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This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. I first looked at this game when it was called Ecolapse. You can read the preview for that here . I said it was "mind-blowing," and I stand by that. It is a brilliant game. But, for whatever reason, the game did not get picked up in that form. So, designer Steve Eggleston has reformatted the game, come up with a whole new theme, and polished a few rules. The result is Beetown Beatdown. The game plays largely the same. But gone are the troops, and in are the Bees. In what was previously a five-round game where you had to race to turn eight troops into Refuge sites three times to win; now, you turn ten Bees into Hives over three rounds. Also, previously the game system worked mainly using a tech tree that increased the power of your actions as you played. But now you simply upgrade your actions to make them more powerful. It is a cleaner and more efficient system. I do like tech trees, so it is a shame that part went. But the result is the same, and the process of developing your engine remains incredibly satisfying. But back to the start. Beetown Beatdown, much like Ecolapse, is a race game. Who can gather resources, expand their Bees, and build their three Hives first? You only have three rounds (now broken down into Seasons) to do this. But I found that quite often more than one player would have three or more Hives by the end of the second season. As such, games were often decided by the player with the most Hives, rather than the first to three, which made for very exciting and close games. ns this race game more into a resource management game. It is a game of efficiencies. A classic euro style experience. But unlike many euros, delivered in minutes, not hours. Especially with two players. Three players will encourage more fighting and often led to the game moving into the third season. But I still found games concluding within an hour. So, how do you play? Players take turns to perform one action. They can either use one of their four Worker Bees to carry out any of the four actions, or one of their four Drones to carry out any action that at least one of the Worker Bees has already done. Drones can perform any action, but only if they are copying something a Worker has done before. The first action for each type of Bee is free, but the second action will cost one resource, the third two, and the fourth will cost three. This is indicated by symbols revealed when you move the workers down from their starting position to the action spaces, so you won't ever forget. The Workers use Pollen, and the Drones use Nectar. Managing and gathering your resources effectively will be crucial in order to use all four possible Bees. But that will be rare in rounds one and two. The way your total number of actions is determined by your ability to manage your resources rather than the rules is something I love in games. Taking those extra turns when the other players are having to pass feels great. Resources are gathered by collating all resources on the map that are on a hex with one of your Hives, or the hexes surrounding them. But only the hexes that either are unowned or that you own. You own a hex if you have a Bee or Hive on it. During the action phase, players can add more Bees to the board and move them around to explore new unexplored hexes, gathering more resources as they do, growing their control of the board, and increasing the resource-gathering potential for later seasons. This is an area control battle that can turn to war! This part of the game, spending resources to add Bees to the board, expand your territory, and gather more resources feels a little like Blood Rage to me. Not thematically, of course. But in the spending something to add dudes to the map - to get more resources - to have more turns. That cycle is a very satisfying thing to noodle out in your head. If you ever move a Bee onto a space owned by another player, (either with a Bee or Hive) you must then immediately commence battle. Bees are angry little things, don't you know. This is done through very interesting new battle cards that offer all sorts of clever options. It is here that I think the game has improved the most. Previously, players had somewhat limited choices based on ten pre-set cards, consistent among all players. They were great cards, but the options were a little more limited. Now, players are dealt five random cards from a huge deck of brilliant, unique, and varied battle cards. Options to link them are everywhere. And the chance to pull off some audacious moves in battle are very high. It is a brilliant development of the game. And just check out the fantastic character and names too! Tell me you don't want all these characters as bobby head models! The other option in the game on your turn is to Extract or Build. Extract means that you will permanently end a particular hex's resource-generating possibility for a one-time hit. It's a dangerous move to make too early, especially if it is near one of your hives—remember, your hives generate resources on all neighboring hexes each round. So, you need to be careful with how often you do this and where you do it. But it can be a powerful way to get the resources you need to take the one extra turn you so desperately desire. Build is the final action, and what everything else you are doing is leading up to. There are two ways to build Hives. Either you convert ten Bees on one hex—located anywhere on the board apart from next to any existing Hive—and replace them with a juicy new Hive. You will also need to pay one Pollen for each existing Hive you have, plus one. So, later Hives do cost a fair bit. But as you only do this a few times in each game, it shouldn't be hard. And when you build one, it feels great. A real sense of achievement. The other way to build Hives is by removing eight Honey upgrades from your player board. Not the best thing to do too early, as your engine will greatly reduce in efficiencies, but a killer option for a later or final turn in the game! And on that, let's talk about the upgrading process. At any point in the game, you can convert two Nectar into Honey. Honey can then be placed onto any of the four upgrade slots on the bottom of your board to increase the efficiency of that action for the cost of one Nectar per Honey placed You can either move extra spaces, add extra Bees when you recruit, take more resources when you extract, or reduce the cost of building a Hive. Or, as mentioned above, use them to build a Hive. It's a genius way to make use of a resource you previously used to increase your engine during the game, to then have one final use of it before the game ends. You don't see this often in games, and I wonder why. It is a brilliant feeling to pull off one final killer move. The Honey can also be used to play extra cards during combat. You can play one card for free, and then as many as you like from your hand of five, spending one Honey for each extra card played. It is a very powerful resource, and worth investing in. If you haven't already guessed, I still love this game and think this new version is even better than the last. I preferred the previous theme, but still like this one. I just find it looks a little childish for my own tastes - a look that doesn't suit the game for me. But the actual game, rules, mechanics, and flow are all brilliant. The final version of this game would be a 9, close to 9.5 for me. It offers so much in such a short, quick gameplay experience. The game feels heavy, crunchy, and full of great decisions. You need to maximize everything you do and ensure you are increasing your number of turns, resource generation, and Hive production capabilities each round. And doing this feels so good. But it is all wrapped up within a game that is incredibly accessible, simple to teach, and quick and easy to play. It really is a brilliant game. I hope this version finds success and final production copies are made in mass numbers. This game deserves to find lots of loving homes.

Undaunted: Stalingrad WBG Score: 10 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Undaunted Series, Memoir ‘44 Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Trevor Benjamin , David Thompson By Steve Godfrey Since this is a legacy game I’m going to try to be as spoiler free as possible. I am going to be discussing how some of the basic legacy elements work in general but I’m not going to get into any specifics. I’m also not going to get in to how the game plays, there’s plenty of great videos out there to teach you the game and if you already know how to play an Undaunted game then this works pretty much the same just with one or two changes. Ch.ch.ch.changes. Speaking of changes, let’s get into them now. Controlling a tile has changed from Normandy. You can control a tile regardless of if it’s occupied by an enemy counter. Once controlled the only way it can change hands is if the controlling player has no units on that tile. Routing. When a unit of yours is attacked and you no longer have a card in your hand, discard pile or deck to add to your casualties pile, you place a white flag on it, it’s now classed as being routed and you get to push that unit to an adjacent scouted space. This will get removed once you bolster another unit of that type into your deck. If both of a player’s riflemen have been routed, they lose that game. Routed units can still be fired upon and any successful hit will let you move that unit back one space. Last but not least is withdrawal. When playing the campaign a player can choose to withdrafrom the scenario and hand victory to their opponent. It may seem a weird rule, why would you just give up. Well it’s sometimes better to take a loss in the face of inevitable defeat rather than have the potential of more casualties. Legacy elements. Again this isn’t going to go into specifics, just a brief overview of how the legacy elements work after scenario one. After each scenario, players will take their casualties and depending on how many they have, will draw a number of cards. These cards will be removed from the game permanently. Don’t worry, nothing gets destroyed, you just place it in a separate space in the box. They then get replaced with their equivalent reserve cards from the reserve deck. These cards are worse versions of the regular cards that could have one of a number of changes on them that’s now given you a disadvantage. These are there to represent untrained reserves that are being thrust upon your forces. Players will then take all the cards in your deck (not ones from their supply), shuffle them and then draw two. These cards then get replaced with upgraded versions from the upgrade deck and, as the name suggests, are better versions of these cards. As the campaign goes on you’ll see new unit types and map tiles will change as areas have the potential to be destroyed. Depending on who won the scenario you’ll be told to read a certain section of story in your book. Each player will get their own campaign book from which they’ll read their own story elements to themselves. At the end of the section it will tell players which scenario they need to play next. Each scenario will then let you know if you’ve unlocked any new cards/ units, will tell you how to set up your deck and the win conditions for each side. A legacy for all So far we’ve had two and a half Undaunted games (reinforcements added some cool stuff but wasn’t a stand alone game) and one of the things I love about the series is how they manage to keep the core system, the thing that makes Undaunted such a fun game, in place in each iteration. They still give each one a unique twist but it just means that you could jump from game to game and just read up on the new stuff. What’s also clever is that, although functionally similar, they’re all worth owning (given that you like the new aspects of course). I mention all of this because the thing that fascinates me more with Stalingrad is that they’ve achieved all of this in a legacy game without sacrificing any of the simplicity of Undaunted. It’s so easy to take one look at that big box and assume that you’d need some foreknowledge of the other games in the series first. But of course the brilliance of all this is that anyone can jump into Undaunted Stalingrad regardless of if you’ve previous experience with the system or not. If you’ve played an undaunted game before then all you need to do is flick through the rules for the changes and you can jump into your first game of the campaign. If you’re new to the series you can read the rules as normal and play the first scenario once through to get a feel for the game then play again starting the campaign proper. The campaign does a great job of starting you off on a smaller scale and then ramping up as you go along, but if you’ve played an Undaunted game before it never feels like “oh this is just here for the new players”. It’s actually quite a nice refresh if it’s been a while. It makes this huge box a little bit less daunting. (Sorry!) All this works in its favour throughout the campaign as well since any new key words/ rules etc are never too overwhelming and are introduced piecemeal throughout the campaign. Some of these fluctuate in and out from scenario to scenario which is actually a relief if you’re only