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By @littlebigthumbs As the primary voice behind Little Big Thumbs, I initially put a bit of pressure on myself to pick three games that fit that focus - tabletop games that can be played with children, but also are appealing to bring to the table after the children are asleep in bed. I asked my girls what three games they might like me to choose, to which they started telling me stories about unicorns and flying donkeys! So … I took that as permission to take off the crusader mask, and just write about the three games that are my absolute personal favourites. Thanks for taking a peek! Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue … for whatever reason, when I was invited to pick my top three games for Jim’s website, this old rhyme about bridal attire popped into my head. It’s been looping over and over, despite the fact that it includes FOUR items. Since I can’t seem to shake the rhyme, we’re just going to have to roll with it. Star Wars: The Queens Gambit Whenever I talk about my favourite board games, this one has been in the conversation for over a decade. Not only is The Queen’s Gambit amazing to look at and fun to experience, it is the brass ring that I cling to when justifying my love for the Star Wars Prequel films. Yes, meesa even loves Jar Jar. Sorry not sorry. Twenty years before the current trend of multi-tiered boards arrived, Queen’s Gambit was delivering this magical experience. The setting is the final act of Episode I, The Phantom Menace, with the central board being the palace where Queen Amidala and her Palace Guards are trying to fight past a droid army to reach the throne room. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi are battling Darth Maul elsewhere in the palace. The kicker is that whichever side wins the lightsaber battle gets to enter the fight with the droids and palace guard, carving through their opposing minions like butter! “Wipe them out. All of them.” Two other mini games are taking place as well - a larger droid detachment is aiming to eliminate the Gungan army on a hex heavy battlefield, with combat feeling somewhat similar to Memoir ‘44. And we can’t forget about wee Anakin Skywalker, who has accidentally found himself in a position to destroy the droid control ship. If he succeeds, every single droid is removed from every board in the game! It’s a card-driven, dice duelling masterpiece of ameritrash gaming, co-designed by Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau. The game is near impossible to find now, but if you can track it down as well as a prequel apologist, you’ll be in for a most memorable gaming experience. Something old - Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit! Root Three years have passed since its initial release, but in the grand scheme of the tabletop gaming landscape, Root is plenty recent to count as my “something new” for this list. Prior to this game, if someone had asked me to offer the best examples of asymmetry in board games, I might have referenced the player powers in Small World. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined a system in which everyone was playing their own unique game, while still interacting with each other on a shared map. Yet that is exactly what Root offers! I’ll never forget where I was and who I was with for my first experience of Root. My heart was racing from start to finish, trying to predict what sneaky moves my opponents had up their sleeves, and how I was going to make use of my handful of cards to carve out my own path to victory. The tension bubbling through my body had me standing for much of the game, and I loved every minute of it! Since that first memorable romp of a game, I’ve come back to Root over and over and over again. Wrestling with other critters for woodland domination has never been more satisfying, which is why it has hopped, slithered and soared over so many other games to cement itself as an all-time favourite of mine! Something borrowed … well, that has to be WhatBoardGame.com! Thanks to Jim for letting me borrow a page to ramble about three games that I truly and deeply adore. And finally, something blue ... Rattlebones I’m a sucker for a cool gimmick in a game, and being able to change the literal faces on my dice is one of the most amazing I’ve ever encountered! Prying off a numbered side and replacing it with a funky action is a pure delight for me. No, I’m not talking about Dice Forge. The lesser known game that came before it, back in 2014, is Rattlebones, and it is one of my absolute favourite games! To be quite honest, Rattlebones is a rather pedestrian experience on the surface. Players are running laps around what almost looks like a Monopoly board, landing on various spaces which allow players to alter one of their three dice. Each new dice face will allow that player to carry out a special action when successfully rolled on future turns. The order and timing of dice upgrades can result in a very light engine building experience, which is delightful. What placed it firmly as one of my all time favourites was actually acquiring a second copy of the game. For pre-pandemic special occasions, I have enjoyed bringing up to eight friends together for an eight player, two table RattleBowl Championship match! These mega games involve both tables starting their game at the same time. The ultimate winner is the player who wins quickest at their table, which adds a layer of panicked pressure to the game, and it winds up being one of the most delightfully stressful experiences I’ve ever had as a gamer! Now you might be asking how this bright red game box fits as “something blue”. Excellent question! You see, Rattlebones is not an exceedingly popular game with my friends. And as such, when I ask them to help me scratch the Rattlebones itch, they get a little … blue in the face. As the sad trombone sounds, and the audience prepares to pelt me with soft produce, I’ll take a quick bow and see myself out!

