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This is a preview using prototype parts. Images do not represent the quality for the final game. Route East is a new game hitting kickstarter in March 2022 from first time designers Lost Venture Games. The game takes inspiration from founders Jonny and George's own experiences travelling the Silk Road from Istanbul to Shanghai. Many parts of the game from the Car on the cover art to some of the events in the action deck take inspiration from their own real-life experiences. The game looks and feels like an adventure. You can feel the truth in the game. For what is essentially an action point, adventure race game, a real sense of adventure oozes from every aspect of this production. I was instantly drawn in from the box art, and on opening the board, I was not disappointed. Everything looks gorgeous. It feels like something epic and exciting is about to happen. The final game will use a matt rather than a gloss finish, but it already looks like a highly polished game, even in the prototype form. A lot of care and attention has gone into the factual detail and thematic ties to all parts of the visuals. Setting up is easy. You lay out the board as above then add in the cards to the spaces shown, place the fuel tokens over the off shore rig. Then add the player tokens to the start space in Istanbul and deal three destinations to each player, that's it! When done, it should look something like this. The rule book is also very easy to digest and read, even in this early form. To win Route East, you must be the first player to move your piece to the finish space in Shanghai via your three destinations. On your turn, you can use three actions. You can either move your piece one, two, or three spaces, or use your actions to draw one, two, or three action cards. These card mostly help you with a variety of fun and interesting abilities. After each turn, you must end on either a hotel, hostel, or border space. You need somewhere to sleep after all. On your next turn, you will pay either $25 or $50 for your previous night based on where you stayed the night before, then draw an Ignition card to get started. Or if you stayed at a border crossing, draw a Border card if you plan to cross one of the many border crossings in the game that turn. The crossings can be as simple as a $25 fee plus a fuel token, but life does not always pan out like that! Borders are often closed, or require additional payments to get past the corrupt border guards! On your way, you can stop off at cash points to top up your funds, visit petrol stations to gather more fuel for upcoming crossings, take a short cut on a dirt road or ship crossing, or take a detour to one of the three tourist destinations you need to visit along the way. At the start of the game, each player will be dealt three random destination cards. They must all be in different countries, if they are not, you must discard and re-draw until this is the case. This will then create your path to Shanghai. Planning your route at this part of the game feels a little bit like Ticket to Ride. And the overall game does have a similar feel to this. The 'map-style' board. Plotting routes to various destinations. It does all feel a bit TTR, in a good way! When you reach a destination, you must reveal the card and then you can use the bonus that destination card offers. There are some interesting and powerful abilities to be gained for reaching each one. Either helping you or hindering one of your opponents. Plotting your route and making it to each one is the most fun part of the game. I only wish you could visit more of them. I have suggested a variant whereby you need to visit more than three, perhaps with more actions each turn so the game does not get too long. Who knows, it may make the final cut! But you can always house rule this yourself if not. We played a game where you had to visit 6 destinations instead of three and we gave ourselves six actions each turn again instead of three. It worked well. The three destinations you must visit do affect the game a lot. They could be all along a nice orderly path, or seemingly at the end of long and needless detours. But the game has enough swings and deviations that no matter your cards, it will always feel like a tense and close race. I have played five times so far and each game has ended with the other players only a turn or two behind from finishing themselves. There is nothing worse than a one horse race. Route East doesn’t seem to suffer from this. The final few turns are all through dirt roads where you must roll even numbers to pass. This alone creates a nice catch up mechanic for any players languishing behind. There are plenty of destination cards to offer a nice variety each game. Each are wonderfully illustrated with thematically tied powers and a nice local titbit. I would like to have more facts about them present on the art or perhaps in a separate guide book. This again I believe is one of the plans for the development of the game before and during the kickstarter. Everything about this game makes me want to pack my bags, pick up my passport and head off on an adventure. After finishing the game of course! This is the biggest compliment I can pay this game. Route East is a great family friendly gateway race game that sits in a nice place between Ticket to Ride and The Quest for El Dorado, and scratches the itch both games offer. There are a lot of cards for each of the main decks. The Ignition, Action, and Border cards. There is some repetition on the text, but certainly enough variety to make each draw feel exciting. The wording is clear and there is no need to refer to the rule book once you start playing. Everything just makes sense. I am excited to see how this game develops and will watch closely to see how the kickstarter goes. I will post a link to that here when it goes live. I would recommend backing this game to anyone who likes games such as Ticket to Ride or The Quest to El Dorado. As mentioned, this game sits nicely between those two and is a nice game to add to your gateway collection. I see a lot of potential for development with this game, either in this first copy, or through expansions. I would like to see different maps, action cards, and events added to future copies. It does feel like this could be the start of something big in the gaming world if the kickstarter gets the right traction.

The King is Dead: Second Edition WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: War Chest, Blitzkrieg, Air, Land & Sea. Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Peer Sylvester By Steve Godfrey The King is Dead! And since this is a second edition I suppose you could say that the King is Dead Again! Whichever way you look at it, being a male monarch in medieval England doesn’t have the most long term of career prospects. Luckily for the players though all we have to do is deal with the fallout, gain loyalty from a majority of the country and stop the French invading and taking over……..simple really! You have to know these things when you're a king, you know. Set up by giving each player a set of the eight cards, everyone has the same cards so just make sure each player has a complete set. Shuffle the region cards and place them randomly face up around the board. Give each player two random cubes from the bag. Then add two blue cubes into Moray, two red cubes to Gwynedd and two Yellow cubes into Essex (my home County) then place cubes randomly into each region until they each have four cubes. The rest go into the general supply. On your turn they can either play a card from your hand or pass. If you play a card, perform the action on that card. This is either going to add followers onto the board or switch others around but with restrictions. Once a card Is played, discard that card from the game, then take one follower (cube) of any colour from anywhere on the map and add it to your supply. Passing doesn’t end your round however. The round will only end once everyone has passed in succession. This means you can still change your mind and play a card after passing. Once everyone has passed a power struggle will occur. You check the first region card around the board and check which faction has the most followers in that region then place a control disc of that colour in that region and place all the followers into the general supply. If there are no cubes in that region or there is a tie for most then a black French control disc is placed instead. The game will end in one of two ways. When either all eight power struggles have been resolved or if the French place all three control discs on the board. The game will score differently depending on how the game ends. If by way of a power struggle then determine which faction has the most power discs, then the player with the most cubes of that colour wins. If the game ends in French invasion then the player with the most sets of each colour will win. You don’t vote for kings! Now and again a game comes along that I love to explain to people, usually because it has a little M Night Shyamalan style twist that makes people sit up and say “what?!, say that again!” The King is dead is one of those games. Some of you may have worked it out from my brief rules rundown above, if not, don’t worry. Basically you only have eight cards in your hand and each time you play one you discard it out of the game with no way of getting it back. This means you have a maximum of eight turns in the game and how and when you decide to take them is crucial and absolutely makes this game the little slice of brilliance that it is. Looking at this game from the outside it would be so easy to say “well just play one card per round then you're guaranteed a turn every round”, but the decisions are so much harder than that. The first time you play a card you think to yourself “that’s fine, that’s set me up nicely for the next power struggle” and you're all set to pass into the next round. But then someone else plays a card which may put a medieval spanner in the works, maybe for this round or a future round and then the conundrums really start. Do you sit back and let it go and try and push up for future power struggles instead, do you change your follower strategy, or do you play another card to retaliate and then hope that your opponent doesn’t decide to play ANOTHER card to swing the balance back in their favour. Playing that second card this round will mean you'll essentially be skipping a round in the future but it may just be worth it. These are the decisions you will have to struggle with EVERY. SINGLE. ROUND. and it’s brilliant. The cards themselves give you plenty of options. You have some cards that let you move cubes to different regions either into adjacent or across the map. The trick here is that the next player in turn can’t use the same card to reverse what has just been played. Re- enforcement style cards will add cubes to the board and strengthen a faction's control in a region. Then you have the negotiate card which lets you switch the position of two unresolved region cards and place your white negotiation disc on one which blocks it from being moved again. I love how an eight region map and a hand of eight cards each gives you so much depth and so much scope to make some really interesting and thoughtful choices. Every card you play isn’t a simple decision and you're never just playing a card for the current power struggle. Since cards are precious and power struggles are public knowledge You are constantly weighing up your options and trying to make your cards work for future rounds as well. It’s not just the cards though because taking a follower after playing cards adds that little extra layer to your choices. Now stand aside, worthy adversary! Chances are your best laid plans and strategies will change during the course of the game. Because all your cubes and cards are public knowledge it’s fairly easy to see where people's loyalties lie or if they seem to be pushing for sets and bringing about French victory. Because of that there can be a bit of a mid game panic as you see the loyalties veering away from you and you scrabble to try and either turn the tide your way or try and grab relevant followers. If you do happen to find yourself on the wrong end of a revolution though the game is quick enough and easy enough to set up that you can just go again. The randomness of the set up is where the game finds it’s replayability and for such little effort that is a lot of replayability. The production on The King is Dead is just fantastic. The tapestry style art on that beautiful box cover and the cards is amazing and I’m always drawn to a beautiful box and board with those shiny surfaces on (I think that’s the technical term anyway!) The art was done by Benoit Billion who has now taken my number one spot as the best name in all of board gaming. Consult the book of armaments The King is Dead does come with a small variant which sees you throwing new cards into the mix and it is honestly my preferred way to play the game and require no real effort to throw in or teach. Remove the three faction support cards from each deck and shuffle up the twelve cunning action cards and deal three to each player replacing those support cards. They essentially do similar things as the other cards but in different combinations and the rule book will give you a run down of each one. Since each card is different the other players can’t easily deduct what cards opponents have in their hands. Some people may prefer the predictability of the original set up while others may prefer the slight randomness of the cards. The standard factions support cards are good and are great for learning the game. They don’t over complicate things and it’s easier to teach everyone the same cards. They also have their limits though. If you don’t manage to play them at the right time then they may wind up being unusable. The game is so simple though that it will only really take a game or even two to feel confident enough to use the new cards. I love the fun back and forth and the will they, won't they play another card dilemma. The best thing about The King is Dead though is that it’s a simple to learn, quick and utterly engaging area control game which has a ton of replayability in a brilliantly produced small box of delights.

