we were able to win, but just barely. The challenge by the end is extreme, but the way you learn from your mistakes and successes is satisfying.

The Bad

The challenge ramps up rapidly. Maybe too rapidly for younger players. Also, fans of the books will notice that villains who die in certain places keep reappearing in each subsequent scenario which will make no sense whatsoever to said fans.

In Conclusion

Story confusion aside, this was an extremely fun co-op deck builder. I was glad I played it, and you will be glad you played it too

An interesting concept of gathering cards to purchase other cards. It’s been done both before and after Abyss, which kind of hurts it.

Gameplay/Replay

Each turn in this engine building hand management game you have 3 choices. Show cards that your opponent can get first crack at, you can take card at any time if the opponent don’t buy it or keep flipping cards till you reach the last spot in the board, once you get there you must take the last card and one pearl. All other cards go to their various faction spaces to be used in choice 2. Choice 2 you can take all the cards from 1 faction space. Choice 3 is use the cards you have from choices 1 and 2 to buy a lord for victory points and possibly a key. 3 keys are used to get a location you can use for extra victory points of other game altering abilities. The game ends when a player gets their 7th lord card

The Bad

As I stated in the opening sentence, this game does nothing new, and while the art is interesting (I do like wildlife pictures, be they drawn or photograph) this game doesn’t bring anything new to the table and left me with an overall feeling of being underwhelmed.

In conclusion

While it is by no means a bad game (it is perfectly functional doing what many other games also do) if you were to pass it by because it doesn’t do anything new, I would totally understand

As other’s have said I am sure, this is basically Brewster’s Millions: The Board game. Does such a concept work in board game form though?

Gameplay/replay

Mix parts engine building, worker placement, and hand management, then add in a heavy dose or the absurd, and you have a game that manages to get that theme out there in euro form. Taking a page from Mad Magazine the board game, the object of the game is to LOSE all your money, a counter-intuitive concept usually, but this game makes losing it all fun! You start by choosing turn order which also gives you how many cards you draw, workers you may place, and actions you can take. You then place your top hats (workers) and take your actions. Actions are how you blow your financial wad and stringing together the proper combination of real estate, companions, and activities effectively will help you lose more money per action you take. The game plays over 7 rounds, unless you manage to lose all those millions early which triggers endgame in the round where you go into debt.

Where this game actually shines is in the cards, for example in one turn a player took a horse to the theater and a dog to a fancy restaurant, causing us to laugh and say “This game is stupid, I love it!” It is rare for theme to carry a game that plays like a Euro but Last Will does so quite well (let’s face it adding a horse to most things makes them funnier, that’s just comedic law)

The Bad

It’s an older title, and that shows as the play itself is fairly basic worker placement and engine building fare. If you’re looking for unique gameplay that has never before been seen, this is not it.

In conclusion

Pedestrian gameplay aside (which is fine, it’s solid gameplay regardless) this is a fun time! If you like a bit of silly in your game and enjoy playing with like minded buffoons like myself who crack wise excessively and giggle like idiots when silly things happen or are said, this one will deliver.

A resource management engine builder with dice. Santa Maria is a different twist on dice drafting

Gameplay/Replay

The game is played over 3 rounds. Each round 3 white dice per player are rolled. You may draft up to 3 of those dice each turn to activate the buildings in a column on your personal player board. You also have a blue die to activate a row on your board. You gather resources and can use them to buy tiles to place on your player board to give you more buildings or to buy ships that give you bonuses at the end of the round like coins, VP, or moment on the conquistador and religious tracks.

The tracks themselves are a factor as well. The religious track allows you to unlock up to 2 more blue dice, as well as place tokens on a bonus board for ways to cheat, more resources, or end game goals.It’s first come first serve here, unless you want to pay 2 coins to another player to share that space with them. The conquistador track is a point grab track that resets every round. In a 3 player game for example furthest player on the track gains 6 points in the first round while 2nd place gains 3. 3rd place gets nothing.

Your round ends when you decide to pass and take a bonus. 2 coins will get you start player next round.