By @favouritefoe Legend has it that the city of Venice was founded at the stroke of 12pm on 25 March 421 AD, after the fall of the Roman Empire. A tolling of church bells to signify settlement, development, arrival. How apposite, therefore, that Venice, the latest Eurogame from growing publisher, Braincrack Games, officially releases this month! Following hot on the heels of Ragusa in 2019 (a clever, city building economic worker placement game set in 15th Century Croatia), Venice is the second in a thematic trilogy of beautifully crafted eponymous Eurogames which take the normal, well-trodden rules of trading resources and spices them up with some clever twists. So what is the special sauce in Venice and what is going on in canal central? Armed with only a rule book and my imagination, I am currently investigating this game, Queen’s Gambit style. On that basis, my musings are more predictive than proven, but that little wrinkle in time isn’t going to stop me! So I am diving into the theoretical depths, ready to battle it out for first place in La Serenissima. But will this initial (albeit hallucinatory) experience make me feel like I am flying high atop the Rialto Bridge, or kicking my heels along the Bridge of Sighs? Going for Gondolas! My ceiling is covered with make-believe canals, gondolas, and buildings as I imagine the Floating City and walk myself through a game. Merchants are dancing around my light fitting, attempting to avoid the ice cold hand of the Inquisition. Bridges are popping up over by the coving, adding interest to intrigue (literally in this case!). And from what I can tell so far, this latest instalment from Braincrack feels like it will not disappoint! Designed by Dāvid Turczi and Andrei Novac (who between them have created and co-created an impressively diverse stable of games including Kitchen Rush, Rome and Roll, Anachrony, Tawantisuyu, Exodus, and Warriors & Traders to name but a few), Venice does not appear to be your average pick-up and deliver game. Yes, players are piloting their own pair of gondolas around the canals, collecting resources as they pass buildings in order to complete contracts which reward victory points, coins, and in-game abilities in a series of prescribed actions. So far so euro. But, unlike most move-pick, move-drop, sell-move predictably paced games, Venice appears to be adding a momentum shot in the form of “assistants”. These minions of the Merchants inhabit (some but not all) waterside buildings and “advance” their powers over subsequent turns. In doing so, they begin to crank up players’ resources and abilities, providing an unexpected engine building element and speeding up the rate at which players can fulfil their contracts and earn points. Furthermore, speculating to accumulate in the form of paying to move additional spaces (which then lets players link together a number of actions) in a single turn also seems to be possible and could prove to be a combo-tactical approach to victory (although that will of course depend on gondola locations and how well a player has been managing their missions). Not only that but players can actually be eliminated from the game if they get arrested. Eliminated. From.A.Eurogame. Ok, so it is only at the very end, preventing that player from actually winning, but still! What?! Arrivederci Amico! This revelation that a player can be removed from a Eurogame is going to mess with your mind (I did mine), so I’ll tell you what I have worked out so far. Basically, it’s not all plain sailing for the jolly gondoliers because intrigue follows players around like a bad smell. And, as Venice in the summertime is as aromatic as the average teenage boy’s bedroom, there is a lot of illicit gossip to be spread as players pass each other in the narrow waterways, whispering across the waves. Get caught flapping your gums to another pilot, however, and you’ll lose precious victory points as you move up the intrigue track. Too much back-channel chatter then leads to arrests which in turn results in elimination from the game no matter how many VPs those incarcerated players have amassed through missions, wealth, assistants, and favours (if used). The risk that gossiping gondoliers will be punished for their indiscretions is increased further when players get to build bridges over the canals. Whilst removing the cost to use the canal in coins, those poignant pontes appear to dish out intrigue in a way that their opponents can’t bribe their way out