Title: Rallyman GT WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Formula D, Flamme Rouge, Downforce Published by: Holy Grail Games, Designed by: Jean-Christophe Bouvier By Steve Godfrey I don’t particularly like watching motor racing. Now when I say that I’m talking mainly in the general sense but specifically F1. When I was younger the racing was just some boring program that my parents had on during a Sunday that more often than not delayed my favourite show from coming on. A board game version of it though? That may just hit the right gear. Rules of the road After making your track, determine the first player and they place their car at the start line and closest to the edge of the next corner. Once all players are on the starting grid the first player plans their trajectory with the gear dice. There are six black dice with a gear number on it (one of each gear), two white coast dice and three red brake dice. Which of these dice you get depends on your car, tires and the weather. Place dice along the track with the dice going in ascending or descending order or a mix of both. So if you start in gear zero you’ll lay out gear dice one then two etc. the white coast dice let you remain in the same gear and the red brake dice let you skip a downward gear. This is for those “whoops I didn’t quite plan that right” moments. Corners have numbers indicating the highest gear you can take those corners in, any higher and you’ll automatically spin out. Some corners will even give you gear restrictions depending on how you go into the corner. Next you have to roll the dice. You can choose to go flat out and roll all the dice at once or go one at a time. In either case if you roll three hazard symbols (two in the rain) you spin out. Going flat out has more risk but will give you focus tokens. Rolling one by one means that you can stop your movement before rolling any of the dice to avoid disaster. It also allows you to use the focus tokens to avoid rolling a die. Each round turn order is determined by the following. Cars in the highest gear go first, any ties the car furthest round the track then the car closest to the inside of the next corner. The game ends after a determined amount of laps. “Lights out and away we go!” Sports games aren’t an easy thing to translate into board games. For the most part sports are fast paced and board games, famously are not. The faster the sport, the harder it is to find new ways to get the pace and feel of the sport you're trying to emulate. Well unless designers are going to ask gamers to run round the room with the board in hand and a huge fan blowing at them! I think most gamers would agree that one of the reasons we like board games is because it involves a large amount of sitting. I know I do! So designers are then left to focus on the strategic and tactical elements to get the essence and focusing on that strategy is something that Rallyman GT does really well. Setting your trajectory at the start of your turn seems like a simple thing to do, lay dice out, done, right? Well no, because there are so many tactical decisions to make as you're doing it. Choosing your speed and dice order are just the first part of a row of interesting decisions you get to make on your turn. You’ll quickly find that there are usually a few combinations you can place your dice in as you plot your turn. Some will get you further along the track whereas some may not put you as far round but will set you up in a nice advantageous position for your next turn, and if your luck, may even hinder you opponents in the process. “With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go.” Rallyman GT is the first game that I’ve played that simulates the idea of the “racing line” properly. Sure you can take the corner using any of the spaces but taking that ideal line will give you the advantage. Aside from the obvious tactical advantage it’s really satisfying when you manage to pull it off well and put your metaphorical pedal down and power out of a corner and surge ahead. There’s even a certain smoothness that you feel when you do manage to take those racing lines and especially when you manage to set yourself up perfectly for your next move. On the flip side you also feel how harsh it can be when you're forced to take the wrong lines or if you have to come into a corner too slowly. That’s not a negative thing though because it all adds to the racing experience and goes further to prove just how tactically this game can be played from an offensive and defensive perspective. All of this is before you even have to roll the dice, which brings its own conundrums. Playing it safe is, well, playing it safe and if you want to have a chance of winning then it’s probably your best chance. As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race, which I’m pretty sure was written from someone who has never seen high speed racing or was their schools “slow bike race” champion 4 years running. You can still push your luck when those hazard symbols come up but having the option to stop means you rarely have to worry about those devastating spin outs. Going flat out? That’s where the excitement comes in, rolling one at a time can have its “oooh” moments, but the tension of rolling all those dice and almost dreading opening your eyes to look at the result, that’s where the game gives you those moments where you cheer loudly. You even do it for other players. They’re your opponents, but it’s still tense and them spinning out may just be your chance to swoop in and take the lead! It works the opposite way when those hazard symbols come up but that’s the price you pay. Still getting the focus tokens regardless gives some consolation and is also a big help when trying to regain some ground in later turns. “The lead car is unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.” Rallyman GT can have any issue with a runaway leader if one person is having a good day with the dice and you’re deciding whether to put all or some of the dice in jail, then the chances of catching the leader can be pretty low. Now that's an extreme example but it can happen. This isn’t a problem unique to Rallyman GT however. This is something that all games involving those dreaded cubes can suffer with in various different ways. Take Formula D for example. This is a race game that has the same problem but, in my opinion anyway, suffers a lot worse. Rallyman has some ways of mitigating the dice and being that spinning out is more likely here it does make catching up more of a possibility. The last game I played of Rallyman this problem was rearing it’s annoying head but with some clever players everyone managed to catch up without the leader crashing. It can be disheartening when it starts to happen but in Rallyman Gt it doesn’t necessarily mean it's over. All that strategy and tactical play is a lot of fun but half the fun of the game is creating the maps before the game starts! There are some pre-made maps in the rule book if you're just wanting to set up and play. Making your own is great though. Take a number of tiles depending on the sort of game you want using the handy dandy guide in the rule book and create away. I like taking the tiles at random and seeing what craziness I can build. Another way I find a lot of fun is to hand all the players a number of tiles and one at a time add one to the track. This adds a bit of interactivity to set up and the other players can’t blame you for the bonkers map that’s laid out in front of them and the fact that they never get out of fourth gear. If they think that’s painful then they clearly haven’t spent any time driving on the M25. Honestly though, the Grand Prix could learn from some of these tracks. Rallyman Gt is a fun racing game that I think appeals to people wanting an enjoyable race game but also racing fans who want to explore the tactical side of the sport. It won’t make me a fan of racing but put this game in front of me and I’ll be more than happy to wait for the green light.