End game is scored by a combination of VP collected, VP on ships, complete columns and roads on your board that have people tiles in them, and your religion track reward spots that grant points based off the goal they display.

With all the different ships, dice combos and buildings you can get, and various end game goals, replay is quite high

The Bad

Jostled player boards can create a problem as the tiles shift. Also initially your starting board is kind of sparse so it seems like it is hard to get things going.

In Conclusion

A solid dice drafter/engine builder. Worth at least playing, and possibly owning if you love rolling and drafting dice like in a game like Roll Player

At long last I got to play the classic, but impossible to get a copy of game, Russian Railroads.

Gameplay/replay

You place workers in various amounts to build rail, factories, engines, hire additional workers, acquire coin, advance your factory tech, acquire more factories or engines, or hire an engineer. This is done until everyone passes, at which point scoring is done based off how far you progressed along your tech track and 3 rail routes using advanced rails. Reaching points on various tracks unlocks rewards while engines allow you other rewards and help score victory points. Each track has a different strategy involved for scoring and you can focus on them in multiple different ways. Scoring starts to get silly and the game is very self aware on this front as they have 100, 200, 300 and even 400 point tokens. After 6 rounds the game ends and whoever’s obscenely high score is highest is the winner.

The Bad

This is out of print, so out of print I had to order a German copy off “Amazon dot de” and print English rules to even get a hold of it. Also for a worker placement it is long, the box even warns you it is at least 2 hours in duration. That’s fine for me but some people can’t play one game that long

In conclusion

Worth the effort to find this and play it, it indeed lives up to the hype that I have seen over the years. I only wish I could get the expansions that also seem impossible to find now.

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!

Ever play the original Manhattan Project and think “This ends too abruptly, and it needs dice”? Enter Manhattan Project Energy Empire

Gameplay/Replay

In a post WW2 era, producing energy so the world can move on is important. You play one of several countries trying to efficiently produce power and resources, rub elbows with the UN, and do so while keeping the pollution your efforts produce minimized.

Your turn consists of either taking a work action, where you pick one of 3 sections, government, industrial, and commerce to take an action on, if you do so you may activate buildings that you own that match the section you take an action from. Energy generated can activate your buildings as can your workers. When placing a worker, if nobody is in that space, it requires one worker, if someone got there first, you must add energy or workers till you have one more than whoever has the most in their stack there.

Your other option is to generate, where you can take an achievement if you have 2 of any combination of workers or energy left when you do, then you pull back all your workers, then roll your factory dice to generate energy and if your highest factory die has pollution on it, gain pollution. Each time pollution is gained, be it through the generate action, building a structure that creates pollution, or through an event, it is pulled from the event track, which acts as the games timer. When an event’s pollution runs out, that event happens and you score based off how unpolluted your nation’s air, land, or water (indicated on the event card) is.

After 6 events (the latter 3 events being much more harmful to everyone than the first 3 are) the game ends. Buildings, unpolluted squares on your board, factory dice, achievements, and your rating on the UN track are totaled to determine the winner.

The Bad

This doesn’t have much bad to be said about it. If I have to poopoo something I could say the power plant theme has been done almost as much in the world of euros as vikings has, but that’s not a valid critique, I just needed to put SOMETHING here

In Conclusion

This is a great game. It plays under 2 hours usually so it doesn’t wear out its welcome. The cardboard workers and energy tiles are thick and easy to work the way the mechanics of the game intend them to. Worth finding and playing.

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

A solid engine builder with an unconventional theme, birds. Printed on top notch paper and cardboard stock.

Gameplay/replay

The game is played over 4 rounds. In round 1 you start with 8 actions but each round you lose 1 action cube to mark your round goal score. By the 4th round you are down to 5 actions. Your actions include:

Gain food: pull food from the feeder (randomly rolled food dice) based off the amount of forest birds you have. It is sometimes possible to pump this power by discarding cards. Food is used in the play a bird action

Lay Eggs: Place eggs on your played bird cards based off the number of plains birds you have. It is sometimes possible to pump this by discarding food tokens. Eggs are worth points at the end of the game.