able to scatter plays here and there. I love Pandemic Legacy season one, but the constant permanent addition to the rules meant that jumping back into it after a few months meant another big rules refresh before the next game could begin. It took a simple rule set and bloated it out. I do wish that all the rules regarding the keywords and attacking were a bit more consolidated into one section of the rulebook though. They were a bit scattered here and there. Whilst things weren’t hard to find, we did find ourselves flicking through the book a bit more than perhaps we would have liked. Campaigns and consequences So how does this work as a campaign? Quite simply, it’s fantastic, and one of the things that makes it work so well is, consequences! (Of course that could be said for any legacy game, I mean, that’s their thing). In previous games, having a card removed from your deck was more of an annoyance than anything else. Sure it hurt your game and potential victory but ultimately you knew that everything reset for the next scenario. That’s absolutely not the case here. Every hit you take is now a major blow, not only to the scenario, but to the campaign. Every casualty in your pile by the end of the fight has the potential to be cast out into that lonely space in the box and, potentially replaced with a lesser version that is almost certainly going to be an unwanted hindrance at the very worst time that could probably cost you a game or two across the campaign. There’s nothing worse than knowing that you’re a point away from victory, only to be left with a reserve rifleman who doesn’t have the ability to control! It’s not until you get into the legacy element of the game that you start to realise why the “withdraw” rule has been made. Winning scenarios is great, but sometimes taking heavy casualties could be more detrimental to your campaign than taking the loss. It also adds a really lovely thematic touch as it makes later games feel like a slog (but not in a bad way) As your decks and supply fill up with weaker cards, scenarios will draw out and you really get the feeling that you’re playing as an army at the late stage of a conflict. You’re tired, beaten down and you’re fighting to your very last. The upgrade and reserve system gives your deck building some even tougher decisions. When making your starting deck and bolstering you get to choose which soldier you add to your deck. Do you take your regular rifleman, the upgraded one or the reserve? It seems like a no brainer, take the upgrade, it’s clearly better. But then you ask yourself the question, what if they get hit? Then they’re in your casualty deck and have a chance of being taken out altogether. You start to take on the role of a protective parent as you umm and ahh and weigh up your options. Go in heavy with your best people and hope to get the job done quickly, or send in the reserves and try for a last minute push at the end when you’ve hopefully worn down your opponent. It’s a balancing act. Considering this is a competitive legacy game that you’re playing over fifteen scenarios it’s fair to ask “is it balanced?” But here's the thing, it’s not an easy question to answer with a simple yes or no. Now I will throw in the caveat that this game has a branching narrative and I’ve only played this through once (and at the time of writing this I am already in the throes of a second) so I can only speak to my particular playthroughs. Scenarios themselves depend on who won the previous scenario to determine their configuration, but most of them are usually weighted more towards one side. Which makes sense since this is a war game and how many wars do you know that are balanced?. It’s also thematic since it makes sense that winning a scenario will give you tactical advantage. Don’t let any of that put you off though. There were a few times that we looked at a scenario, looked at the other player and said “well you’ve won this one”, but it either went the opposite way or it went right down to the wire and could easily have gone either way. The other reason why this is such a hard question is the amount of variables. So many things will change across the campaign that will have an affect on how things play out. It’s difficult to say definitively that you’re going to have a balanced experience with this because there are so many factors that will go to shape that experience. The cards in your supply/deck, the state of the tiles and even which units you bring in on a given scenario and much more will go to determine how it all plays out. But since most of those decisions are player driven, it's really down to them and their tactics that determine how it all goes…….except the dice, dice will be dice. All of the above is why I think this game has a massive replay factor. The scenarios themselves are fun tactical puzzles with some great options to explore. How the game changes leading up to them will give you a wealth of different decisions to make and a wealth of options to explore. For example, choosing to level a building in one scenario could have a massive effect in a later one. On another playthrough it could be a different building or even none at all, which again could change your tactics later on. At the time of writing I’m five games into my second playthrough and I’m just as excited at the prospect of getting a game played as I was with my first playthrough.. I’m already seeing things change and different decisions being made, different units being used and scenarios play out in a different way to before. I’m almost more excited by this one because I want to see how things change compared to the first one. I can quite easily see this being a campaign I pull out at least once a year and playthrough again. It’s only as good as the sum of its parts. Now I have a confession to make when it comes to the story. I didn’t really get invested in it at first. That’s not a knock on the story but more my excitement to get to the next scenario. I was reading it and taking things in because I’d have a rye smile as it mentioned things that were to come in the scenario to come, but my eagerness to get playing again meant I did rush reading each section. After finishing the campaign I did go back through the scenarios we played and read through the story again. I have to say that for a game that is basically a big choose your own adventure style narrative, the story does hang together well. I think anyone who can construct a cohesive narrative around something like this deserves all the applause. My only worry is that the story could easily get lost depending on the length of time between plays. This isn’t a knock on the story, just a downside of how we consume this style of game. It wouldn’t be an Undaunted game without Roland McDonald’s fantastic art. I don’t The landscape on the tiles pulls you in with its dark colours giving the impression of an already hard fought war zone and the individual character art on all the cards give this a more personal touch than if there had been one character type for each type of unit. It’s as much a part of this series as the game mechanics. It ended with an “oh, right” There are a couple of misprints in the books (that I’ve seen anyway). One is more of a slight annoyance and we easily found the solution on BGG. Designer David Thompson has been a constant presence there to answer questions. The other one did put a bit a dampener to the ending of the campaign. Without spoiling it, it meant that we didn’t know that the scenario we were playing could have ended the campaign depending on the outcome. So when we found it was the end it gave the whole campaign and “oh…right, that’s it”. It’s a shame, because had we known that the campaign could have ended based on the outcome it would have really raised the stakes. It would have upped the tension and given those last few moves and dice rolls so much more meaning and excitement and made every point gained and casualty taken even more crucial. I will say that this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the campaign as a whole or even this last scenario. This is again resolved on the board game geek forums so if you have an earlier printing it’s worth looking this up when you get close to the end just so you’re aware but hopefully this is fixed in a future printing. Undaunted: Stalingrad is my favourite Undaunted game hands down and has now moved swiftly into my top ten games of all time. It doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of the others though. If I want to dive into a campaign then this is my preferred way to go. But if you want to get in a quick game of Undaunted then the others are on my shelf ready to go. Undaunted Stalingrad for me is the pinnacle of an already fantastic series of games.

Are you gearing up for an epic board game night with friends or family? To ensure a memorable and fun-filled gaming experience, I think a well curated menu of games is essential for the perfect evening. When planning your game night, curate a diverse collection of board games to cater to everyone's preferences. I can sometimes get hung up wanting to play one specific game. But what if your guests have played that game before and hated it? It's always good to have options. I suggest you aim to have a simple party game to start the night, a more substantial strategy game to play for the bulk of the evening, and then a light fun, filler card game to end. But, with options for each part of the course! Having a variety ensures there's something for everyone to enjoy. This way, you can switch things up, give people a choice, and keep the excitement alive throughout the night. So, without further ado, here are a few recommendations. The Perfect Dishes - A Three Course Gaming Menu of Perfection. Starter Course: Something to get everyone into the mood. light in rules, high in fun, and quick to play. Just search "Party Games" on WBG and you will find a plethora of choices to look through, but here is my top three recommendations. Block Party - Read more about that game here. Its pictionary, but you don't need to draw! Use blocks to create objects for your friends to guess. No artistic skills needed here, and can be taught in seconds. Just One - Read more about that game here. Party game heaven! So easy to teach and play, generally lands well with everyone I have ever played with, and can be played just chilling around sofas with no need for a table. Monikers - Read more about that game here. The perfect party game? Its basically articulate with random words and phrases, but then with layers. Round one, describe the card. Round two, now with one word. The in round three, with charades! But the things you describe stay the same, so players will remember what was previously said, so it just works. Hilarious fun! Main Course: The main event! High in strategy, a few rules to learn, but people are ready for something of substance. This time, search "Strategy Games" on WBG and you will find a whole heap of games to read about, but here is my TLDR top three recommendations. Circadians: First Light - Read more about that game here. My highest rated non-solo game from 2023 (when including the expansion!) Combo fun! This game will be sure to have your guest's scream with joy as they start to build their powers and enact outrageously powerful turns. Fun guaranteed, win or loose. Tiletum - Read more about that game here. My number one game from 2022 . You may argue with your friends how to pronounce it, but you sure will have fun playing with it! The CRUNCH in this game is delicious! But, it is a little beige. Beware! Blood Rage - Read more about that game here. It's one of my favourite games that isn't two-player only, or a legacy game, so it has to appear here. And thankfully, Steve is written a wonderful review for it! looks a bit "laddy" I admit. This is classic dudes on a map smashing around, right? Wrong. This is intricate card play with some awesome drafting. Dessert: A fun, quick, light, filler game to end the night if people have more tie, more appetite for more fun, but do not want to get into anything serious at this time of night. Now it's time to search "Card Games" on WBG. Years of work from me, condensed into a few seconds of your life, just to find the perfect game. A great trade off! Hanabi - Read more about that game here. If you want some cooperative fun, I cannot recommend anything higher. My favourite card game of all time, this is pure joy for me. Still offers some meaningful decisions to give you a proper game, but rules lights and the perfect way to end the night. And this time, hopefully everyone wins! The Crew - Read more about that game here. My third favourite card game of all time. The Mind is number 2 if you are interested. But this makes the cut due to the familiarity it will have to anyone who has played a simple trick-taker before. But now, they will do so in a co-op experience which could well ease the pain of for anyone who spent the previous two hours loosing your strategy game of choice! Ten - Read more about that game here. Every time I teach someone this game, they go out and buy it for themselves. It is so simple, quick, and easy to learn, but wildly addictive and fun to play. The perfect way to end any game night. Now, put out the snacks and refreshments, make sure you have comfy seats and good lighting, and away you go! Have fun.