of! It’s a Eurogame, Jim, but not as we know it! At this moment, I am really intrigued by Venice. I can’t really say more because, until it hits my table rather than my ceiling, it is difficult to know how well the big-ticket mechanisms will work together. It sounds like it will be smooth sailing, but there could always be something bubbling beneath the surface. Moreover, as a board gamer with a core gaming group of 2/3 players, the fact that the designers seem to have worked hard to mitigate against the risk that strategy and tension can become diluted at lower player counts is encouraging. I like the fact that there is a special 2 player Smuggler rule set and, even more unusual for a Eurogame, an inimitable looking solo Doge automa. I haven’t mind mapped either of these adaptations, but I am looking forward to trying them when Venice becomes available. Pick up or Put Back? Personally, pick-up-and-deliver games can sometimes feel a little mechanical, a process to push through. This is especially true for me early into a game or where the challenge is more open as a result of fewer competing meeples in play in a lower player count game. The thought that Dāvid Turczi and Andrei Novac, have put into maximising the player experience to match the number of people around the table, as well as the addition of other big ticket mechanisms to reduce the procedural feeling of the main pick-up-and-deliver device, however, will hopefully make Venice sing like an Italian ice cream salesman.

By @board_news_girl Hello guys, it's a pleasure to show you my top 3games! Here we go: 1. Grand Austria Hotel This is a board game where you have to care about your guests in hotel, preparing room, food and other things which make them feel special and important. Grand Austria Hotel is a fantastic game that uses dices. You have to manage the dice to make each action, and there are many differnet options. I love the game because I enjoy the many differnet ways to win and the many options to choose during the game. I also like drawing in that game, although, I have heard that many people do not especially like it. But I'm really in love with board games that ask you to manage dice in this way. So, this one has a special place in this player's heart. 2. Paris Paris is game about buying and managing real estate in Paris. It seems to have so little actions available to you, but when you know game well you see that there is a hidden depth. It is only when you first play that you have the impression that you don't have much to do. This is deep thinking and game and can be really hard, mainly down to the many little actions available to you during your turn. Paris impressed me so much, at first I thought that it could be boring but it turned out to be fantastic strategy game where you have to plan many things for future turns. Also, this game is so beautiful! There are many components which have so much detail and of course, the amazing 3D Arch De Triumphand! This has quicly become one of my favourite board games of all time! 3. Inis Inis is a great area control game about Celtic clans. The main action happens by using the cards, not just the board. I love the art in the game and enjoy that it's a little hard to decide on a good strategy. It's really hard to have an advantage here because the situation is ever changing and players are not only dependant on your actions but also on the luck of the card draw. You have to pay close attention to what your opponent is doing and make plans as to what you should do to. You need to realize your plan but also try to disturb your rival! I really like the components in the game. The cards are big and have nice drawings as do the tiles. The board is somewhat modular so every game looks different. I'm so in love with this game and I would like to play it many time more to try different strategies. __ As you can see, I'm generally a big fan of euro board games with dice or cards and with great art. Sometimes I laugh that I can buy games with my eyes only! Many times in my life I have become interested in a game at first sight more I even read the rules! Usually nice artwork makes me feel that I really want to know more about games or have them in my collection. But don't worry, I always verify my impressions by reading and watching some reviews and opinions about games. Thank you for reading abou tmy top 3 games and feel welcome to visit my Instagram profile: board_news_girl to follow my adventures with other board games.