Draw cards: Draw cards from the 3 on display or a random one from the draw pile based off how many water birds you have. This can sometimes be pumped by discarding eggs. Cards are the birds you can play on your board.

Play a bird: Play a bird card you have in hand to your board by paying its food cost and placing it in the proper habitat. This may cost eggs in addition to cost if it is your second or higher bird in that habitat. The birds often have abilities that activate when played, between turns, or as part of the action their habitat represents. This is how your engine builds. Maybe you choose gather food and it allows you to get a free grain token each time you do, or possibly draw a card. Doing these secondary actions lead to points, extra cards, eggs or food, and sometimes allow you to rearrange the board.

The Bad

There’s a lot of bird cards, and they will be randomly shuffled every game. If random shuffled cards is a turn off for you, this will be an issue for you because your overall goals, starting hand, cards drawn, are all random. Also I feel the final round is too short and gives you an anticlimax feel at the end.

In conclusion

Random cards aside, this is a solid game. It is a good gateway game to introduce non board gamers to something that isn’t Monopoly, Clue, or Risk. If you can get over the random card aspect, you’ll find a fun game

The offspring of the “roll and write” Welcome To brings you a challenging “flip and fill”.

Gameplay/replay

Welcome To is a game where you try to rise up to the challenge of suburban planning by arranging houses, subdivisions, parks and pools to have the best most efficient planned series of neighborhoods. Each urn 3 cards are revealed. They will have values of 1 through 15 and your job each turn is to choose one of the 3 numbers and place them on your neighborhood board. Like in the game Qwinto, these numbers must be in ascending order from left to right in each row. If you are unable to place any of the 3 numbers as the game goes on, you take a miss for end game negatives. Along with the number you choose will be one of several actions you can take. These actions can be

Place a fence- Adding a fence between houses to create subdivisions for goals or end game scoring for subdivisions sized 1 through 6

Parkland- increase the value of your park in the street you placed your house that turn

Temp- hire a temp who will allow you to alter the number you choe by plus of minus 1 or 2, this also plays into an end game bonus

Pool- if you place your number on a house with a pool, increase your end game pool score

Real estate- increase the endgame value of a subdivision size

Bis- add a duplicate house of the same value in a blank spot next to a filled spot. Then increase the penalty of your end game “Bis penalty”

Game ends when a player either
-fills out all houses
-records 3 misses
-Accomplishes a 3 public goals

The Bad

It is addictive, as such, you can and likely will run out of sheets fast, I suggest laminating at 6+ (possibly more the game does say plays 1-100) and using dry erase markers to alleviate that

In conclusion

As “and writes” go this is probably my favorite one, and that’s saying something with how much I love the roll and write/flip and fill” genre. Get this one and get it yesterday!

NOTE: my review covers the “Deluxified” version of Gentes, the retail version will not have metal coins or wooden action tiles. hourglasses, or worker tokens

TMG’s “Deluxified” series of games improve with each new game they’ve deluxified. In this game, the coins are robust, hefty, and a pleasure to hold, the upgraded action tile, hourglasses, and citizen tiles are a quality wood, the player boards are double layered so everything put on them stays in place and glosy so they have a nice shine to them.

In Gentes, time management and action selection are used to try to build the most buildings and outposts to gain the most VP and win

Game play/replay

Gentes is played over 6 rounds divided into 3 eras. During the game you use your allotted time to select actions which you place into your time bar on your board. Then add the appropriate number of hourglass tokens after the action token by either placing one hour glass er space or 2 per space. These actions allow you to claim building cards, build building cards, place outposts on the main board, acquire more citizen/workers of one or two of 6 kinds, gain gold, take start player, or pass for the round. Each action (other than passing and taking start player) costs gold, time, or both. Once everyone passes you go into a decline phase where you get rewards based off of outposts built or buildings that give decline bonuses. which can be bonus cubes, gold, or VP. If your unplayed hand is too many cards a penalty is given. If the round was 2 or 4 you gain another space on your timeline on your board.