Alpina WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Quick filler games with clever scoring options. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by:   Luc Rémond This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Alpina is a very simple little puzzle where players make two choices: Where shall I play my card this turn? And, which cards do I want to score from? Games last 10-20 minutes, but each game will feel quite different. Why? Because there are so many different ways to score, you will display 25 of them in each game, and you can only ever pick four to eight of them (depending on player count). It is a very simple, but clever system. Let's get it to the table to see how this plays. How To Set Up Alpina Pick one of the goats from the deck of cards and place it face up in the middle of the table. Then shuffle the rest of the deck and deal six cards to each player, placing the remaining cards into a face down draw pile. Then, each player takes four Hikers in their chosen colour for a four-player game, five Hikers in a three-player game, and eight in a two-player game. Be sure to also take your scoring marker in your colour too. Now, pick a first player at random and you are now ready to begin the game! How To Play Alpina Players will now take turns to play a card from their hand and then draw a card from the draw pile. You must always have six cards. When you play a card, you have an optional choice to place one of your Hikers down, either on the card you just placed or onto any card orthogonal to this card. This card will then score you points at the end of the game, based on that specific card's scoring function. Players will be collectively forming a five-by-five grid as they do this, so you can never place a card so that it forms a sixth card in a row or column. When the 25th card is placed and the five-by-five grid is complete, the game ends and players will then score their Hikers. Start on the top left of the grid and work your way along the rows, top to bottom - scoring each hiker one at a time. The box has a handy scoring device on the top edges of the bottom part of the box, so you can move your coloured counter along as you score each Hiker. Most points wins! But how do the cards score you points? Well, in many different ways. But they are largely themed around the cards in their near vicinity, row or column - based on what the card is. The Nutcracker bird cards will score you points based on other animals in the grid. The Chamois Goat will score you points based on other Hiker pawns in the grid. Whereas the Grass Frog will score you points based on the different types of landscapes on the cards in the grid. Each card will have one of these three animals on, as well as one of the three landscapes. Either the Mountain, Lake, or Forest. These are the animals and landscapes typically found in the Parc Naziunal Swizzer. The oldest national parc in the Alps. Where this game is themed. At the bottom of each card will be the way each card scores. For example, this card below has a Chamois Goat in a mountain. It will score you one point for each Hiker on any card surrounding this card at the end of the game. Whereas this Nutcracker in a Lake will score you one point for every Goat on the same row or column as this card, as well as one point irrespective of other cards. And this Frog will score you two points for each card that is orthogonally next to it that has any animal in a mountain. Make sense? Is It Fun? Alpina Card Game Review The game plays incredibly fast and does not offer anything that is new or, in truth, that original. But what it does offer is VERY interesting scoring. And if you like tile/card laying games where you need to maximize your scoring potential through clever placement of your cards/tiles, then this could well be a game that sits very nicely in your filler game pile. Within 10-20 minutes you will feel like you have made a few clever decisions, scored well from a few smartly placed cards, and experienced something that I would wager the majority of players would really quite enjoy. The game all looks gorgeous too. The art style is right up my street, and the setting is obviously a very picturesque and calming one. I would have liked a little more individuality in the art, but then again, the consistent styling between the three animals and three locations does make scoring a lot easier. You can find things quickly, and when you are constantly scanning up to 25 cards, looking to see where to place your card and hikers, this consistency in art does help. Come the end of the game, as you can see below, it is quite simple to quickly see where all the Frogs are, for example. And the changing landscapes and colors do then cause for a visually pleasing tableau, despite the minimal variation. But it is the scoring that sets this game apart the most. There are 11 different main ways cards can function, and lots of variations on that. Choosing which of the cards you want to place your Hiker on is always interesting. And the fact that you can place your Hikers on cards next to the card you place, not just the card you place, makes this decision even more interesting. A card someone else placed that does not work for them could work for you, and you have a chance to use it if you place a card next to it. But you will be thinking as you do this, does the card you place next to it help this initial card's scoring opportunities? This back-and-forth will be running through your mind more and more as the game continues. And this becomes more consuming as you have more Hikers on the board, scoring points for you in different ways. The knock-on effects of each card's potential use become exponentially more interesting the more Hikers you have on the board. Equally, are you helping another player more than you are helping yourself? There is a lot to think about in this little game. But nothing that will consume you. It's still quick, and light, and games will be fast and friendly. Sure, you can deliberately place a goat down next to a frog that really doesn't want to be next to that specific goat, and you did it for that very specific reason. But players know in this game you cannot control every card, 50% of them at best in a two-player game, 25% in a four-player. It's about controlling the controllables in this game. It is rare a card will max out its scoring unless players start grouping similar scoring cards together, but even then, they still won't ever work in complete harmony as each card and card placement is slightly different. As such, if you like card/tile placement games where you are making a collective tableau and exploring interesting scoring options, and are looking for a quick game in this field, I could not think of anything to recommend more than this game right now. It does what it set out to do perfectly. That may not be overly original, but not everything has to be. Sometimes you just want a game to do what it is trying to do well, and this does just that. And it sure does help when it looks pretty too!

Yaxha WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Building things that are pretty, but also score you big points! Published by: Helvetiq Designed by:   Baptiste Vaiana This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . You know Helvetiq? Yeah, you know - that cute Swiss publisher who makes delightful little box games? Well, strap in. They also make big box games too! Well, not big box per se. But normal size box games. Well not quite normal size. Its a bit more square than the Ticket To Ride box. But anyway, I feel I am losing myself here. They have made a "bigger" box game, Yaxha. And it's a beauty. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Yaxha First, place the cubes into the bag. After your first game, I imagine you will simply leave them in there now forever! Next, arrange the Market tiles in a line at the centre of the table, one per player. Place any remaining back into the box. Each player then takes a set of cards that match the Market tiles. One for each colour. Now, deal a Turn Order tile to each player randomly and draw three bonus cards at random and place them face up. There are recommended cards for your first game to keep thing simple. You are now ready to play. How To Play Yaxha The game plays over ten rounds. Each round, one player will draw three cubes at random from the bag and add them onto each of the market tiles. Players will then decide which set of three cubes they want the most. In order to try and claim the cubes they want, each player will then place one of the cards from their hand that matches the tile they want face down in front of them. All players will then reveal the card they played, and if they all played different cards, simple - each player takes the cubes on the matching tile and adds them to their own personal construction. If there were any matches in cards played, then the turn order breaks these ties. The turn order cards are then swapped. For example, if you had the third card previously, and two others matched with you, then you would have third choice, but you will end the round with the first turn order card for the next round, the player with the first card will now have the third, and the person with the second will keep the same card. But what are players making? Well, as the name suggests, and I am sure you are all aware, Yaxha is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin in modern-day Guatemala. So, yeah, you are making one of them. A boxy pyramid. Which in this game means a four-tiered structure with the bottom base being a four-by-four grid, the second a three by three, then two by two, and finally a single cube on top. Like this... When you place a cube, it must touch another cube of the same colour. Be that on the same level orthogonal to it, or on a previous level below. For your first placement, of course you can ignore this rule. You can start a higher level without completing the level below, but you must always have a full base of four cubes to place another higher cube on. If you ever cannot place a cube simply discard the cube. Your structure sadly now will never be complete. The game ends after the tenth round. Players will then score for each of their largest groups of cubes for each colour. There is a handy scoring guide, which you can see below, that details exactly what each quantity of touching cubes will score you. You will also score based on the three scoring cards you have in the game, which range from simply scoring an additional five points to the player with the most of a specific colour, to more specific things, such as five points for the largest single group of cubes in one colour, no matter the colour that is. Or even five points for any player who managed to place five different colours on level two. Something that usually you would not want to do, instead favouring building up your largest groups of two or three colours. Is It Fun? Yaxha Board Game Review There is something incredibly calming and satisfying about creating your little Yaxha's in this game. The cubes are just so tactile. They feel great in your hands. 'Clunking' them together feels lovely. It makes a lovely little 'clunk' you see. Forming groups of colours makes your heart sing. The process of this game alone is wonderful. But is it fun? Well, yes! You add the satisfying nature of the actual physical process of this game, add in the bidding process by which you claim your building pieces, then chuck in the big points on offer in the end game scoring - and you have yourself a winner. The only reason I do not score this game higher is it's just a little too simple. It's just a few rules. A few cubes. And that's it. Sure, the cards add in some variable scoring options, and it is nice to have these different challenges each game. But this is a 1/5 weighted game on BGG for a reason. And as much as I do not usually let that sort of thing affect how I rate a game, it is hard not too in this case. I will explain why. The game itself, though fun to play - though satisfying to do well in; does whisper to me as I play it, "are you playing a game? Or is this just a fun activity?" Now, I do not think this. But I do think about it each time I play. But, I do answer back, "NO! This is definitely a game! Have you not seen the rules? The mechanics? The scoring?" Which does makes me feel like I won that little argument quite convincingly. However, the game then does this say back to me, in a tiny little voice that I can only just about hear, "but you did think it?" Which is fine. Activities can be fun too. It doesn't make this any less of an experience. It doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. But it does explain to me why this great game, that I love playing, that I really enjoy getting out and going through the process of "playing," scores an 8, and not any higher. It feels quite abstract, (obviously) as you play. Which again is fine. I like abstract games. But it does have a theme. And I just feel a little more could have been done with the theme, and perhaps just one more little wrinkle of a rule linked to the theme could have been added to make this good game - great! It feels a little too similar to other games of this nature, when it had the chance to really stand out in its field. My score puts into context this slight under development as well as my overall enjoyment. That said, I do really like this game. I just feel it has a little more potential than the end result, and the score I am giving it. But I will keep this in my regular pile, and will see this getting a lot of plays. It is perfect to play when you are a little tired and don't want too much table talk. You may be willing to accept the odd "Ah! I can't believe you took that pile, I wanted that pile!" But with the knowledge that you will then quickly hear "It's cool, this other pile works great for me too." Because you will always score well in this game. Games will be close, and losing is ok. Building the Yaxha is fun in itself. And it is just a nice thing to do, an activity if you will. No, no! This is a game. Sorry.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components may change in the final game. The link to the publishers insta is   here . Grunling: Fantastic Fruits is an adapted version of a game that was first launched on Kickstarter a few years ago under the guise of FunkiFruit. I was a big fan, but the funding was canceled. I think perhaps the art was not to everyone's taste, and maybe it was simply the wrong time. The game is now back with a brand new look and feel. Art now coming from German artist Johanna Forster who has done a phenomenal job with the fresh new style. It's beautiful, whimsical, fresh and vibrant all at the same time. Just check out this cheeky Pear! I very much enjoyed the previous version of this game. It had some interesting scoring options and the card play was slick, fast, and full of laughter. This new version is pretty similar in terms of rules and game play. It just feels like it has grown up a bit. Gone to university, and learnt a few new tricks. And certainly bought an entire new classy wardrobe! I hope this time round the Kickstarter is a success as I would love to see this game out in the wild. The game deserves that. This is what I said last time about FunkiFruit. Essentially this is a set collection game where you are looking to build a hand of ten cards that score you the highest possible points total but there are so many ways you can do this and your hand will change drastically and so quickly, and not always by your own design. It’s fast, family-friendly fun that we have had a blast with. It has some take-that but it’s all fun and you always have time to sort yourself out. This is a game you can’t take too seriously but offers a lot of replayability due to the number of cards and the Swarm cards that bring rule changing moments four times per game. There will be a lot more of these Swarm cards in the final KS version too. Well worth checking out. All of that holds up! Except the Swarm cards are now replaced by Effects cards. Similar sort of vibe, but with new name. The other main change is the setup, which used to be a little fiddly. It is now a lot simpler. You will need to add or remove certain cards based on player count. And if you have a different player count from your last game, you will need to do some minor admin. But the cards you remove all now have a very clear edge colour and style, so they are very simple to find. And it's only ever a maximum of 13 cards per set you are looking for. And you only have to do this when you increase player count. Otherwise, you are all good. But I don't want