Title: Cartaventura WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Choose Your Own Adventure, Tales of Arabian Nights, Forgotten Waters. Published by: BLAM ! Designed by: Thomas Dupont, Arnaud Ladagnous This review will contain very minor spoilers to explain the games' mechanisms. Over the last few months there has been a lot of mystery surrounding this game for me. The art for the box was popping up everywhere I looked. Admittedly, confusing me when it was different each time. I did not realise there are four versions of this game at first, but all four looked stunning and so appealing to me. But I couldn't figure out quite how the game worked or how big it was. Not that this matters, but it added to the enigma! Now proudly owning one copy of this game, I can tell you, first up, its a really fun choose your own adventure style game, in a tiny box! I have the Lhasa version, there is also one called Oklahoma, Vinland and a mini one called Tintagel. Each tells the tale of a different adventurer in four completely different stand alone games. Cartaventura: Vinland is set in the the land of the Vikings. Players will follow in the footsteps of explorer Erik The Red trying to prove your father's innocence. Cartaventura: Oklahoma places you in 1854 in the United States. Players play as Bass Reeves, a slave, who works in cotton and sugarcane fields who has intentions for freedom! Finally, Cartaventura: Tintagel is a mini scenario for Cartaventura. It takes you on the footsteps of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was initially available for free within a French magazine and now I expect, does the rounds at conventions and eBay! But back to Lhasa, where I have been playing as a French War correspondant, travelling through the Far Eat in search of Alexandra David-Neal. A fascinating woman with whom I have been a little obsessed with since playing this game. It is worth checking her out, even if you just read the highlights here. What a fascinating life. The game comes with a brief piece of history about her and her life at this time too. Making the adventure to try and find her in the game all the more exciting! The game has multiple endings and it took me three game until I found the ending I was satisfied with, but I wont spoil it by saying anything about what happened in either ending. Or why I wanted something specific. Each game ending was fun and gratifying. But as each adventure transpired, I was left feeling I had either missed parts out, or wanted to try and take a different route. Learning and playing Cartaventura could not be more easy. There is no rule book per say, and the on-boarding process for this game is fantastic. You simply start playing. In the box is 70 cards. The first few take you through the basics of what each symbol means, a lightning bolt means you must do that card right away for example. Nothing you won't be familiar with already. You then start reading the story and making choices. At the end of most cards there is a two-pronged choice to make. Go here or there. Talk to this person or that. Do this thing, or that thing. You will soon be given resources to manage which will affect which choices you can make as not everything in life is free of course. And you will realise that each action has a consequence. You cannot say something bad about someones business without them having an opinion of your work for example. Some cards you reveal will be a map, showing where you are and giving you choices of where you want to go. Again, everything will have a consequence, and the game is played with a clever sense of time passing. Doing once thing will affect your ability to do another. A ship may sail and remove your options for other things. It's hard to not go into too much detail here without spoiling the game, so you will have to let your imagination do the rest of the work. The game has multiple endings, and your actions in one game, will affect subsequent games in a very clever way that again I won't spoil here. There are some parts of the game that will remain the same each time you play of course, especially for the first few turns. But it doesn't take long for your choices to fork, and new experiences to be had. I found that playing this game evoked a real sense of adventure and mystery. I think games like this rely on the story more than the mechanisms, and the story in Lhasa is truly fascinating to me. This era of history interests me a lot anyway, and I have always had a romantic interest in the area the game takes you too. Learning a little bit more about the people and cultures during this time, in what feels like a historically accurate account, adds a lot to this game. I was curious to try every different option. I wanted to look down every street, talk to every person. Experience every possible eventuality. This is how the game looks after about 5 minutes of playing, (with a few cards removed) no matter the choices you make. I feel comfortable showing this picture without spoiling anything. It gives you a good impression of how the game looks, and the multiple options that will be available to you at any turn. Most of the criticism for this game I have seen focuses around the lack of options available to you as the player, and how the game has a basic linear path that feels more like a choose your own adventure story and less like a game. I could not disagree more. Each time I have played, the game has felt completely divergent, and the story I told was vastly contrasting, and had very different endings. There is more to this than just your choices, but I appreciate how this can be the case for some. Of course, the choices will not go on forever. This is a physical product after all. In future, digital versions of games like this will offer more choice. But for a small box, low cost game, I think there is more than enough in this production to justify this game being given worthy consideration of anyone interested in choose your own adventure style games. And that is the key point. If you like choose your adventure style games, I think you will like this. If you don't, then I don't think this will change your mind on the genre. The main choice if you do like this type of thing, is which story interests you the most. For me it was Lhasa and it's mysterious place in history. But now, having experienced this one and enjoyed the way the game is structured, I want to play them all!

Arts & Architecture WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Viscounts of the West Kingdom, Wingspan, Lost Ruins of Arnak Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier If you would like to read the review for the main game, then head here. If you would like to read the review for the first expansion Plans & Ploys, then head here. If you would like to read the review for this second expansion, Arts & Architecture, then read on! I enjoy Tapestry a lot. The game is so smooth, looks incredible, and is incredibly easy to teach and play, despite its complex looking set up. I think it is a great Gateway game for this reason. I enjoyed the first expansion a lot, but this second one has really excited me as it promised a new fifth track. That's 20% more fun guarantied! On my first few plays with this expansion I was instantly smitten by it, but also, unsure how best to progress on five tracks compared to four. You don't get any more turns, but I had so much more I needed to try and achieve. After a few plays, I calmed down in my attempts to reach the end of all five tracks, which as far as I can tell, simply can't be done, and just focused on the game, which I will go into now. Arts & Architecture brings in four new elements to the game. The fifth Arts Track, six advanced Capital City mats, 20 Masterpiece cards, and the new inspiration tiles. Plus there are more landmark, tech, tapestry and civilization cards and eight beautifully painted miniatures. Let's take a look at all the new components added first. Arts Tracks This is by far the headline change to the game with this new expansion. It is always nice to get more "stuff," but I also want something new. Something that changes and enhances the game. A fifth track certainly does that. The track offers a new focus, a juggling act. Trying to advance on four tracks was always a challenge, now with an extra one thrown in, you really need to focus on what is right for your strategy each game. But this new Arts track doesn't just bring a new place to try and advance, it also has new benefits. Masterpiece cards and Inspiration tiles can be gained from this new track which I will cover more below, and there is a new symbol showing each colour of the four buildings. Players can now gain new buildings, but chose which one to take. I have found that the Arts track compliments the other tracks very well. Particularly the Science track which I always favour. I like how the Science track allows you to move up other tracks, and now with five tracks to move up, this seems even more crucial. Advanced Capital City Mats The new capital city mats offer more than just variety in terms of the layout. New rules around gaining benefits and placements are introduced as well. I like the Cavern which has interesting placement rules, and extra points for each completed row. I enjoyed the flexibility of Cloud City which lets you move your buildings after placing them, something I often longed to do in previous games! My new favorite though is the Swamp. It has giant lily pads that do count as a completed area, but they can be built over when required offering flexibility with larger landmark buildings. They will lose you pints if still visible at the final income turn, but help you complete more rows and columns in the earlier rounds. Masterpiece Cards The Art tracks brings in new Masterpiece cards. These cards can be placed anywhere in your player area, but the game suggests you use the space on your player board where the Maker of Fire image is. This is so you don’t forget to use them each income round. The cards offer new ways to gain resources and various different benefits that are triggered each income round, and at certain stages on the Arts track. The final space on the arts track allows you to trigger three different cards if you have that many by then. I found this to be a very useful way to gain more resources, have more turns, and build stronger scores. Inspiration Tiles. The Arts track also introduces the Inspiration tiles. When gained, these can be placed onto your payer board in the spaces where you store your buildings before you acquire then. They offer upgrades to your income phase, with additional points and resources now available for every exposed space. As such, it makes sense to get these early in the game so you can utilise them for more income rounds, and then focus on acquiring the buildings on that track. It adds a focus to your game, and works well when combined with the other new flexible ways to acquire buildings. Other new elements. This expansion also brings in new landmark, technology, and tapestry cards. They are mainly more of the same, but some do require landmark buildings to be placed on them for additional benefits. The new technology cards need a landmark building placed on them in order for it to qualify for the final upgrade spot. Whilst the tapestry cards offer additional benefits when the spaces on it are covered by buildings or landmarks. It's interesting to have the choice of where to place your buildings now, and with the landmark cards, it is nice to be able to get more landmark buildings in order to satisfy the different options. The landmark cards were first introduced in Plans & Ploys and allow players to get landmarks pieces irrespective of who reaches certain spots on the tracks first. I like this, as 'first' in Tapestry shouldn’t always mean 'best'. The new Civilization cards. The new Civilization cards offer more variety for people who have played the base game, and Plans & Ploys a lot, and are dealt out with one of the original Civilization cards for players to choose from. You can always have the choice to use one of these new Civilization cards if you wish. I like the new Gamblers card a lot. It offers a nice chance to use more tapestry cards, in a completely chance encounter. I lot of Tapestry