The Bad

The citizen slider rules are baffling the first time you play. 2 citizens are on each slider and combined cannot be higher than 6, so 4 soldiers means you cannot have more than 2 merchants, if you get more merchants, you lose that many soldiers. This is’t a problem initially because you wont have that many citizens to begin with, but as actions and buildings happen, this quickly changes. New players might find this confusing. Also in the “Deluxified” version, you have to assemble the foamcore insert that comes with it. that requires superglue and I get that **** everywhere when I use it.

In conclusion

Pretty good game, I was surprised how much I liked it, but am glad I accidentally preordered it and then forgot I did so till my FLGS told me I did 😛

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

A gorgeous game packaged with care that is a sight to look at from opning to playing it, unfortunately it falls shhort when the playing actually takes place

Gameplay/replay

El Dorado is a race to make 4 offerings at 4 temples, it is played over 2 different areas, the island which houses 3 temples, and the cave which houoses the last one. The play itself is rather simple in nature. Roll 2 dice, one is gathering power, one is number of actions. You decide which is which. So far so good. Get those offeings made, get those farms built, win fights. Sounds fun right? Well….

The Bad

The longer I played this, the less enamored I was. While it sounded good on paper, it fell short in execution. Most of the game seems to end up being you and your opponents throwing haymakers at each other where one side loses everything and has to start from scratch. Farms burned, villagers slaughtered, fortresses destroyed, which makes the exploring aspect often get forgotten as you rebuild and counterattack… over and over and over. Then there’s the cave itself, a nonstop series of fights against cave dwellers all in the hopes of finding the last temple. The game wore out its welcome very quickly once we saw how combat seems to be the be all end all of this game.

In conclusion

A good 4x can be a masterpiece. The other side of the coin however is that a bad 4x can be a chore. El Dorado looks spectacular, it really does, but it is style over substance in the end for me. Hopefully the person who buys my copy will enjoy it more than I did.

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 third iteration of Thunderstone brings it into the echelon of deck builder plus games like Trains, Tyrants of the Underdark, Clank!, or A Few Acres of Snow.

Gameplay/Replay

Much like previous editions, Thunderstone Quest starts you with a modest deck of starter cards which you use to purchase in the village or visit the dungeon, through visits to the village you purchase cards to improve your deck in order to defeat stronger dungeon denizens. Quest improves on this concept in several ways.

For starters, you now have several village actions that you can take when visiting the village. The choice you make decides what your purchase includes, many choices will allow you to buy a card with an extra action, such as promoting a hero card, getting an item, or healing. That’s right, in this version, you have a health track, and said track will affect how many cards you draw at the start of your turn so keeping that health up is important.

In addition, the dungeon now is a board where the strongest monsters are in the deepest part while weaker monsters are closer to the surface. Light is still a factor, but it how much light you need can be wildly varied depending on the room tile the monster is on. There is also a new giant rat persistent monster at the entrance you can kill for a free purchase at the village. Things get dangerous when enough keys come out and the rat gets replaced by the big bad of the game. That last turn everyone gets additional cards in their draw for a final crack at the big boss. Most pints win

The Bad

Well for one thing this game weighs a lot, not game difficulty weight, I mean I can state its weight in stone. You will gain musculature when carrying it from the shelf to the table. Also the randomizer factor is still a problem as odd mixes can cause messy results, but playing them in adventure pack form is a decent fix as the packs are balanced for the adventure they are trying to give. Also it is hefty on the wallet especially if you want the adventure packs as well

In Conclusion

I for one think this is the best version of Thunderstone yet, and good news, it is as of this writing still available in deluxe form, though the magic of a Kickstarter expansion. That said it is NOT cheap (as mentioned earlier) though it is probably now my favorite deck builder and I think the cost worth it.

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.

While I wouldn’t say this is my personal favorite worker placement game, I would say it is an objective worker placement masterpiece that most avid worker placement fans will enjoy

Gameplay/Replay

As a family running a vineyard you use your workers through the year to grow various kinds of grapes, turn them into wine and fill orders with the various people looking for certain kinds of wine of certain ages. The game is played over multiple rounds where you go through 4 seasons doing things throughout each season to help make your vineyard the best. You start by placing your rooster meeple on the turn order track to get a reward, the better the reward the later in the round you go. In the summer you choose to build improvements, plant grapes, get grapes to plant, entertain visitors or give a tour. Fall gives you a summer or winter visitor then in the winter phase you can harvest, make wine, entertain winter visitors, hire an additional worker, or fill an order. The catch to all this is you only have so many workers to spread through the entire year and a summer worker cannot be played in the winter (barring certain visitor cards changing this of course). Play continues till someone scores 20 then the year is played out and the player with the most points wins. With all the different visitor cards you will find a new way to play every time.