to get into the changes too much. FunkiFruit sadly never saw the light of day. This game, I hope very much does. And I want to now focus on this new version of the game, which is great fun! When I play this with my family, games fly by. Everyone always seems to be having fun. And win or lose, players enjoy the process as scores are always high. Scores of around 90-100 are common. Sometimes a fair bit more if everything clicks, But either way, it always feels fun. As I said in my previous preview, this game is simply about trying to curate the best hand of ten cards that you can. You start with seven and can never have more than ten. You will often get more, but then need to discard down. There are a lot of cards in the deck, and you will cycle through them very quickly. Each turn, you get to draw two cards. There are also many Action cards that let you get more. You can take cards from other players, as well as force them to discard ones you know they have or are collecting. But ultimately, there are a lot of ways to manage your hand and turn what you start with at random into a high-scoring thing of beauty by the end. And that process is wildly satisfying. There are so many ways to play this game. Do you go for a big Grape majority? Perhaps you want to chase berries and aim for enough to score the big bonus there. Some cards work in pairs, like, well - The Pear. And you need to find another card with the same art to score the maximum here. But you can always use the Star Fruit if you don't find the other Pear. Or there are cards like the Dragon Fruit and Orange which simply score big on their own. There are also cards like the Lychee which offer a small bonus on their own but are more useful during the game by using their power to "Nope" your opponents when they play cards on you that you do not wish to suffer from! A very handy card to keep in reserve. Chasing the Apples can be a bit risky. Other players will quickly cotton on to your plans, as this is a card you need multiple copies of to score well from. Six is the goal here. As you draw one card openly each turn from the deck, players will quickly realise if you are not discarding them in later turns. There are certain cards that let you affect how well people score from Apples in a way that will not make them happy when they receive it! Be warned if you are in the Apple game. But if you take the risk and it pays off, there is a huge reward coming your way. But you can keep two cards face down in your basket. These are safe from most attacks and also hidden from the other players throughout the game. But nothing is ever fully safe in this game. Some cards allow you to take blindly from other players' baskets. Have they put something juicy there, or did they load it with a trap? Players can always change the cards in their basket, so you don't have to put the good ones there right away! The game is full of back-and-forth like this, as all players look to slowly build up the perfect ten cards to score big at the end of the game. The game clock is controlled by the event cards. When the fourth and final event is drawn (always in one of the bottom six cards), the game immediately ends. These event cards are very clever in how they work. They all have an instant effect on the game as you play. But if the event is the fourth an final one, each card also has a specific end game effect, which can sometimes have big swings. Such as one event that now punishes all players who don't have a Darkling card. These are cards that usually you will want to get rid of in the game. But keeping one back just in case may not be a bad idea if you think this card is in the deck. They will also score you ten points if you have the most of them at the end of the game. But holding one when someone else has two can be tough! Or do you ignore this, risking it because you think you can score bigger with other cards? The choice is yours. And this certainly is why I think this game deserves a space on anyone's shelf who enjoys fast-playing, enjoyable card games with a mix of strategies in how you can play it. There is so much choice here as to what cards you go for. Your starting hand will dictate this to some extent, of course, but you will always have enough time to see a good percentage of the deck to then try any strategy you fancy in this game. And it is this simplicity that I love. Collect some fruit. Make it the best set of ten cards you can. Go!

Odin WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Simple little card games with fun scoring. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Yohan Goh , Hope S. Hwang , Gary Kim This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . It's funny how the brain works, isn't it? I was very keen to play this game, more so than some others recently, because of the art on the box and the cool theme. But this game is quite abstract. Very abstract, in fact. You will not think about Vikings or Odin as you play. There is even mention of this in the rules, where they explain why they chose this theme for such an abstract game. But either way, with or without a sense of a theme as you play, this game is very absorbing because of the clever hand management. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Odin OK, strap in. First, shuffle the deck and deal nine cards to each player. Place the remaining cards down in a pile by the side for later. You are done. Phew! Don't you just love a game like that!? How To Play Odin Now, players will take turns playing cards from their hand. For the first card you play, it can be any single card. But any subsequent card played by any subsequent player must be higher in value than the current played card. You can play the same number of cards as currently in the middle or one more. No other variation of quantity. And when you play multiple cards the number they form together is the number you play. You do not add them up as I first thought! No, you form a number using each digit on each card, to form the highest possible number. For example, if you played a six and a nine, this would not be 15. It would also not be 69. Rather it would form 96. Make sense? Good. Be sure to explain this when you play with others, it can confuse some people I found. When you play multiple cards, the card you play must either be the same colour or the same number. This obviously then restricts the numbers you can form from your hand, so you need to think carefully from the start of the round how your hand could work together in different ways, and therefore the best way to use it. When you play your cards, you must then pick up one card from the previously played number. You cannot pick up a card you just played. If there was only one card there previously, simply pick this up. If there was more than one card then choose the one you want to add to your hand, and discard the others, leaving now just the cards you just played. This now is the new number the next player needs to try and beat. If a player cannot beat the current number, they must pass. If all but one player passes, then the round ends. However, if you pass and another player can play, and by the time it comes back to you, and you can now play, then you are back in the game. Passing does not end your involvement in a round unless everyone else but one player also passes. The round can also end if any player plays their final card from their hand. Or, if at the start of a round, one player is dealt cards that are either all the same colour or number, they can then choose to play all these cards at once, which ends the round immediately. A fairly uncommon experience I would imagine! At the end of the round, all players with any cards in their hand will now score one point for each card. Not the value of the card. Just one point per card. Points are bad in this game, you don't want them. Now, collect all the cards, shuffle them up and deal nine cards to each player again and go again. The game ends when you reach a pre-agreed points total. Lowest points then wins. 15 points is suggested for your first game. Then after that, choose ten points for a short game. 20 for a long game, or even just one hand for a super short experience. Is It Fun? Odin Card Game Review The nuance and build in this game are intriguing. As you can only start with one card and then build up by one more card each time, it is so interesting to see how the rounds develop. Often, players start by playing a card with a value of one in a colour they do not have any other card in. You may then see two ones to form an eleven in different colours, or perhaps a two. It all builds up simply and slowly. But then, after an eleven, next we could see 976! Whoa. That's a big jump. Can the next player beat that? But this is a card-shedding game. You don't want to up the ante too quickly, as maybe you won't be able to play any more cards either. This game is about working cooperatively in a funny way, to build up the numbers slowly, one by one. And then, boom - if you can, hit everyone with one big final play to empty your hand. Not always possible, but when it works, it feels great. More often, I have found round's end with all players passing with cards still in their hands. That's fine, it's only one point per card. I found the average I was scoring each round was four. So, games typically lasted three to four rounds, which I think is just about right. But only if you play the game twice each time. Perhaps in the future, I will play to forty points. I just want a little more time to get into the process of the game. There are some delicate little rules that you need to be careful to get right if you learn from the rule book. Such as the removal of all remaining cards from the previous number once you have taken one card from it. I missed that. Also, the one point per card rule, and the fact that the cards work together to form one large number, rather than being added together as mentioned above. I have re-read the rule book a few times to see if this was me simply missing something obvious. But I think it is because the rules come with a lot of little examples, which is fine. But often causes me to miss parts or misunderstand as I skip through them! Hopefully this is just me. I don't think the rule book is bad, I just had issues with it personally for my first few games. I then felt something was very off and had another - closer read! I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys card-shedding games that work in a quick and simple way. This game offers an interesting balance between very clever hand management and lightning-fast rounds and plays. The box suggests 15 minutes for a game; I would say that is bang on, if a little long for a two-player game. This will be over before you know it, and with the wrong hand, you may not be able to do much, s perhaps even quicker! The strategy comes from which cards you play together, which cards you pick back up, and how you pace the round out. This won't always be in your control, but when it works out, it feels wonderful.

Ninjan WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Simple little card games with fun scoring. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: 6jizo This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Helvetiq make some amazingly cute little box card games that often work to the same formula. Simple rules. Fun mechanics. Cute art. A small box of fun! Ninjin taps into this classic formula and comes out with yet another hit. It always amazes me how many different games can be made with just a few small cards. But this game feels unique, the game play is addictive, and the simple duel use cards make for a fascinating strategy. Let's get it to the table and I will explain what I mean. How To Set Up Ninjin Shuffle the deck and deal three cards face up into a central area to create three piles that will be there for the entirety of the game. The cards will change, but there will always be three piles. Then deal each player nine cards for their starting hand. The remaining cards will not be used in this game. Finally, give each player a reference card showing the order of what cards beats what. in the classic rock-scissors-paper style. Am the only one who says rock-paper-scissors? Why did I have it the wrong way all this time. Anyway... How To Play Ninjin Each player will now choose one card from their hand to play, face down. When all players have done this, all players will reveal the card that they played and then order them into numerical order, highest to lowest. Resolve ties using the rock-scissor-paper method. The player who played the highest card will then have first pick at the next stage. This is where players will take one pile from the middle three piles if the card they played can beat any of the top cards in a game of rock-scissors-paper. The number at this stage does not matter. If you can beat more than one top card, you can chose which pile you want. Take the pile you beat and chose and add these cards to your score pile. Then place the card you used to do this into the space where this pile was so there are still three piles. If you play a card that does not beat any of the top three cards, then simply add your card you played on top of any of the three piles. This is how there can sometimes be more than one card in the piles. This will happen nine times for nine rounds until all players have played all nine of their cards in their hand. Then, total the cards you in your score pile for your final score. Note, some cards have negative numbers. Is it Fun? Ninjan Card Game Review Sounds simple, right? And it is. But it's incredibly addictive. When you choose your card to play each round, you need to think about which pile you want to win and if there is also currently a good second or third choice. Does first matter much this round? You only have nine cards; you don't want to waste the good ones when second or third choice is not too bad, or even good. There will be times when first choice could be a big nine points, and then below that, you are looking at negative five. That's a big swing! Others when they are are all similar. These are the rounds you want to pull out the big guns. But of course, you won't always get things your way. The other players will see the same three choices as you and will also be trying to avoid the negative cards and claim the big points, just as you are. But equally, what you see will not stay the same for long! Let's say you play a six, hoping to get first choice, but if you get second, you don't mind as currently there are two cards you can beat with your six that score you four or five points. Either works. But what if, in a three-player game, the two other players play cards higher, perhaps a seven and an eight? They both take away the cards you were looking at and replace them with a card you can't beat. You now won't score this round. What a waste of a six! Another interesting thing that can happen in the game is when you cannot beat a card, so you are forced to play your card on top of one of the piles. If there are players after you still to play, you know what card they have played; it is face up. And if their played card could beat your played card and currently no other on the piles, and your played card is a negative card, well, it's a fun choice which pile you will add this to - as you know they will have to take that pile. Perhaps there is a pile with a six on it, and another with a negative four. Well, that's the obvious choice to place your card now! As you know, they will now have to take that pile. Or maybe they could beat that six, but now they have to take a negative card along with it as you have added your card there. It's a bit of take-that that not all players will love, but the games are very short, and this sort of play will be on offer perhaps only once or twice a game. And its more funny than annoying. The theme of the game is somewhat pasted on. If you are excited about playing some sort of ninja fighting game, this is not the one for you. This is more abstract and about clever hand management, knowing when to play the good cards, and when to hold them back for a more significant round. That said, the art of the cards is fun. The symbology is all very clear and simple, and the bright, vibrant colours make checking which card is worth what very simple. I would recommend this game to anyone who has enjoyed the Helvetiq small box series before and is looking for a quick, fast, light game to play. It takes up minimal space; we played our first few games on a train table, and it worked great. It is fast to learn, even quicker to teach, and pretty fast to play too. An all-around solid little production.