avoids luck, and rightly so. There is some elements with the cards and dice of course, but this game seems to be more about strategy than random factors. That is a good thing, but I like the choice to add some pure luck with this card. I enjoyed using the Urban Planners card too, although on one occasion, I realised the error of my ways when I foolishly combined it with the new Archipelago Capital City mat, which is a series of small islands, only large enough for one landmark building each. The Urban Planers rewards you for Landmarks that touch each other in your capital city. The Archipelago makes this impossible! This is nothing against the game, just my own lack of focus! Relentless is my new favorite Civilization though. It adds a real focus to gain a new Landmark building each turn, and offers big rewards for doing so. In a game where you can deploy multiple different strategies, I do like my Civilization card to add some clarity to where my attention should be focused, and reward me in turn for doing so if I do well with it. The new miniatures are wonderful. They are probably some of my favorite buildings in the game, apart from the Shuttle of course. Like the previous games, they are not really necessary, and don't add anything to the game mechanically, but thematically and visually, they are stunning. This expansion is fairly priced though, and offers a lot more than just these painted miniatures, so I don't think any criticism can be placed on their inclusion or the affect they had on the price in the way the base game suffers from. Set-up and Game length. I will play Tapestry without this expansion on occasions. Particularly when I'm teaching the game to new players. But when I am playing with people familiar with the game, it will always be my choice to add this to the game, and my preference over Plans & Ploys. I have played with both expansions and it worked fine. The landmark cards were the main change in Plans & Ploys, and they are present in Arts & Architecture anyway. There is no real additional time or complexity added to the game when including this expansion or indeed both, and only a few more minutes added to set-up and rules, detailing the new track and what it brings with the Inspiration and Masterpiece cards. The extra track does add a little more thinking time initially as players become familiar with it, but it also opens up more spaces to go to which reduces competition for getting to the landmark spaces first. Well, just a little! Summery. Overall, I think this is by far the better of the two expansions, and elevates the game into new heights. Tapestry is a polarizing game due to its price, the popularity of the publisher, and the civilization theme not satisfying everyone. If you don't like the base game this will not change your mind. But if you are a fan of the base game, I would heartily recommend this expansion, both for added variety and longevity to the game, as well as creating a new experience to have with Tapestry. I would still like to see more done withe the theme and story of this game. It would be nice to make the names of each space mean something. I never feel like I am inventing, discovering or exploring anything. It feels to me that an expansion could ingrain the theme into this game a little more. Perhaps cards that rewarded you for doing certain things shown on the track spaces. For example, a reward for building Ships, found on the Exploration track, could be to actually gain Ship tokens to add to the board which would then allow you to reach a new island to explore for new bonuses. What Arts & Architecture does bring is new options, more choices, increased strategy, and a better overall game experience. Tapestry is my third favorite Stonemaier game behind Scythe and Viticulture, but it is quickly closing in on Scythe for second spot and with this expansion added, is getting very close indeed.

Title: Demeter WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-100 You’ll like this if you like: Riverside, Hadrians Wall, Ganz Schön Clever. Published by: Sorry We Are French Designed by: Matthieu Verdier Let's get this out of the way as quickly as possible. Demeter is a brilliant game. There are so many options available to you as you play this game, but you will feel in complete control of your destiny, which when you start to get right after a few games, feels great. It does take a few go's at this to learn the strategy due to the many different choices you can make, but once this becomes more familiar to you, the combination turns you can take at the later stages are wonderfully satisfying. OK, with that said. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Namely, there are hundreds of great blank and write games out there. Games where you roll a dice, or flip a card, and then mark something off on a sheet of paper just like here with Demeter. Alongside Riverside, Hadrians Wall, Ganz Schön Clever that I mention above, there is also Welcome To, Cartographers, Silver & Gold, to name just a few recent descents! This is a cluttered market place, so the question needs to be, not, is this a good game? But rather. Is this game better than the rest? Where does Demeter rank in the genre? I would rank Demeter very highly. It is certainly up there as one of the best flip and write games for me. With so many good games in the genre, I think the theme and art needs to come into it. It is fine margins that separate these great games. So, you need to make your own choice as to which theme interests you the most. So, yes. Demeter is a great game, but I think it will be personal preference around theme that will determine which one is right for you. The art and theme for Demeter is fantastic. No blank and write game ever really screams theme as you play it, I would say Riverside is the best for this. They all do become quite abstract when you start playing. I do like the art in Demeter, and think the idea is a good one. It follows on from the game Ganymede, where now, having landed on the planet of Ganymede, you are investigating the local wildlife, which happens to be Dinosaurs. But in truth, at no point during the game do I ever think about this. Does this matter? Not really! It's just with so many games that are all very good, you need to find a way to separate them out. Unless you just buy them all! How to play Demeter. Playing Demeter is surprisingly easy. There are five different types of cards which match the five major things you can do shown in the top right of the player sheet. There are fifteen different cards of each suit. Before you start, shuffle and remove three cards at random then place the remaining 12 on the table by the four objectives and scoring markers for each species. You will then play through twelve rounds, drawing one card for each of the five decks each time. Players can chose one of the five cards on offer to use on their sheet. Players can choose which ever card they like, no matter what other players are doing. There is no way to affect the other players in this game other than the scores for the Dinosaurs which we will come to later. On each of the five cards, there will be a symbol that will show you what benefit that card will give you. They are mostly symbols for spotting dinosaurs, but you can also construct new buildings or observation towers, recruit new scientists, or study the dinosaurs you have seen. Once you have chosen which card to go for, players will mark the indicated space on the top right space on the player sheet. This is important because if you do one from each card and complete a row, you will gain additional benefits. It also just helps you remember which card you chose that round. Players will then mark off the benefit they gained on the sheet, and then also claim the benefit of the card colour they chose. The blues let you recruit a scientist. The Red card lets you create a new observation post, the yellows let you study an already discovered dinosaur. The purple's let you mark off a space on the research track. And finally, the grey cards let you chose one of the above four options, it acts as a wild. The player board does look initially complicated but will quickly make sense in your mind after your first game. It is helpful to separate the board into four areas. There is the top left area we have talked about. The purple research track. The buildings on the top right. And then the main area which is separated itself into five areas, each showing a different species of dinosaur. You job is to discover and study the dinosaurs which means to colour in the space of the part of the dinosaur you are discovering. And then when the dinosaur is fully coloured in, you can draw a line from the dinosaur to the box close to it when studying it, to claim that benefit. You need to first spot and then study these beasts. Adding scientist's and observation towers increases your end game scoring options, and will help you complete objectives in the game. There are four randomly selected objectives for each game. You need to try to meet the criteria of these, but also qualify to score against them in the first place. Reaching the top of the research track three times will allow you to score the first three objectives, and discovering and studying the top four Gallimimus' on the bottom right of the sheet allows you to score against the forth one. It is a nice challenge to have to meet. Not only to do well in the four objectives, but to also reach the point where you can score them. The buildings will allow you to gain a benefit twice when you get that benefit. For example, the first blue building when constructed, will allow you to gain two scientist instead of one when you get the gain the scientist benefit. Getting buildings early in the game I found to be crucial to scoring well. Once you have discovered every Dinosaur of its type, as in all three Triceratops are coloured in for example, you will then score the bonus for that type of dinosaur. In a multiplayer game, you will flip over the token for that type of dinosaur and then each next person will score two less points when they discover that type of that dinosaur. This is the only way that players will have any type of interaction with each other in this game. This has both positive and negative affects on the game play. In a multiplayer, you do feel rather that you are playing a solitaire game, and other than the odd conversation here and there, asking what the other person may be doing, and then comparing scores at the end, it does feel rather isolated as you play. But this game plays brilliantly as a solitaire game. There are no rule changes, dummy players, or solo cards to use. You just play as usual and try to beat your previous scores. I like solo games like this, but would prefer there to be a score rank in the rule book so you can compare your scores. I always think it's a missed opportunity when this isn't done in a game that works so well in in solo mode. This has both positive and negative affects on the game play. Negative in that in a multiplayer, you do feel rather that you are playing a solitaire game, and other than the odd chat here and there, asking what the other person may be doing, and then comparing scores at the end, it does feel rather isolated as you play. Positive in that this game players brilliant as a solitaire game. There are no rule changes, dummy players, or annoying solo cards to use. You just play as usual and try to beat your previous scores. I like solo games like this, but would prefer there to be a score rank in the rule book so you can compare your scores. I always think it a missed opportunity when this isn't done in a game that works so well in a one. Summery. Demeter feels very satisfying to play. There is a quick learning curve and I saw my scores dramatically improve as I learnt the strategy for the game. I found in game two and three I had incredibly high scores as I had a rule wrong around the building bonus, but thankfully some friends corrected me there when I posted my confusion online! (Thanks all!) But after that, when playing correctly, I saw my score steadily improve each game. The rule book is clear, I was just being slow! The game offers a clever puzzle you need to work out how to get right. Playing the game over and