Ginger Fox are designers, developers, manufacturers and distributors specialising in a exciting range of books, gifts, toys, puzzles and games for both UK and international markets. Based in the heart of Gloucestershire, UK; Ginger Fox have licenced many huge TV Game show IP's such as Taskmaster to create fast, fun family friendly games for all ages. We take a look at some of our favourite Ginger Fox games, but first, lets talk with one of the lead Product Managers at Ginger Fox, Pete Gatling to find out what life at Ginger Fox is really like! Emoji Action 8 years and up. 2 players and up. Emoji Action is a fast and fun family friendly game which pits your reactions against your family and friends. Players will need to recognise certain familiar emoji characters and faces and respond with the right action themselves. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards! But this is easier said than done! Each player will place a card, face up so all players can see it. Then, depending on what card is placed, all players need to react as quickly as they can and act out the appropriate action. For the Ghost, you must stick your tongue out. For the Pizza slice, you must shout “Pepperoni!” For the hand clap, clap your hands! It is so fun to watch your family and friends do all these crazy things, making judging who came last sometimes difficult! But really, who cares when your 80-year-old grandma is currently trying to copy the dancing lady emoji?! Within the deck, there are many decoy cards to try and throw you. If you perform an action at the wrong time, then you must pick up the discard pile, and the last player to act out the right action when the action cards are laid must do the same. This game works with all ages and can be used for larger number simply by one person turning the cards and shouting out the card shown. Perfect for kids’ parties! Corks 6 years and up. 3-14 players. The aim of the game in Corks is to be the first to collect a set of four cards of the same colour and then grab a cork from the centre of the table before your opponents do. In the box, are 15 high quality wooden corks, painted in different colours along with a deck of cards showing images of different coloured corks. All players play at the same time, passing one card to their left, whilst in turn receiving a card from their right. This will continue until one player has a set and claims a cork meaning all other players need to stop playing and try and grab a cork for themselves. In the centre, corks will have been placed in numbers one fewer than players. The classic musical chairs rule! Claiming a cork when you have a set can be done very openly and brashly, eliciting a race from the remaining players, or in secret so that the other players may not immediately notice. Causing much hilarity for the winning player that round. If you don’t get a cork, you are eliminated! Remove one cork from the centre and go again. Play continues until only two players remain, at which point, the golden cork will be placed in the centre of the table, and the final two players will battle it out for ultimate glory. Player elimination is not everyone’s cup of tea, but in this game as it happens so quickly, and you can be back playing within minutes, so it seems less of an issue. And being a spectator in this game can sometimes be more fun than playing! However, there are a few variants available too which can help with this. 5-Lives Corks, which is my favourite version, makes one major rule change. Instead of being eliminated when you lose, you get a letter, ”C.” The second time you lose, you get a letter “O,” then an “R,” K” and finally an “S.” When you have spelt out “CORKS,” you are eliminated. This gives younger players or people with slower reaction times the chance to enjoy the game a little more before they are out. You can also play colour match Corks, which is much like the base game, but as the first person to make a set of four, when you claim a cork you must get the right colour cork based on the card in your hand rather than just any cork. You could of course remove elimination entirely and just awards points to the person who collects their set first and have a race to five, ten or however many points as you like. There is a lot of variety here, but the fun to be had is endless. Know Nine? 12 years and up. 2 plus players. There are very few good two player party games. Know Nine? Works in two players and up, so can be enjoyed in larger groups, don’t get me wrong. But also works brilliantly in a two. This is rare for this genre of game which generally relies on larger parties, and a more boisterous atmosphere as well. Know Nine? Also benefits from working as a rather sedate game as well as a loud and active game. It can be enjoyed just as much in a parge party and whilst relaxing on a couch in relative silence. Either way, Know Nine? will still will bring forward a lot of laughter and enjoyment! The rules are simple. Using the brilliant inlay in the box, you will lay out six words in a three by three grid. You then have one minute to find a word that matches each of the nine group of words when matching the