Star Wars: Outer Rim WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: The idea of flying around a Star Wars universe, being a bad ass! Published by: Fantasy Flight Games Designed by:   Corey Konieczka , Tony Fanchi This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . I love Star Wars. I love Star Wars games. Rebellion is one of my all-time favourites. But it is a bit of a beast. It takes a good few hours to play and is not the easiest to teach. As such, it is a bit of a one time a year treat for me as I only know two people up for it! I would love a game that lets me pretend I am in the Star Wars universe like this that is just that little bit more accessible. Something that I can get to the table a more often. That is exactly what Star Wars: Outer Rim promises. But does it deliver? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Star Wars: Out Rim Board Game Review First, lay out the six map tiles. There is a specific order to these that you can copy from the rule book to create a more balanced game. But feel free to set them out however you want if you have played a few times or simply want some variation. Just note the game may not be as balanced in terms of how easy/difficult it will be for players to move from planet to planet. Next, place the level one Patrol ships on the first space at either side of the bottom tile, on the space matching their symbol/faction/colour. Which ever you see best! Place the level two, three, and four Ships below each one, ready to come into combat later with the level four on the bottom and level two on the top. Now take all the Contact (people) tokens and place them randomly face down on the board but be sure that they are on a space that matches their colour. Each planet will have two Contacts present. Then place the Credits into separate piles of thousands, five thousand, and ten thousand tokens, along with the damage tokens, goal tokens and dice. Then place the cards that represent each planet - shuffled into separate decks - below each tile that has those planets pictured. This is not essential, I think it makes more thematic sense when the cards are close to the planets they represent. So that when you take them, you are doing so from that geographic area. It just feels right to me. Next, place the Waypoints deck and data bank deck into a central area, they can go anywhere really! Keep the data bank deck in order, this one does not need a shuffle. Underneath this, lay out the six individual market decks, again, each shuffled separately. One will be smaller in number for the Ships, don't worry, you haven't lost any cards. Next, set up each player by taking a standee, starting ship (they are double sided so make your choice) character card (placed on the goal starting side) player board, four reputation tokens (placed into the slots in the player board in the middle neutral position), a reference card, and four thousand credits. Each subsequent player after the starting player gains an additional two thousand credits. Each player will now arrange their components so their character card is set within the space at the bottom of their player board, and their chosen starting ship is positioned to the left of this. On the bottom of their character card, it will show which starting resources they have. This will include a data bank card which could be Cargo, if so, add this to the Cargo space in their ship. Also, note your starting skills shown at the bottom of you character cards. Such as Bossk above who has Strength and Tactics. These are traits you are skilful at, which will help you in later skill tests. You character card may also give you instructions to increase or decrease one of your four reputation tracks. Move the track up or down one space accordingly. Note, these tracks have three positions. Top, middle or bottom. At first glance, I thought there were a lot more. You are now ready to begin the game. How To Play Star Wars: Out Rim Board Game Review The game works with each player taking it in turns to run through three simple steps in a race to get to ten fame points first. You can play to eight for a shorter game, or twelve for guess what? Correct! A longer game. Your choice. The first step players take on their turn is to decide if they want to either take two thousands credits, clear all damage from their character and ship, or move their ship on the main board. Moving will be chosen a lot more often, but it is handy to have the other options for sure. You will get a lot more than two thousand credits for completing missions, but early on it can be useful to help you gain crucial gear or upgrades to accelerate your early game progress. Taking too much damage does kill you or destroy your ship, but if it happens to you, you will have to pay three thousands credits, discard any secrets you have (more on that soon) and then spend your next turn recovering all damage to get back into the game. Best not let that accumulate too much! Moving is dictated by your ships Hyperdrive value, shown on the top left of your ship mat. You can move to any planet or way point up to the maximum of your movement points. You can move wherever you like and go wherever you like. The only spot on the board that affects movement is the Maelstrom spot, just next to Kessel, identified by a small red circle. When you move through this you must end your movement. Equally, if you ever move past a patrol ship that is from a faction with whom you have neutral or negative reputation you must stop as well. If you have positive reputation you can keep on trukin'. Once players have made their choice to either move, gain two thousand credits or repair all damage, they will then move into the Action phase. Here, players can carry out as many actions as they are able and want to. This will be a mix of trading with other players, buying items from the market (so long as they have ended their movement on a planet) delivering something to the planet on which they are currently located, or carrying out any other Action shown on any cards they have gained during the game. When you Trade with other players, you can do so for whatever you like as long as you are in the same location as them. You can trade whatever you want, however you want, even for future promises. But beware, other players do not have to honour those promises! If you are not on the same space, you can still trade, but only credits, which, even in the Outer Rim, can be wired anywhere and at any time. Going to the Market lets players buy any single card from the top of either of the six available decks. Before you make your choice, players can move one card on one pile from the top to the bottom and draw another to cycle through the decks a little, and then buy any top card you like. The cost is shown on the top right, and some cards are free. Cards can be Cargo to deliver on a later turn, Jobs to do on certain planets, Upgrades to your ship or character in the form of Gear and Mods, and Bounties - which mean you need to find a certain character and bring them to justice! Or death. Your choice. After you make a purchase you will reveal the next card. If it has a movement symbol such as the first two cards above, you will move the appropriate Patrol ship the displayed number of spaces. Move them towards the nearest player in anyway you wish, but if there is enough movement so that they end on the same space as the nearest player, you must take that route. When you head to specific planets linked to certain cargo, jobs, or bounties, you can then deliver that item, person, or fulfil that job. This will reward you with various financial payments, increases in faction reputations, fame (the scoring system in the game), or elicit a further encounter. Some jobs require you to run through certain skill tests. This is done by rolling two dice. Then, depending on your skill level you will either pass and gain the reward/avoid the damage or fail and miss the reward/take the damage. At the bottom of your character card, and any crew you may have picked up along the way (more on that soon) there will be certain Skill key words. If you test Piloting and you have a Piloting skill, then you just need to roll one success. If you have the Skill twice then you can roll any success or a Focus icon. If you have no associated Skills then you need to roll a critical success. The dice are eight sided and offer these three options twice each and two blanks. It's a great system that lets you test any skill at any point in the game, but as you build up your engine and skill set, your chances of success greatly increase. However, they are always available to you. If you want to fulfil a Bounty, you first need to find that character. Which can take some time! And then fight them. You will do so by rolling dice based on your current combat strength and any associated additional weapons. You will compare this to dice rolled based on the Bounty's own combat strength. If you roll more hit points - you win the combat. You can then kill them and gain a small reward, or take them to a specific planet as shown on the Bounty card and gain a higher reward. Dead of Alive. The choice is yours. But alive always makes more credits! When you have finished with all your chosen actions you must then have an Encounter. This can be with either a Patrol ship (no matter of your current reputation with them - you can happily double cross your friends in this game!) a character on a Planet, (if you are on a Planet and there are characters remaining) something on the Planet itself, of if you are on a Waypoint, a Waypoint card. If it is a Waypoint or Planet, simply draw the top card from the associated deck and read out the text. This could send you down all sorts of paths. There will be a clue as to the type of Encounters each Planet could offer on the back of the card. Some cards show a Secret mission. If this is the case, do not read that part out and keep the card face down in front of you until the mission is relevant later in the game, or you want to activate it. Some offer the chance to recruit new Crew such Takodana above. This then gives you an extra Action to carry out on your next Action phase if you so choose. When you Encounter with a character flip the token over and then look at the number on the left of the Character token. This will link to a card in the Databank deck. Take this card and read it out. Again, there will be a plethora of different types of Encounters here. Simply follow the text accordingly. Some will allow you to recruit the characters you are having the Encounter with to become a member of your crew. If so, you can add the card into a crew slot on your ship and gain the benefit they offer as shown on their card. If you have an Encounter with a Patrol ship this means you will fight them! The Patrol ship token will show how many dice it will roll. You will roll the number associated with your current Ships attack value plus any extra from Mods you may have. Most damage wins. Ties go to you as the aggressor. If you win, you will drop one Reputation with the associated Faction, gain the reward shown on the Ship token (money or Fame) and then remove it from the board. Then take the next Ship in line from the faction you just defeated and place it on the first space on the board. If you lose, simply move the Patrol ship one space away from you. Players can also complete their own personal mission as shown on their character card, and Ship goals, as shown on all new ships you may buy in the game. When you complete either of these, you will be rewarded, typically with credits and Fame. The game continues like this until one player reaches the predetermined Fame target, be that eight, ten, or twelve. The game immediately ends at that point, and that player is declared the winner and the most notorious Outlaw in the Galaxy. Who said crime didn't pay? Is It Fun? Star Wars: Out Rim Board Game Review This game delivers everything I hoped it would - and more. Rebellion is still the better game. But this brings what I had wished it would, with a much more accessible Star Wars experience, but still one that gives me the same feelings. When I play Outer Rim I feel like I am in the Star Wars universe. I feel like I am doing jobs in Galaxies far far away. But unlike Rebellion , the start time - come the end of the game, does not feel like a long time ago. There is a lot to like about this game. It's not perfect, and we will come to that. But let's start with the positives. Because that is how I feel when I play this. First, other that the theme, this game gives me a real sense of control. Right from the start, choosing my character and ship, the process feels involved. There is a strong sense of agency at every stage. Every decision. I always feel in control of my destiny as I explore this universe. And it is that sense of exploration within the sandbox-style game, along with the deeply thematic choices, that makes me love this game so much. Everything just feels so "Star Wars." It's like when you are at a theme park, and you start to get caught up in the "world" you are in. And then you see another Tourist in a branded T-Shirt and sports shoes. Perhaps you hear a noise in the distance and look up and see a plane over head. Oh yeah. I'm not in Batuu . Gosh I am silly. Well, in this game, there are no branded T's. No planes flying over head. If you ever do hear an engine in the sky, its probably the gosh darn Millennium Falcon! The fonts. The colour scheme. Even the iconography. And obviously the characters, ships, and planets. This is ALL Star Wars, and