over does not get any less enjoyable or interesting. Demeter offers a constant challenge to try and figure out the right way to solve this puzzle the most efficient way. Games of this nature go from good to great when they offer cascading turns late in the game. Jamey Stegmaier spoke about this recently, where some games offer you lots of little turns with limited power, which all build to one (or more) big turns later in the game. I love games that do this. There is so much satisfaction in feeling you have earn't the right to take lots of actions on one turn. Saying to the other player, "Here, check this out. I can mark this, which lets me tick this, so I can score this, which in turns lets me do this and meet this objective!" It's a great feeling. A good blank and write should have this. Demeter does, but getting to the point where you can utilise and maximise 'one big turn' near the end of this game takes practice. In doing so, there is even more satisfaction than usual. You don't just feel you have earn't the right to do this in this game, but you have earn't the right to do this from the experience you gained from each time you play this game. This feels wonderful. This offers again, both good and bad things to the game. Good in that this 'one big turn' or multiple big turns in the case of Demeter, is great. It is very enjoyable to do this and your previous efforts and low scores will feel worth while as you develop your skills in this game. But, it does mean this game has a huge advantage to experienced players. I have not seen anyone score well in this game until at least game three, but then you still need I think at least five games before you score really well. The game is quick and can be done in 15 minutes, but not everyone will be up for five games to catch up with you each time you teach them. I would put Demeter into my top five for blank and writes without doubt. I will play it many more times. Due to its simplicity I would put it into my top five solo games as well. I would like the theme to be utilised a little more, and perhaps a few more ways to score in the game. I understand some of this is addressed in the first expansion, Autumn and Winter, but I have not played that yet. Overall Demeter is a great little game and one I would encourage you to check out if you are a fan of this genre, dinosaurs, or the art in Ganymede.

Title: Katamino Family WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 1-2 You’ll like this if you like: Ubongo 3D, Miyabi, Patchwork. Published by: Gigamic Designed by: André Perriolat, John Perriolat Games using polyomino shapes became all the rage a few years back. I think people like the sense of calm these game create. Bringing order where there was once chaos. There is also the nostalgic harp back to Tetris. A game so many of us grew up with. I still remember the exact time and place I completed level 9-5 for the first time. On the way to South France in a back of my mates dads car, summer of 2000 if you are interested. Previously known as Katamino Duo, this new release from Gigamic is a beautiful production, perfect for all fans of polyomino shapes and pattern building. Contained within this colourful box are 18 well made painted wooden pieces, a wooden board, and 40 cards offering a multitude of options. You can play this game in so many ways. The classic two player version is for one player to draw a card, each player to take the pieces shown on their side of the card, then race to add them all into their space on the board. After each round both players then choose an extra piece to give to their opponent with the person who finished second in the last round picking first. Each round, the space to build in grows by one row. The player who finishes first each round scores a point and after four rounds the player with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the players swap the last piece they gave to each other and duel one final time! The cards used to play the different games are all colour coded. Five different colours represent five different abilities. Players can choose to play at whichever level they are most suited too. There are also nine double coloured cards with one side suitable for children, and the other designed for adults. This is a great way for two players of different abilities to compete at the same time in a fair manner. You can also play Katamino on your own using similar rules. There are dedicated solo player cards, challenges and puzzles. Completing all six solo challenges was a satisfying thing to do, one I will continue to enjoy time after time. It was nice to take the race element present in a two player game out of the experience. Just focusing on your own goals at your own pace was a nice experience. There are also dedicated cards for 3D challenges. Either on your own, or in a race against another player. Players will attempt to complete towers ranging from 2x3x5 to 3x3x4. Depending on the size, players will either take specific pieces as shown on the card, or can chose the pieces they want based on a few parameters, and then attempt to arrange them into the required size. It is incredibly satisfying to finish, and you will surprised at how many variation there are. There isn't just one solution to each puzzle. Like most versions of this game, the shapes combine in hundreds of different ways. The rule book also offers a number of puzzles for younger children to try to complete. Using the shapes to create flat puzzles that resemble animals, or make up your own animal shapes. These are very simple to understand and designed for children from three and up. It is nice that this game can work for every in the family. Also included is a balancing game called Kataboom. Players take it in turns to balance a piece on top of the previously laid shape. The last player to place a piece without the construction toppling over is the winner. You can use both hands, and also use the piece you are placing to amend the previously laid pieces. It is surprisingly addictive, trying to beat not only your opponent, but as a team, your previously achieved height. It feels a little bit like Jenga, but a lot faster to play and a lot less hassle to clear up! Even putting this game away at the end is fun. You could of course just chuck all the pieces back into the box. They would fit just fine and not get damaged. But on the rear of the rule book is an image, tantalisingly showing you one solution to the many ways you can fit all the shapes back into the board together as one. I cannot imagine anyone would not at least try and put all the shapes back in this way after playing this game! I quite enjoy packing up most games anyway. It is a nice cathartic experience finding all the right bags or spaces in the box. This game takes from that sense of order and creates at entire game from it. Playing this game takes me back to playing Tetris and the zen state my mind goes into when playing these type of games. Manipulating these beautifully made 3D shapes in my hand only adds to the sensory pleasure of forming the required patterns. As much as some levels can be hard, and frustrating. When you complete a level you have been stuck on for a while, well, it makes you feel like you have actually achieved something. Even as a 42 year old man, I want to ring my mum and show her what I did!

Title: Quarto WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Go, Chess, SHŌBU Published by: Gigamic Designed by: Blaise Muller First made in 1991, Quarto has gone through many face lifts and make overs. This current edition from Gigamic is a beautifully made set with solid wooden pieces and a lovely wooden board. Quarto is a game I proudly leave out on display like a Chess set. Hoping to entice people to ask about it. Which in turn lets me teach them the game so we can play. And once we play this, why not one of the other hundreds in the house? If you will forgive the rather crude reference, is Quarto therefore, the perfect starter drug for board games? The game has gone through multiple published editions I would suggest, because of its traditional appeal. A simple to understand, hard to master board game, that can be taught and played in minutes and by anyone. It has all the makings of a classic in both looks and game play. In Quarto, players take it in turns to choose one of the 16 pieces to give to their opponent. They will then place it anywhere within the four-by-four grid. There are no placement rules, you can use any space you wish. Players will play in turn like this until all pieces are used and a tie occurs, or more likely, a connection of four is made, and spotted, in one of eight ways. In this picture, you can see four of the eight ways a connection of four can be made. The first is shown the in the bottom row. All four pieces have the same hollowed top. you could equally have four flat tops to make a valid connection. Along the right column you can see four large pieces. Again, four small would also work. Running along the second column you can see four pieces all with a square shape. Four circular shapes would also win you the game. And finally, in the second row, you can see four light coloured shapes. Four dark shapes would work just as well. When placing a piece, players need to look for the chance to build to, or complete one of these eight win conditions. But of course, the piece you are placing is not chosen by you. Your opponent will not want to intentionally help you. As both players are playing on the same board though, in order to help yourself you need to help your opponent. But in a way where they don't realise it. With eight different win conditions, it is easy to miss something. Like Connect Four, Chess, or any other popular puzzle or abstract game with different win conditions, you can be focused on one end goal and miss another right in front of your face. This happens a lot in this game. Having played this game probably over a hundred times now, I cannot count the amount of games that have ended with me thinking I am one move from victory, only for the other player to then make a connection I had not even seen. And with the way this game works, when this happens, you are literally handing them the victory! Making the connection is not enough though, you must also spot the connection and shout "QUARTO!" If you don't, and continue the game, the connection can no longer win you or any other player the game. This sounds redundant, but I am certain there are many games where I have won but not even noticed! There are a few variations to help with beginners or more advanced players. Either removing one or more of the win conditions or adding a new one. For beginners you can state that you can only win with the same colour or size for example. Or for an advanced game, you can add the possibility of winning with a group of four in a two by two square. With the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, there is already a lot going one. Adding in this advanced variation brings in nine new ways for the game to be won! Or more likely, nine new ways to miss an opportunity! Quarto is a great game to encourage children to try new games, learn patience, strategy, and how to be a good winner or loser. All the reasons I love playing games with my own children wrapped up in a beautiful wooden package. It is also great for teaching me how to be a good loser to them, which happens a lot anyway, but almost every time with this game. I think this is a young mans game! Quarto has such a high level of accessibility due to its simplistic rules and visually appealing pieces. Just looking at this board makes people want to pick up and fondle the pieces. There is also a novelty in seeing something that looks a bit like Chess, but isn't Chess. It intrigues people in a wonderful way. This does beg the question why is it that everyone has heard of and played Chess, but not Quarto? I suppose a few hundreds years has something to say about this. But come the mid 25th century, mark my words, Quarto will be as well known as Chess! OK, maybe not, but it certainly offers an enjoyable, accessible, and strategic game session, and looks lovely all set up now on my coffee table left after my last game with my son. Now, if I could figure out how he beat me again!