The Bad

Very little to talk about here. I guess if you hate crass jokes about a word that is a synonym to rooster then you might get irritated when people say “ok it’s wake up phase grab your roosters” and all the people as immature as I am start giggling. Also the theme is a little dry (Ha! Get it?!) but I found myself enjoying the game theme and all.

As worker placements go you can’t go wrong with this one. Get the essential edition though it really improved the original game by leaps and bounds

Artifacts Inc. is a nice dice placement that packs into an easy to carry box. Good for trips where you might be looking to kill an hour

Gameplay/Replay

In Artifacts Inc. you race to get to 20 points first and then have the most points after all players have taken an even number of turns. Players do this by gathering various kinds of artifacts like fossils or idols or gems or parchment. Each player starts with 4 cards that give them 3 different locations and 3 dice per turn to roll. The 3 locations give players 2 expeditions and a place to purchase upgrades to their artifacts for hire company. Money can be made by selling artifacts in amounts to various museums or by selling them to a public space where you can get 1 dollar per artifact with a bonus per extra unique type you sell. This money can be used to buy upgraded buildings which give you points. All points are tracked as you buy which can make the game seem to end sooner than expected, but it is often a tight race where having majority in things sold to a museum (the only end game bonus) can make all the difference. Every game the buildings are randomized so each play is different, though the dive mechanic will remain the same every game.

The Bad

This game can be prone to AP for some as you get more and more to do with upgrades giving yo u more dice, rerolls, or the ability to increase/decrease a die roll. More options means more thinking about what the best move is. Also it isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game yo have ever looked at and at times you will not have enough cubes (you can use a site that sells cubes to fix this however.)

All that said for what it costs MSRP wise this is a good little middle of the road dice placement game

So if La Granja’s dice selection mechanics and the tile placement mechanics of Castles of Burgundy had a baby that they lay in a bed of Victory Point Salad you would have Grand Austria Hotel.

Gameplay/replay:

You are managing a hotel/cafe where you have to prepare your rooms and give the customers in your cafe what they want to entice them to occupy said rooms. Played over 7 rounds with 2 actions per player per round, there’s certainly scant little time to screw around. And the game can be very unforgiving if you neglect certain things (like the emperor track in odd numbered rounds where not hitting your goal can be catastrophic). In these 14 total rounds, you select customers, then choose between getting desserts and drinks (which your customers want), preparing rooms (so you have a place to put those satisfied customers), hiring staff (for end game points or for abilities that help throughout the game), or getting money or a push on the emperor track. As you fulfill the needs of the customers you select they will occupy rooms you have prepared, which get you points both for the customer and at the end of the game for the room. Every odd numbered round from 3 on is an emperor track scoring round where you either win a bonus, win nothing, or take a severe penalty. The game ends when the 7th round concludes and the end game points are added to your score overall. As there so many ways to get VP you can try many things in future plays and keep things fresh for yourself.

The bad:

There’s a heavy amount of iconography and yes the book does a splendid job explaining it, but there is so much that multiple people will need to see the book slowing the game at times. The game would be better served with some quick reference sheets (print them up if you can find a good set anywhere) The first time you play this it will be a bit of a challenge to maneuver properly through the myriad system of combos that the cards can grant, but don’t let that deter you

In the end, it is a heavier game than it looks at first, but it is really fun and worth learning if you like a Feld-esque game without the Feld in it.