I love it. When I "do a job" for the Hutt's, or try to capture Chewie, it feels like that is what I am doing. Obviously not literally. But I get caught up on this game because all the details are there. It feels familiar, welcoming, and most of all exciting. I want to get caught up, so I do. Let me give you an example. I played a game the other day when I was Lando. I bought the Millennium Falcon. It felt great. Why would it not! But there was some jealousy coming from around the table when I did this. One particular player seemed most irked, but unbeknownst to me, had been given the above secret mission after a visit to Tatooine. It took them a while to pull it off as they had to be on the same planet as me, which does not happen all that often. They then paid 6,000 credits, tested their Influence, and were able to draw card 40. This put us both into a friendly game of Sabacc, the game seen in the movies. And how Han got hold of the keys to the Falcon himself in the original stories. Back to the game, the other player first had to test their Influence again, which they failed. This forced them to try step two instead of skipping straight to step three. In step two, I was able to test my own Tactics skill to try and regain my control on the situation. Sadly, I also failed, giving them the advantage again. They tested their Tactics, passed, and gained the reward. Which, back to the first card, allowed them to take the Falcon right from me. Sound familiar? Well, I was not on Numidian Prime, and I hope no one cheated, but wow, this felt great. Never before have I enjoyed losing something I wanted so much before! I was living Star Wars. The only way I can see this being a better experience, would be if they had a hidden compartment in the box with the pieces needed to play an actual game of Sabacc. Oh, and a real Falcon for the winner. But that is probably out of the realms of EBITDA profits for the publisher. I love the way the characters you can meet and interact with are placed face down at the start of the game. The art, showing the interference on a communication device is perfect. “Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You’re My Only Hope... Oh, its Gary, sorry. Wrong number." Then, when searching for certain people because of a bounty you may have accepted, you will know the character's colour, but nothing more. Certain powers let you search more efficiently for characters, or peak under tokens in Planets you are not even on, but part of the process of trying to find specific people will be flying to different planets and going up to them. I love that. It's slower than it may have been, but it's real. And the rewards from the bounties make the search worth it. And the people you find mistakenly along the way will generally give you something else useful anyway. There are not many wasted turns here. But there are some. And this brings me to the main thing I do not like about this game. On some occasions, often in the early game stage, you can have an encounter that, due to a lack of funds or space on your ship, you will gain no or minimal benefit from. It can be frustrating. But, you have to remember this is an engine builder of sorts, and at the start of the game, your engine is weak. You have a crappy ship, minimal experience, no gear, weapons, or allegiances, and just a few credits. It makes thematic sense, but you do need to understand and respect the build here. And be patient. Because, for me, the pay off is well worth it. Dengar is a good example of this. If you meet him early on, it is unlikely you will be bale to defeat him, seeing as he rolls five dice. Equally, you may not have any negative reputation at this point anyway. As such, the encounter becomes a little fruitless for you. Dengar's bandages also now seem to be more of a hood, or scarf? The downtime between turns can also be frustrating, especially if you have a great turn ready to go! The wait is never long. The anticipation can be tough, though! And as this is a longer game, looking more like two to three hours, depending on player count, you will want to keep turns flowing. Players ideally need to be engaged, ready to go, and attentive at all times to make this game really sing. Most of the time you can prepare your turn without concern of what the other players will do. There is a lot of player interaction here, but generally, you will be able to do what you want when you want. Someone else may interact with a character you were hunting down before you get an opportunity yourself. But chances are, if this happens, you had a bounty for them, meaning the other player did not, so they would not have killed them, and more likely recruited them. You can still continue your hunt; it's just now they are flying around on another player's ship. But at least you know exactly where to find them! The whole experience just feels to me like it is incredibly well thought out by fans of the Star Wars universe, and who understand gaming. When you deliver cargo, all good. Just head to the address, and chuck the box down wherever. You know the drill! But, if that cargo is illegal, you will need to succeed on a single die skill test first! But, if you fail, that is not a complete fail. No, draw one of the four card ones in the game and see what fate awaits you. I won't reveal what happens here, as it is way more fun for you to find out yourself when you play. It's nothing huge. It just shows the level of intricacies that have gone into this game. Divergent paths, multiple choices. Thematic and coherent journeys as you experience little mini-games on various very familiar shores. I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars and is looking for a game that puts them in this world. As mentioned twice already, Rebellion  is better. Get that first if you think you can take the longer play time and rules teach, it will be worth it. But if, like me, you also want something that is more accessible, then this delivers. It's not a short game but any stretch of the imagination, but it is a lot more accessible with the rules and complexity, and can be played in under two hours by two reasonably experienced players.

Arctic WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Clever scoring card games with cute art! Published by : Ludonaute Designed by: Cédric Lefebvre This is a review copy. See our review policy here When I first saw this game, I knew I wanted to play it. It was not the art. I like it, but it is somewhat repetitive - sadly. It was more the scoring. It seemed so simple but satisfying to me. I wanted to find out if that was the case when you played it. It also has one of those covers that says Play Me! So, when this game arrived, along with a few others on the same day I was instantly keen to try this game. This was the first out of the shrink and onto the table. Five minutes later we we playing, the rules are that simple. But is it any good? Lets find out. How To Set Up Arctic Place the six landscape cards into a sequential horizontal row on the table, running from zero up to 15. Then place the animal tokens onto the card in the middle marked with a three. The main deck of cards all have a number on the back: one, two, three, or four. Separate them into their respective decks and then take one deck per player. Shuffle these cards together to form a deck. Remove five for a two-player game, ten for a three-player game, and 15 for a four-player game. Place the removed cards underneath the player aid token on the table. These will be used later. Now, take the six animal power cards and place them on the table, shuffling the side of them that you place as you go. They are double-sided, and you want a different setup for each game. Then deal one animal totem to each player at random. Look at your own totem, but keep this information secret from the other players. Then deal the cards to each player from the draw pile and then place six cards next to the deck as your starting River. Randomly determine the start player and give them the start player token. You are now ready to play. Below is an example set up for two players. Players will now take it in turns to play card(s) from their hand. To start with, you will play one card in front of you as you have nothing else to go on. But in subsequent turns, you must play the number of cards from your hand as shown by the card on top of the pile in front of you - as dictated by that card's number on the middle left. If it shows four on your next turn you must play four cards from your hand. This number will vary from one to five. The final card you play each turn not only dictates the number of cards you will play the next turn, but it also dictates the number of cards you will draw this turn. The total of this always equals six. So if you are drawing four cards this turn, you will play two next turn. A nice amount of options in your hand to pick from. Whereas if you draw just one this turn, that means you need to play five cards next turn. Will you have enough in your hand to fulfil this? If not, you must draw cards from the draw pile and place them into your own personal penalty pile. Each card here at the end of the game will score you minus one point. You must do the same if ever you end your turn with more than seven cards in your hand. When you play cards, you are looking at a few things. First and foremost, what card you are playing and what card you are playing on. At the end of the game, when the deck runs out, you will score points for your longest run for each of the six animals. A run is two cards or more of the same card placed sequentially next to each other. For example, if you have two Puffins in a row in your pile, you will score one point. But, if you managed to get six or more Puffins in a row, you will score 15 for these. If you did get six in a row, and later in your pile also have another group of, say, three Puffins, you will not score the second amount. You simply score your largest group for each animal type. So, as you play animals, you will want to try and group them into sixes where possible. But if you have to play four cards, and you only have one Puffin in your hand, and you have only so far played two Puffins, there is not much else you can do. You will have to start another group. However, the final card you play each turn also offers you the chance to use a power card. Whichever is the visible card on top of your personal pile after you finish playing cards, take the matching Power card of this animal. Either from the general display, or from another player if they previously taken this Power card. It will stay with you until someone else takes it back on a later turn. You may end up with multiple power cards. The Power card activates at different stages of the game. Either during the Playing card phase, the move animal phase (which we will come to shortly) or finally, the draw card phase. They allow you to do various things to manipulate the game in your favour. Such as draw cards from your Penalty pile (if you have any) instead of the River, a great way to reduce your negative points, and get cards you know you want. Or perhaps, to play cards on the bottom of your pile, instead of the top. Helpful, if you know your bottom group is less than six, and you have a matching card in your hand to play. The card you play also dictates which animal tokens you will move on the six central cards. Each card will show two animal symbols: one that matches the card you played, the other showing a second companion animal. Both these animal tokens must move one space in alternative directions on the six central cards. If they are on the edge already, they must move the other way. At the end of the game, you will score points, from zero to fifteen, based on the space the animal that matches your animal totem is on. Players are looking to move their animal as far to the right as possible, but not be too obvious about it. As all players are also looking to guess which animal their opponents have got, and move theirs back to the left. It's a great fun little back-and-forth mini-game of deduction and bluff. When you draw cards, you can do so from the six face up River, or blind from the top of the deck with certain Power cards. When the deck runs out, take the cards you reserved during set up and place these as the final available deck. Finish the final round until you reach the starting player again, then carry out one final turn, ignoring the draw card phase. This way everyone ends with equal turns. Then, all players will score based on the final position of their animal totem, which they will now reveal, and their largest continuous set of matching cards from the six different types, within their own personal deck. You will also score additional points based on the total number of sets you created. If you had just one matching set, unlikely but possible, you would score a bonus of one. If you had two, you would score three extra points. Three gets you six points. Four gets you ten. And five or more sets scores you a bonus of 15 points. Most points wins! Is It Fun? Arctic Card Game Review As mentioned in the introduction, I do like the look of this game. I love it, in fact. But I do find the repetitive nature of the art hugely disappointing. How hard would it have been to add just a small tweak to each card? There are ten cards of each animal per deck, and all the art on each cards is the same. As the symbols change, however, each card obviously has its own unique file and print process. So it is a shame there isn't more attention given here. Even with a little