Title: A game about quickly grabbing creatures that are totally different, and watching out for turnips. WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-3 or more with more sets! You’ll like this if you like: GRABBELL, Dobble, Llama. Published by: Stuff By Bez Designed by: Andrew Beardsley, Behrooz Shahriari Where to start with this game? The name? The art? The crazy fun gameplay? Everything about this release from board game designer, enthusiast, entrepreneur, and all round great person Behrooz Shahriari makes me happy. Very happy indeed! Following on from the 2021 UKGE release of A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noise which sold out after one day (I bought my copy at about 11am!) I sense that Bez has got a cheeky glint in her eye when she names games this way. Perhaps it is because she finds a descriptive name like this helpful? Maybe it helps the game stand out? Maybe, its just because its funny? But for whatever reason, the game is a lot of fun and one my family and I have brought out many times over the last few weeks to share with other family and friends. The game is always a hit! The game is based on the game Grabbell which was one of the many games playable with the ingenious deck of cards released by Bez called ELL deck. I picked this deck up on a whim, and was surprised and delighted at the contents. The cards are cleverly designed to show two letters with a different border for each. They can be used for many different games out of the box, with lots more variations available online. You can find many examples here. Grabbell is a fun game, but doesn't look as good as this. What Bez has done with the art here is change a simple graphic lettering design to hilarious looking monsters and creatures. There is also a bit if colour, which is new for her games. But what has remained consistent is that they are all hand drawn and delightful. It feels like something you may pick up from a local art fair, but with the fun and craft of someone who knows how to make a really good game. Learning A game about quickly grabbing creatures that are totally different, and watching out for turnips, is quicker than saying the name! Place all the cards face down randomly on a table. The game then starts as players, simultaneously in real-time start to grab the cards! Players can use one hand to pick up a card and another to hold their collection. Players need to gets as many cards as they can before they are all gone. Points are scored for the number of consecutive cards in your deck that don't have matching body parts. Either the head shape, body type, or leg style. All must be different. You can have turnips between similar creatures, but you can never have more than one turnip in a row. And if you have more than five turnips in total, you loose. Once all the cards are collected, players check their hands to see if they broke any rules and the player with the most points wins. Its quick, fast, hilarious fun! Perfect with children or adults after a few drinks! I have enjoyed this game so much over the 2021 festive period, and saw it as a perfect game to bring out with all my friends. As you can set-up and teach this game to any player of any age within a minute, the game works for all occasions. It plays within a few minutes, and generally the players who loose demand a rematch immediately. I have never played this game just the once! This game will be a treasured part of my collection and I hope to enjoy many more plays with this deck. I have two decks allowing me to play with more people, up to six is suggested. Two to three players per deck. But I played with eight with these two decks and it was fine. It was a quicker game with more players. But not less fun! The frantic nature of eight hands all grabbing at the same cards at the same time made for a hilarious game, that perhaps was more suited for the adults than the children. It seems that the quantity of players has a direct affect on the competitive nature of adults playing family games! The game costs just £5 and is available from here. I would not hesitate to buy this game again and again myself and would recommend it to anyone! Bez will be at multiple conventions in 2022 if you want to try the game first. But if you have a copy or not, I would highly recommend popping over and saying hello to her. I would wager you will leave with a big smile on your face. Bez is amazing!

Title: Caesar’s Empire WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Yamatai, Ticket to Ride, Blue Lagoon Published by: Holy Grail Games, Synapses Games Designed by: Matthieu Podevin By Steve Godfrey Friends, gamers, countrymen, lend me your eyes and please read my review of Caesar’s Empire. In it I will strive to give you some Vital stastitix and hope that I don’t make it too long so we don’t all turn into Geriatrix whilst reading it. All in all I hope that this review stands like an Obelix that you can enjoy for a long time to come and that you enjoy it enough to want to Getafix of this great game. If I forget anything I’ll put it in an Asterix below. The rules of the road Set up the game by picking a side of the board depending on player count and placing all the location tiles on their matching locations on the board. Then shuffle the treasure tokens and place them randomly face up on the locations. Give each player a player board and a set of their road tokens. The road tokens in this case are these awesome Roman soldier minis On a player's turn they must connect a city to Rome using their road tokens. They must either be placed next to Rome or next to an empty city (a city whose location token has been collected) When you connect a city to Rome by any player's roads you take the city token and place it in front of you and the treasure goes on your player board. Each type of treasure needs to go in its own column. Then you score one point for each of the road tokens that connect that city to Rome. If an opponent's road token is on that road then they score one point for each one. The game will end once each city on the board has been connected to Rome. Each player will score their city types but only the highest number of each type they collect. Then they’ll score their treasures. The more of each type you have the more points you’ll score and the more different types you have will score you more points. Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me. When I was younger I was a huge fan of Asterix and the gang. I read the books, watched the movies and if I didn’t wear out my copy of the Twelve tasks of Asterix then I’m sure it would only have taken a couple more watches before it broke. I haven't watched or read them as much these days but I still love the characters and the world. Unfortunately though when it comes to Asterix and board games the pickings are a little slim when it comes to quality. Now the folks at Holy Grail Games have released Caesar’s Empire. At first it seems a little strange that they would take this popular IP and focus the game on the main antagonist Caesar and his takeover of Rome. Even the two main characters are demoted to only a cameo appearance on the board. Some searching on BoardGameGeek however tells me that this is a re-implementation of the game Drogi do Rzymu (Roads to Rome) which was a polish only release by Holy Grail. The artwork on that version looks great but if you're going to change art for whatever reason then this is certainly the way to go. Rome wasn't built in a day. Whilst we’re on the subject of art let’s talk production. So, yes this art is great and should be instantly recognisable to a vast majority of people. The big looming shadow of Caesar himself gives the great looking board an extra pop. Personally you could put this art onto a can of dog food and it would draw me to it. Please don’t though, I don’t have a dog and my cupboards are still full of tins of Scooby doo and Ninja Turtles pasta shapes. I’m quite easily led! Those road token minis are the absolute star of the show though. They look awesome with the three marching Roman soldiers motif and they are a lot of fun to place on the board. In fact one of the reasons to play this at higher player counts is to see how cool the board looks with all the different coloured minis filling it up. The minis are absolutely screaming at me to paint them every time I get them out. Would I get annoyed at painting the same thing that many times? Yes, would they look awesome? YES!! “Would that it were so simple” As you can see from the rules Caesar’s Empire is a relatively simple game and it sits perfectly in the family game / gateway game camp. As we know from a lot of these games, simple rules don’t necessarily mean simple choices and this game is no exception. Take putting a road down for example. This isn’t always as simple as connecting a city where you have roads and scoring maximum points. Scoring roads will net you some decent points but it’s the city tokens and the treasures that can get you the big scores. More often than not you’re going to need to use opponents' roads to get them but doing so gives them precious victory points. That in itself is a fun balancing act but doing this could also set you up to score points from other players connecting roads in future turns. Couple that with the random treasure placement and it stops players from sticking to their own little section of the board. I really like the choices you have to work with all within this simple package. Even though those choices include potentially snatching a treasure from out from under another player it’s never done to be mean. Even if that city tile won’t help you the treasure will always add to your score and more often than not you’ll be giving your opponent points for part of the road anyway. Don’t get me wrong, none of the decisions you make are going to have you staring at the board for an extended period but for a family game like this they're spot on. “Veni, Vidi, Vici” I’m sure down the road there are going to be some comparisons to a train based route building game, I mean at this point I think any game with a map where you’re connecting things will have that. Caesar’s Empire is not that game though, for one thing this doesn’t have the luck factor, in fact there is no luck at all in this game. Every decision is completely down to the players, except of course when other players have the Gaul (ahem) to take the city and treasure your after in which case your carefully thought out plans of domination will have to change. Where TTR has been one of the go to gateways games for a long time I think this could perform a similar job but have a wider appeal to families. The Asterix world will appeal to the adults who have a love for this world whereas the art work and certainly the box cover will help convince the kids to come to the table potentially more so than the train theme. The dual sided player board for different player counts keeps the game more balanced and the randomness of the set up of the treasures keep things fresh each time you play and it’s quick enough that you could just as easily set up and go again. Caesar’s Empire is a fun gateway/family game that is sure to appeal to a far greater audience in respect of theme and ease of play. If this is the sort of quality we get from them then I really hope that Holy Grail Games has more opportunities to make more games set in this world.