Conquer the Underdark by accumulating the best army and spreading your influence to the various Underdark Locations. I have always been a fan of deck builders but lately I want something more from them (for example A Few Acres of Snow) and Tyrants gave me just what I wanted from a deck builder in a market that has plenty to choose from already

Gameplay and replay:

The game is played over multiple turns. Similar to Ascension in execution, you play your hand and buy cards, then take military actions such as deploying your troops, or removing opponents troops or spies from play. You start like in most deck builders with very basic cards that give you either one purchasing power or one military power, but as you purchase more powerful cards the number of purchases and military actions you can take grows. You assert influence in places you have presence, which means you must have a troop adjacent to, or a spy within, the location in question before you can put a troop there. Spies become very essential and you have only 5 to use. They are returned to you if removed from play. Troops are also limited, though you have dozens of them, however when a troop is removed from play by another player, it goes into their trophy case for points at the end of the game. You may also at times (provided you have a card that allows it) promote cards from your deck into your inner circle, they become more valuable for end game scoring, and also act as a means of culling less useful cards from your deck. Controlling areas will grant end game points, and controlling major areas will grant you VP and additional purchase power.

The game ends when one person is out of troops or when you cannot refill the available purchasable cards from the faction deck. Points are then counted from your trophy case, your territories you have control (with a bonus for each location you have total control of), your deck value, your inner circle value, and the number of victory point tokens you get from total control of a major location.

The Bad:

Not much to report here, the worst thing I can say is the insert could separate the cards better (much like a Thunder Stone or Dominon insert does) but that is a nit pick gripe just so I have something to put here. The insert is actually pretty nice otherwise.

Great game, very easy to learn, fun to play but really good tension and player interaction. Give it a whirl!

Terraforming Mars is a treat once you manage to learn it. An epic task, worthy of your time for sure, but monumental to learn

Gameplay and replay:

The game is played over several rounds where everyone takes turns using their various resources earned at the end of each round to fulfill contracts, alter Mars’ topography into a hospitable planet, preform tasks, or install cities. You build an engine with your actions allowing you to do further actions in subsequent turns until the game ends by getting the right amount of water in the surface, oxygen on the atmosphere, and global temperature. Points are scored for making these 3 things happen, fulfilling certain contracts, installing cities surrounded by greenery, and getting achievements and trophies

Each game get a little better as you better understand the rules. Which brings me to

The bad:

Love the game, hate the poorly written rulebook. Unclear syntax, awkward sentence structure, and a lack, at times of clear examples makes for a confusing out of the box learning experience. Not overly fond of the player mats or box insert which falls apart almost as soon as you return the game to the box while the player mats suffer from things getting jostled around on surface where the necessary information is too easily

Overall bad box, rulebook, and player mats aside, the game itself is a well put together experience that you will love once you manage to muddle through the poor rulebook

EDIT NOTE: This was my first review I wrote here and I hated it, so I am redoing it. Full disclosure, this is my all time favorite game and has been so for a decade. Still I will try to be as objective as I can

Considered by many to be Stefan Feld’s most successful creation, Castles of Burgundy is an easy to learn and quite hard to master game. Few games can claim that dice are their primary mechanic and still manage to be deep challenging games the way CoB can.

Gameplay and replay:

The game is played over the course of 5 rounds that consist of 5 turns per player. Goods are distributed around the reward spaces to count down the round and when the 25th good is placed that indicates the final turn of the game for everyone. Each turn you roll 2 dice which can be used to make 2 actions. Actions can be claiming a tile, placing said tile in a matching colored place on your map (all tiles must be connected), selling goods for a silverling and VP, or turning in a de for a worker that can effect later actions. Tiles placed on your board can give bonuses which can lead to a string of actions taken in a single turn. For example a castle tile placed would allow you a wild additional die, you could use it to get a tan tile then and use your second die to place it, and the tan tile might then allow you to grab a blue tile from the board as a bonus action. These sorts of combos for extra actions are where the beauty of CoB can be found.

The Bad:

If you hate dice in your euros, you will probably be turned off a bit. This game relies heavily on utilizing your die rolls and sometimes one can get some less optimal rolls. You can utilize workers to nullify this, but it does cost actions to get more workers.

In the end though, this game is a Top 25 Game for a reason. It scratches a lot of different itches, it strikes the perfect balance between challenging and relaxing