variations. However, as you play, the uniform look of the cards is actually quite helpful in terms of identifying each card quickly and processing the information in a timely fashion. Perhaps this is a mechanical decision? But that is all by-the-by. When you play, the game becomes a little more abstract and you are purely focusing on set-collection, not the art. And it is an absorbing process indeed. The simple act of trying to place cards into groups of six is surprisingly addictive. Playing cards that will help you create your hand for later turns is a fun part of this process. The more cards you draw this turn, the more you play next turn, and vice versa. You need to be thinking ahead, and planning your subsequent turns at all points with Arctic. I love the simple rule of six here. In that, if you draw two, you play four next turn. Or if you draw just one now, it's five on your next go. This is genius. The game works in waves because of this. Try and build your hand up for a big laydown on the next turn, then draw back up again for a later turn. The waves can be bigger or smaller, but they always come. You cannot play big too many turns in a row, you simply won't have the hand of cards. Likewise, you cannot draw up too many turns in a row as your hand limit is seven. This maximum hand limit is a very clever addition. You need to work in short bursts, not one long load up, for constant end game dumps. It's all very well thought out, balanced, and tight. It keeps you thinking. The Power cards are also very interesting and offer a nice little bit of variation from game to game, but more importantly, the powers they bring certainly do add a lot of strategy to the game itself. You need to think more about your top card beyond just building sets in your pile, which animals you will move, but also which power you will take. Will that come from another player? Are they benefiting from that right now, and can you make use of it yourself? I enjoy being able to remove cards from my penalty pile, and changing the amount of cards I can draw, but have made most use of the Puffin power that lets you swap a card from your hand with one in the River before you play a card. They all offer a nice extra layer of strategy though, that doesn't complicate the game at all, but does ratchet it up a notch - making the overall experience richer and more enjoyable. I also enjoy the back-and-forth nature with the animal tokens on the main play area. It is fun to try and bluff your opponent as to which animal you are, so they don't target it too much, before trying to surge forward with your real animal in the end game. Likewise, it is fun to try and guess which animals the other players are favouring, seeing through their own deception, and trying to manipulate this scoring area to your advantage. It can be a big swing, 30 points either way between two players. It is well worth close attention. All of this comes together in a very neat and tidy package that looks great (not as good as it might) but plays even better. It is a fast, simple, but addictive little card game that I thoroughly enjoy, and would recommend to anyone who is a fan of set collection, interesting scoring, or simple card play.

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game   WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Star Realms , Hero Realms , Ascension   Published by: Fantasy Flight Games Designed by: Caleb Grace This is a review copy. See our review policy here We don't cover games twice on the site very often. There are just so many games, and not enough time to play and review them all! But this game is getting a second run, because after I read Steve's brilliant review which you can check out here , I was keen to try it myself and offer my own opinion. There are a lot of things in game reviews that affect why we score things high or low. Do we like the theme, mechanics, designer? Did we buy it for a lot of money and want to like it to convince ourselves our investment was worth it? And Steve as much as he loves Star Wars, is not a massive deck building fan when the mechanic is used in isolation like this. He prefers it incorporated into a wider game such as seen with Clank or the Undaunted series which he has brilliantly covered here . So, if you want to review a great peice about this game from someone who is not a huge deck-building fan like this, check out Steve's review. If you want to read a piece from someone who loves deck-builders and actively seeks them out, then read on. For the record, I also adore Star Wars, love two-player games, and played this mostly with my son who also adores the theme and mechanic. How To Set Up Star Wars: The Deck Building Game First, each player must decide which side they want to play on: the dark or light side. Will you be on the Rebel Alliance or the side of the mighty Empire? As a former Total Film employee, obviously, I sided with the Rebels. Take the base cards for your chosen side and find the starting base, shown clearly on the front of the card. For your first game, the rules suggest using the four other starting bases shown in the rule book. But I see no reason why you cannot go straight in and use all ten bases as described in the Full Galaxy advanced option. The only other rule that changes is that now you play to destroy four bases instead of three. But ultimately, you can dictate this yourself. Based on the length of game you want. I just see no reason why you wouldn't want to see all bases in the game from game one. Place your starting base on top of the others, be that four or nine, and place this in front of you so you can just see the starting base. The order does not matter as you will choose which base you want to use next from all available options. Now, take the ten starter cards for each side and give them to each player. These are shown on the front of the cards with the words Empire Starter or Rebel Starter shown clearly. Each player will shuffle these together and then draw a starting hand of five cards, placing the other five in a face down pile. Next, shuffle the main deck of cards and deal the top six out. Place the red Rebel cards facing the Rebel player, and the same with the blue Empire cards, with these facing the Empire player. You will notice these have upside-down text areas on the bottom. You face them to their respective players, so they can read the top half, and the other player can easily read the bottom. Place the grey neutral cards normally. Then place the ten Outer Rim pilot cards at the end of this array of cards with the remaining deck on the other end, face down. Finally, place all purple damage counters and the yellow resource counters into a general supply. Then lay out the Balance of the Force track and add this to the table so both players can easily access it. Place the white cube onto the far left side, on top of the red Rebel logo. You are now ready to play. How To Play Star Wars: The Deck Building Game Now, taking it in turns, players will use all five cards in their hand to try and advance their deck, buy new cards, attack their opponents base, and potentially get rid of starting cards. When have used your five cards, you will place them into your personal discard pile. You will draw five new cards from your personal deck. The other player then does the same. As you start with ten cards, your first two hands will simply be your starting cards in various combinations. But, if you buy a card in your first two turns, which you should do, this will then be shuffled into your discard pile and from your third turn onwards, potentially drawn into you new hand of five cards. As you buy more cards and get rid of the starting ones, you will quickly develop more powerful hands to use. This is classic deck-building. When you play a card, it will show various powers on the top left of the card: your attack value, resource generation, and Force power. There will also be some text showing a potential card power. You can activate all of these icons, collect the resources it generates, move the Force marker on the Balance track the number of spaces shown on this card towards you (if you can), and then you can use the card's text ability and/or commit it to an attack. One card really can do it all! Committing to an attack simply means saying that this card will attack a specific opponent's card, either an enemy card within the array or their base. You want to attack the cards in the array so your opponent won't be able to buy them, and they also offer a reward to you if you are successful, as shown on the reverse text. You will want to attack the bases because, well, that's how you win the game! When you use the card's ability, rotate the card 90 degrees to remind yourself you have activated this power this round. When you attack a card in the array, you need to have an attack value equal to or higher than the card's target value, as shown on the bottom left of each card. You can use multiple cards to attack one card or base. When you attack a base, your opponent will place damage tokens equal to the attack on the base. If they have bought additional ships to defend their base, these must be attacked first. When they are entirely eliminated, or if there are none there, the base takes the damage. When the base takes more damage than it can hold, it is destroyed and removed from the game. Remember, first to destroy three bases, or four in the full game, wins. But the main part will be buying cards. Building up your deck to create the hand of cards you need to get the edge over your opponent. To buy a card, you will spend resources generated by your played cards, this round or previously (you can save them up) to cover the cost of the cards shown in the array. The costs are on the top left of the card. You can only buy cards faithful to you, or neutral cards. Your opponent's cards can be attacked, of course, or bought by them, but not you. So, there may be times when the array offers you minimal options. That is just the luck of the draw. Some cards have the option to let you exile cards. This means removing them from the game. It is a great way to thin out your weaker starting hand, so the more powerful cards you have bought cycle through your hand, discard, and replayable deck quicker. You get to use them more often. There are also Capirak Ship cards. These are placed horizontally in the array, and when bought, are placed in front of your base, not into your discard pile. They stay there, offering additional powers that can be used each turn, and also offering protection to your base from incoming attacks. When your base is destroyed, remove all damage tokens on it and give the base to your opponent to place next to their end of the balance track. Any additional damage this base could not take is wasted and placed back into the supply. It does not transfer to the next base. At the start of your next turn, you will choose a new base from your remaining options, picking any one, and adding it face up on top of your remaining bases. Each new base will offer a new power as shown on the base card itself, and its own damage limit, as clearly marked on the front of the card. You can play with the starting bases as mentioned, or all of them. Or pick four in secret at the start of the game, and place these under your starting base for a more covert game. There is a two-versus-two mode, and you can adjust the game length accordingly based on what each player wants. Finally, there is also an option to play whereby the Neutral cards can be paid off. You do this by paying the cost of the neutral cards you do not want, but also you do not want your opponent to get. Pay the cost, and remove the card to the discard pile. You may do this as the card doesn't work for your strategy, but you know it will help your opponent. And talking about strategies, onto my thoughts... Is It Fun? Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game Card Game Review - Second Opinion As mentioned, I love deck-builders. I am a fan of two-player games. And I also love the Star Wars universe. So this game is perfect for me. It plays fast with an incredibly simple setup and rules teach. Especially if people are familiar with deck-building as a concept, this is incredibly simple. Almost non-existent. We started playing straight away after a quick five-minute glance at the rule book. Don't worry, I studied it more for the above teach! But this game does not really do anything new. There are no new rules, mechanics, or even keywords that offer something radically different in this game to something along the lines of Star Realms or Hero Realms . However, what it does offer, is a slick version of these deck-building classics, within the universe of a beloved IP, with all the heroes and villain's Star Wars fans love, in a very polished and easy to play package. It doesn't do anything new, but it does the old tricks really well. That said, there is some very clever card play generated by the Balance of the Force tracker, which is somewhat of a new concept. When the force is with you (the tracker is on your side), the cards you play have additional powers. For example, this X-Wing card lets you draw an additional card, this U-Wing lets you repair three damage, or Luke Skywalker himself, who has the awesome power of being able to destroy entire ships (not bases) when the force is with you. The Empire has less cards that benefit from this, with less characters having the force themselves, but Darth Vader's power to gain an additional four attack power to his existing six is pretty formidable! There are also some interesting powers that can be used for Unique cards, such as The Millennium Falcon, which lets you add another Unique card from your discard pile into your hand. This means you could play a card such as Han Solo, another Unique card, which lets you draw an additional card as well as offering three attack value and two resources. Then, on your next turn, you can play the Millennium Falcon, with its five attack value and two resources, bringing back Han, which now lets you draw two cards as it has a stronger power with the Millennium Falcon in play. You will have not only a hand of seven now, instead of five, but a total attack value of eight just from these two cards. It's a lovely little combo, and the game is littered with these beautiful, thematic, and intriguing plays. Personally, I have not used the Neutral cards as much. They are interesting and certainly do balance out the deck, meaning it is less likely that one player can dominate the array. Both players being able to buy these cards does make for a more interesting and balanced game. I just don't like the powers as much. The Twi'Lek Smuggler card, for example, costs three resources and simply lets you place the next card you buy straight to the top of your deck. As someone who likes to thin my deck, this is not overly useful for me; so I am more of a fan of Jabba, who lets me Exile one card, two if the force is with me! This works great with cards like Kel Dor Mystic, who also has an Exile power. I like to get rid of my starting hand, buy few but powerful cards, and cycle through them quickly and efficiently. This game has a great way of allowing you to do that. And I have found when I get that sort of deck running quickly, it is hard to beat. Another strategy that has worked well, especially when playing as the Empire, is buying as many Capital Ships as possible, especially when Admiral Piett is in play. He adds one additional attack value to all Capital Ships, and with a few in play, can make your attacks devastating. I especially like pairing this with the Imperial Carrier, when available, and the Gozanti Cruiser. These cards work hand-in-hand to let you cycle through your deck faster, helping you find the cards you need more efficiently, and also adding additional fighting power. And it is these thematic combo turns that feel deeply rooted within the Star Wars universe, served up game after game in these easily digestible 25-minute sessions, that keep me coming back for more. I agree with all the points Steve made in his review. I am just approaching this game from a slightly different perspective as I love this mechanic. So, I thought it was worth a second opinion. If you too love deck-builders and are a fan of Star Wars, then if you are looking for a new two-player game that plays in under half an hour, I would not look much further than this. All your favourite characters are there. The game oozes theme. And the card interplay is fantastic. May the Force be with you, unless you are playing against me.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art or components may change in the final game. The link to the crowd funding page is here the company website is here and their insta is here . Nice To Know! Animals comes from two new designers Ibrahim Halil Ciftc i and Erdem Ocal and founder Sertan Arig, and their newly formed publishing house HOUF Games . The game looks a little like a government funded game that is used at Schools to try and teach their students in a fun way. But it is good. Don't let the slightly 1980's name and theme fool you! Is this based on an IP already out there? It sounds like some American show that maybe I have not heard of? The game works incredibly simply. On your turn you either gain research credits known in the game as RE. Or you spend previously earned credits to get new cards into your array. That's it. But the magic comes in the cards, how they work together, and ultimately, how they score. Which is a whole different thing! We will come to that shortly. But first, let's take a little look at the cards and how they work. In the game, there are 182 animal cards. They are not all the unique. There are duplicates, but this is a game function. Such as the below Chameleon that comes in a two, this Vulture which is part of four, or this Horses which is one of five. But some come as unique cards, such as this Rabbit. The quantity of each card is shown in pips on the right next to the animal's name so you will always know the rarity of each card. On the card, you will also see the card's end game points in the top right, its diet and endangered level (shown with a sad face such as the Rabbit above) in the top right, the area of residence (do animals reside?) in the top left, and a nice interesting fact at the bottom. The facts are not always relevant, just a bit of fun. But do sometimes help with the Quest cards. Depending on my mood, I have both gorged on these and ignored them completely! They are excellent, but not always necessary. When you take a card, you must first spend the required amount of RE and second, be in the right location. The cards will be laid out in a three-by-three grid during setup. The cards in the top row cost one RE, the middle row will set you back two RE, and the bottom row has a cost of three RE. If you want to gain RE, you will do this by discarding a card from the grid. The top row gains you five RE. The middle gains you three, and the bottom gains you just one. You will want to discard from the top, but as the cards move down the rows during the game, discarding from the top will potentially be getting rid of the better cards you have not had the chance to take yet. It is a delicate but interesting rule that works well. When you gain the cards, simply choose the one you want, pay the appropriate row costs, and take the card. But if you are not in the right continent, you cannot do this. You must first pay nine RE to move continents, which is a lot in this game. Alternatively, if the row from which you want to take the card has a Sponsored flight card, you can take that card along with the Animal card of your choosing and move for free. There are 20 of these in the game, and their appearance will obviously be somewhat random and can cause swings in the game. It's a frustrating and somewhat unnecessary way that the game offers too much luck and not enough strategy. I feel that either the cost to move should be less, or you should be able to move to neighbouring areas for reduced costs. Or the number of Sponsored cards should be more. Because sometimes you will find there are games when you barely have to pay for any flights, whereas there are others when you are constantly out of luck and the Sponsored flights keep getting taken by other players. When you add a card, it will work for you in many ways, perhaps one too many for your first few games. It can be a lot to take in when you come to final scoring. In addition to the points shown on the top right of the card, each card can also be put towards various Quests and scoring categories. The Quests are gained whenever you gain a duplicate card, as well as one being dealt out at random at the start of the game; from a choice of two. The Quests all have two missions; you can only complete one per card, and three cards in total. The Quest points vary from five to ten and are about specific things regarding the animal's location, appearance, behaviour - even poop! If you are unsure which card the Quest is referring to, there is a handy guide you can use. The categories the cards work towards include their diet, endangered status, and location. At the end of the game, the person with the most Carnivorous or Herbivorous cards scores five points each, ten in total. There are three points up for grabs for the player with the most endangered cards, and five points for the player with the most Sponsored Flight cards. Then, you will assign each card in your array to a specific continent. Some cards work for multiple areas, other have a set continent . You will then score five points if you have the most cards in each of the seven continents. Also, for each continent where you have at least two animals, you will score 30 points if you managed to get all seven continents, 20 points if you collected within six of them, and 15 points if you have two cards for at least five continents. Finally, players will score two points for each Invitation certificate they have. These are gained throughout the game in a one of two ways. Whenever a player gains their fifth, tenth, or fifteenth animal card, a separate Invitation phase begins. The player that triggered this phase will gain one Invitation certificate - placed on the main board during setup - from either the fifth, tenth, or fifteenth space on the bottom right of the board; and then they will place Invitation certificates onto each continent on the main board where there are currently no players present. This encourages players to travel around the board more during the game, as well as collecting the cards as quickly as possible. Also, this race element comes to the forefront when considering the end game mechanic, which is triggered when a player gains their fifth endangered animal or, more commonly, their eighteenth non-endangered animal card. As you gather your cards during the game, you need to be thinking about which continent it is in, what quests it could help you fulfil, as well as the pacing the other players currently have against the seven continents and the two types of cards, endangered and non-endangered. It is a lot to take in, and invariably, you will come to the end of your first few games realising you totally forgot about one quest card, or more likely, one or two continents. It is hard to do them all. But as you score, you will realise you have gathered a lot of points, no matter what you neglected. Most games end with most players scoring above 100 points, sometimes well in excess! It is a point salad of a game in this respect, and satisfying to win or lose. However, the real joy comes after multiple plays, and you start to see the matrix, aiming for and acquiring the right cards in the most efficient way, keeping track of the cards the other players are getting, and winning the all-important continental area-control war; whilst still getting at least two for each area yourself. There are huge point swings to be gathered here; up to 65 in total. I found the game to be quite absorbing in this way. As much as it appears incredibly simple, with minimal rules and only two real options on your turn; the strategy of which animals you collect and the huge swing in points this can have does make me want to keep coming back to the table. It is a game I want to master, as I feel you can quickly do this. This may seem like an issue, but what I found was that it actually meant that it led to very competitive and interesting games forming - very quickly. Players learned how to do well in this game within two to three games. Subsequent plays were a lot better as the people around the table were evenly matched, all fully aware of what they were doing, and thinking hard about how to best create the most point-worthy array of animals. There are many games like this that offer this lovely build and experience when all players become "good" at the game. But often, they are a lot more complicated, time consuming, and harder to get multiple players at the same level . As such it is hard to find a group of people all at an expert level to deliver the experience you really want. Nice To Know! Animals however is light, very simple, and relatively quick, around 40-60 minutes. So you can achieve this. The games fly by due to turns being so simple and fast. You can generally plan ahead if you want to, not for specific cards as such, but the type of card you are looking out for. Of course, there are times when an animal you want appears in the grid and is gone by the time it is your turn. However, they will always be replaced by something new, and generally something useful will be there somewhere. Most the time, due to the high RE cost of flying, players are looking for animals you can either fly to for free or are in the same region as you first and foremost, and then ones that suit your quests and geographic requirements on a secondary level. The other way may work better, but you simply wont have the RE. Well, that's how I play anyway, and it generally works out okay. But I do prefer fast play over optimum efficiencies for a game of this weight! And when you get to know the game, fast plays still work well. Essentially, what I am saying is that this is a nice game to get if you want a simple game to master, still play quickly, but get the feeling you are doing something smart! The art on the cards is a little empty, but there is, is good. It just feels a little more formulaic and scientific than beautiful. The player aids are excellent and detail everything you would want to know. I am not a fan of the art on the quest cards. That is very bland, as is the main board. It is functional but somewhat simplistic for my tastes. The star of the show component wise though are the cute little ani-meeples! Overall, I think this is a game well worth looking into if you are searching for a simple-to-play card game that offers some interesting tableau building and scoring opportunities, especially if you enjoy the animal and conservation theme. The Kickstarter has already successfully hit, so if you want this game, you can essentially pre-order now for a September 2025 delivery, estimated, of course!