Secret Identity WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 3-8 You’ll like this if you like: Codenames, Mysterium, Dixit. Published by: Funnyfox Designed by: Johan Benvenuto, Alexandre Droit, Kévin Jost, Bertrand Roux Before I start this review, I should probably preface this with two facts. I love party games. I played this a lot over Christmas 2021 when I was in a really good mood. But, I will try and cast my positive pre-conceptions aside and offer this fair and reasoned comment. Secret Identity is the best game ever!! OK, that may be a bit far, but I certainly did share some hilarious times with it. Let's get into it. Secret Identity is a very good party game. There is no doubt about that. Party Games are hard to review objectively as the experience you can have with them varies so much based on the people you play with and the environment you play in. But I always feel a fair way to judge party games is how well they fair within multiple environments, with gamers and non-gamers, over multiple plays when, and this is the key, someone in the group doesn't seem up for it! Can the game bring all the players in, and give everyone a good time? I played Secret Identity with many different friends and family over the 2021 Christmas break and as is the norm, there was usually at least one person less enthusiastic about playing a game. I brought Secret Identity with me to each house I went to as it has a very simple rule set and feels instantly accessible. On each occasion it was played, I have been able to explain the game within a few minutes and get playing very quickly which is key for this sort of situation. But crucially, everyone always had a good time with this game. This is the thing I like most about Secret Identity. How quickly it seems everyone starts having fun with this game, every time I play it. There is a co-operative and competitive variant which has only one real rule change, and I like offering the group the opportunity to chose how we play without any added complications. As the game is so simple to learn and play, and offers quick and accessible fun, it always seems to land well, and quickly for all players. Set Up. Give each player a coloured board, a set of keys, and their scoring marker. Place the scoring board on the table, then set up the game board with eight different character cards placed around it. If anyone around the table doesn't know any of the characters then simply change them. There are 150 double side cards included so plenty to go around. The game doesn't work unless every player knows every character. Most characters are common enough, I only had a few occasions with younger players when we needed to make a change. John Lennon being one of the characters I had to change. Sad times. Then place the eight gold Mystery Keys numbered one to eight face down in the middle of the table. These refer to one of the eight character cards. Each player takes one, sneaks a look, then tucks it away secretly into the fold out part of their game board. Each player will then use up to six of their eight "Picto" cards to give clues as to which character their Mystery key refers too. The game officially has four rounds, and you do not get to replace any used "Picto" cards so you are supposed to be sparing with their use. I have house ruled this to allow younger players to have more cards or replace ones that simply don't work for them. But I do tell players that it is easier to guess from seemingly obscure clues than you may think. Firstly as you are guessing from eight known characters. And secondly as you can rule others out from other players own clues. The player boards have spaces for up to six "Picto" cards. Three spaces are for images that are like your character. And three spaces for cards that are not like your character. This opens up the opportunity for some very amusing and creative clues. Each time I have played, people have always been surprised at how often one-card clues are guessed correctly. One simple black square to represent Darth Vader when he is the only apparent villian A Spiders web when Spiderman is one of the options. It sometimes works out easier than you think. Once everyone has set their "Picto" cards in place, each player then uses their own set of coloured numbered keys to make a guess for each other players character. Placing their guesses into each other players board. I like this part of the game a lot. Players are giving clues and then guessing each others clues simultaneously. Of course, some players can work faster than others, but there really is not much down time in the game at all. And even if you have guessed everything, you can always have fun watching other players try to do the same. Can you guess from the clues above which of the above eight characters I was referring too? I have tried to make this one a little more difficult with more "Picto" cards than usual to show you how the game works, but I still hope that most would get this quite quickly. This is something that is key for a party game. I love Codenames and think it rightly sits high up on its throne as one of the best Party games. But there is a lot of downtime and silence. Players can often take a little too long creating and then guessing the clues. And whilst the clues are being thought of, the other players really are not doing much at all. In Secret Identity, there is minimal downtime, the game moves very quickly. As such, there is a constant release of endorphins for all players as people correctly guess each others clues regularly. When everyone has made their guess by placing their own coloured keys into each others player boards, players will then flip open their board to reveal what character they were referring to, and what everyone else has guessed for it. It was Bond! He is not a baddy. He does not wear a tie. He is a bow tie kind of guy. He is often in exotic locations and enjoys alcohol. Did you get it? Everyone in my familiar did bar my wife who guessed Marilyn Munroe. Players score a point for each correct guess made on their character, and one point for each correct guess they make on each others characters. Players are encourage to give good clues and make good guesses. The co-operative version works very similarly. The main change is that only one person is ever giving clues at a time, and all other players are working together, discussing as a group to decide which character to guess. It's harder in that only one of eight characters is ever being given clues for so you cannot eliminate characters like the normal game. But it's made simpler as you have the benefit of a group discussion to learn from. Players take it in turns to give the clues over 10 rounds. Like the competitive version, you can of course house this rule how ever you see fit and play for as long as you are all having fun! Decrypto is my favorite party game of all time. But it really does need at least four, and those four players need to be a similar age/ability for the game to work well. For me, ideally two couples. It works in other environments, but this is its peak for me. Secret Identity doesn't really have a optimum group or number. It works in a two or eight. I have found it to work equally well with young children or adults. It is certainly one of the most accessible party games I have played and enjoyed. I also find with Decrypto that people seem to start really enjoying it by round three. Secret Identity wraps people in its party fun clutches from the very start! All players are always involved and the fun starts from the very first second. I would recommend this game to anyone, and I rarely say this. It is so versatile and simple to play, it really does work in every situation. It's quick and fun to play, and you can adapt it to suit whatever game style, length, or difficulty you want. I think Secret Identity is a real gem of a game that deserves it's place very high up on the list of party games.

Moonrakers WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Cosmic Encounter, Clank, Bohnanza Published by: IV Games Designed by: Austin Harrison, Max Anderson, Zac Dixon If you like the back-and-forth nature of the negotiations in Comic Encounter and the deck-building aspects of games like Clank and Dominion, then you are going to love Moonrakers! I have not played a deck-building negotiation game before, but I loved the sound of these two mechanisms being merged in this way. After multiple games I have not been disappointed. Moonrakers is a fantastic game. The game has a wonderfully illustrated graphic novel within the box detailing the backstory to this game, and you can get lost within this brilliantly constructed world if you want. But the basic premise is to get to 10 points before your friends by developing your deck, negotiating alliances, and clever card play. The theme is fun, and well implemented, but this game shines from the well executed game play and an original blend of mechanics. How to play Moonrakers. Moonrakers, like all deck builders, starts slowly. In the beginning you will have a standard hand of cards offering limited options. On your turn, you can choose to either remain at base to claim one credit and a new objective or you can attempt one of the eight available contracts. Contracts can be attempted on your own or with the help of one or more of the other players. Each contract offers a mixed reward of points, credits and free upgrade cards. You must offer out suitable rewards to entice other players to come to your assistance, but beware, their offers may not always be genuine! The contract cards require a certain mix of specific cards to be played in order to meet their requirements. A mix of thrusters, damage, crew, shields, reactors etc. Your deck starts as ten uniform cards which you will shuffle and deal five cards to make your starting hand. However, on your turn, you only have one action! This is where reactors come in. They allow you to gain two extra actions, so you generally need to start your turn with one of these cards being played. The thrusters are a popular second card to play, they allow you to draw two more cards from your deck into your hand. Damage cards create damage, shield cards block damage to you, and the miss cards are blanks you need to try and remove from your deck as soon as possible. How to Set up Moonrakers. The set-up for the game, as displayed above for a two-player is simple. All the mats are clearly labelled and the iconography is exemplary. It clearly shows you where to place each card, how many to lay out, and what you need have in your starting hand. I love these boards.They look great but are also highly functional. The cards are the only down side to the game. They are very glossy and with a game that uses a lot of cards, its hard to keep everything as neat as above. They are very skiddy! I encourage you to embrace the chaos and get stuck in, especially in a four or five player game! And in truth, that is where this game shines. It works fine in solo and two-players, but you need the higher player counts to really allow the engines of this game to run at their maximum. It's all about negotiations, and in a four or five player, this is where the fun really happens. I say fun, I mean arguments. Which in this game... are fun! The Strategy of Moonrakers. Similarly to Cosmic Encounter, players rely on their negotiating skills to do well in this game. You won't be able to complete many contracts at the start of the game on your own. And later on in the game, you wont be able to complete many of the higher scoring contracts without help from your friends. But when you start to get close to the end-game, people will obviously not want to help you as much. Especially if you are looking to take the points. Players need to offer the points to other players in order to take the credits themselves in order to advance their deck to a stage where they can later complete the missions alone. Like all deck-builders, as much as the game can start slowly, it ramps up quickly! Ending the game unexpectedly when on five points by completing a five point contract on your own is not out of the question. In a race to ten points, getting 50% of your required points in one turn is obviously huge. But doing so, requires time to build up your powers. The early rounds is all about forming temporary alliances. If you cannot reach an amicable resolution in your negotiations then you can try again with another contract. But if this also fails, then you must either go alone and try to complete the mission without any help, or stay at base. This perhaps is where the game falls down a little for me. There are no real consequences to failing a mission other than not getting the rewards from the contract. It is not always certain if you can complete contracts or not when looking at your starting hand. Most of the time you need more than just the five cards in your hand, so you are relying on thrusters to get you more cards from your deck. But of course, you don't know exactly what will come when. There is some guess work here. Let's take a real game example. You need one more thruster than what you have in your hand to compete a mission, and you know there are two more thrusters in your deck of seven cards. The odds are in your favour, especially as you will be playing two thrusters from your existing hand which will allow you to pick up four more of those seven cards. 4/7 chance sounds good enough to me so most players would attempt this alone. Although of course, it doesn't always work out like that and I had this exact scenario and I did not draw the extra thruster or another card that could help. I failed the mission, one that statistically speaking I entered into in good faith. But failure just means you don't get the points, and in a game where most of the time you only get one or two points anyway, this doesn't seem to be that bad. As such, failing a contract has limited jeopardy. Deciding on entering one that is a little risky doesn't create enough tension. Players are not encouraged enough to partner with other players to increase their chances. Equally, winning a contract does not generate as much joy as I would have liked. Where the tension comes from in Moonrakers. Where the game does bring in the tension is with the damage dice. Each contract asks you to roll zero to four damage dice. There are more damage dice with the higher reward contracts. You can divide these up among the allies helping you this round as part of the negotiation just like the points and credits so you don't have to roll them all yourself. You can block the damage from the dice with shields, but if you don't, each damage counts as one negative point, which can be huge. Some contracts require shields to be played anyway, and these will count towards your damage dice too if required. But some contracts don't need shields, and you may be attempting a contract without any shields in your hand as you only need to roll one damage dice and feel the risk is negligible. You could then roll two damage on this one die and see yourself in quite a tight spot. This is the suspense and excitement I would like to see in all missions simply from the danger of either succeeding or failing at it. The damage dice go a long way to correcting this issue, but I feel a bigger punishment from failure would encourage more negotiations and a hugely heightened sense of achievement when successful. Time to build your deck! Once you have finished a contract, either successfully or not, you can then head to the shops. There are ship upgrades available as well as new crew members to recruit. The crew cards go into your discard ready to be shuffled back into your hand in a later round. They offer some exciting new powers and can significantly develop your hand. The ship cards are placed on your own personal player mat and offer constant powers as well as bringing extra cards into to your hand based on the symbols in the top right. Developing your hand and powers in this way is crucial to successfully navigating the more treacherous contracts, and surviving on your own later in the game. This is where the game does deliver a real feeling of achievement. It feels great to start a round with two actions instead of one, or to have a larger starting hand due to your upgrades. I enjoy the development of power, and the cards are all priced relativity low so I find in most games you can purchase one new card each round. I end most games with a surplus of credits. As such, this is more a race to get the cards you want more than a race to save up the required credits. With three crew and six ships parts always being shown face up, if a powerful card is shown, it is unlikely it will stay in the shop window for long! Each player could take a different strategy though of course. It may well be that one persons dream card does not work as well for another player. You could be focusing on developing your ability to create high damage to take on the contacts that require that. As such, a card that helps you with other areas is not as attractive to you. Players developing different skills this way create better opportunities for alliances. If you become aware that another player offers the things you don't, very fruitful partnerships can be formed. In the race to ten points, working with other players in the early and middle stages of the game is crucial. You don't want to get left behind from a refusal to negotiate. However, as the games' tension ramps up, your trust in other players will start to wain. When another player agrees to help you, their full and unbridled support cannot always be guaranteed. Players may offer help in order to sabotage your own attempts as they see you as a threat. Or, simply they offer their partnership in order to flush their current hand. Wasting a weak hand on your turn so they have a better hand on their own. Be weary of players accepting deals that don't appear to work for them, or those too eager to reach a deal just that little bit too quickly! I have found this element of the game to only really come in to play when playing with those more familiar with each other, or in game two or three. Players generally want to be nice to other people in games. More so on game one. But game two... all bets are off! It often transpires that someone will eventually double cross another player. And of course, as in life, once the flood gates open, there is no stopping the tide of treachery! This where the game really shines. When playing Moonrakers I try to encourage players to remember this is a negotiation game with semi co-operation in temporary alliances. Bluffing, double-crossing and down right skulduggery is encouraged! Of course with younger players or those who find this side to games less than appealing, you can always house rule this out of the game. (Or is that a bluff too?) Outside of the deck-building and negotiation, what stands out for this game is the card play. Being able to complete a contract using your powers, acquired crew, and clever order of cards is very satisfying. You will often be sat staring at your hand, thinking to yourself, how can it be that with only five cards, the correct order in which to play them so easily escapes you! But when you figure this out, and get it right, it feels great. Other players will be invested in watching this too. Either they will be in a temporary alliance with you and cheering you on, or watching from afar, wishing ill luck on you as you draw two more cards after a thruster. Screaming for just one more shield! Attempts at contracts are quick, so the wait is never long, and even in a five player game I found myself to be constantly involved and always fully engaged. Playing Moonrakers is a lot of fun. I would say it is now one of my favorite deck-building games and in my top three for negotiation games. The merging of these two mechanisms works brilliantly, and the game really has executed the balance between working solo and forming semi co-operative alliances very well. As I mentioned, the only issue I have other than the shiny cards, is the lack of genuine tension in a missions success or not in the early part of the game. But come the end, when players are one or two missions away from victory, this tension very much exists in abundance. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys clever card play, or games that encourage direct and constant interaction with other players. I very much look forward to trying the new expansion for this, and cannot wait to get it to the table again.