words running along the horizontal and vertical axis. But you need to think creatively as points will be awarded for unique answers only. You can add a double and triple token to the word you are most confident about being both correct, and also unique, to try and increase your scoring potential. When the time is up, players will then in turn, read out the word they have written for each answer. Justifying their choice if needs be, laughing hysterically at other people’s suggestions more commonly! As expected, games last a minute, but the discussions afterwards can run on and on! There is so much fun to be had with this in large and small groups. But as I mention, rather uniquely to this game, it works brilliantly in just a two as well. It is the perfect party game to play for an hour or so with a large group. Or as a filler in a two at the start or end of a game night with one other player. Ultimate Arrogance 12 years and up. 2 plus players. Ultimate Arrogance works brilliantly over video call, which is advantageous in the current climate, and I cannot wait to play in a party atmosphere as I think it would be hilarious there too. In the box is all you need to make many different party games of your own. The rules are simple but the fun, limitless! Set up by dividing the Arrogance tokens equally. Give each players a pass/challenge token and spin the wheel. The first player will then reveal a card and say how many of that subject they think they can name. This is based on the wheel spin showing either the hard subject, which will give them 60 seconds to do so, or the easy subject where they have just 30 seconds. If they think they can do four for example, they will place four tokens into the centre of the table. The next player will then have to up the ante if they think they can do more and add more tokens into the pot. Or pass by using their pass token, or challenge if they think the person before them has been too arrogant and they think they will fail. The player who has been challenged will then have to do their best to name the required number of that cards subject. If they win, they get all the tokens from the centre as well as one for each player that passed and two from the player that challenged them. If they fail, the challenger wins all the tokens including one for each pass. This creates a delicate game of bluffing, poker faces and knowledge! The spinning wheel can also create a head-to-head situation where one player will go up against just one other player, using the same scoring rules, but in a straight battle with a player of their choosing. Using a few select cards, the games can work perfectly for a younger audience. Or, with a few drinks, perfectly in a more adult environment! This game reminds me of the sort of game I like to play in a pub environment and can bring that type of fun into your home. Or why not take the game to the pub! Next rounds on the looser! Richard Osman’s House of Games 12 years and up. 3 plus players. Richard Osman’s House of Games is a highly popular and successful BBC quiz show that incorporates changeable trivia rounds in a varied and fun way. In the box are 140 question cards offering a lot of variety around several different themes. Each round needs a gamemaster, but you change this each turn, and being the games master can be a lot of fun. Also, this works for players who maybe don’t want to get involved in the trivia, or younger players who maybe could not play on equal footing. This is a solo game, but there are team rounds, but you always score individually. But you could always play in teams permanently to make this more even with players of different ages or abilities. Or work more smoothly in a larger group. In the box, there are six different types of round as well as the final Answer smash round: “You Complete Me” is a team based game where you have to give answers to a question in a pair. One person has to give the first half of the answer and the other player the second. This requires joint knowledge and both players to know the answers, but of course the second player will get a huge clue from the first person’s answer. You may not know which of Henry VIII’s wives was beheaded in 1542 but if your team mate says “Catherine” it may then trigger you to say “Howard” as those old school songs come flooding back! “Totes Emoji” is another team game where players will need to write out a short sentence using emojis on their phone. The other player simply has to guess what it is you are saying from seeing just the emojis. So make is clear! “You Spell Terrible” is the final team round where one player will need to answer a trivia question, and the other player needs to spell the answer correctly. Typically, this ais a difficult single word such as “Tennessee.” Who has the best trivia knowledge? Who is the best speller? “Rhyme Time” asks two separate questions which have rhyming answers. Players must get both right and can use the knowledge of one to help with the other. Knowing that the answer to the highest mountain in England rhymes with the 2012 film starring Channing Tatum can you help you out. “Correction centre” asks you to replace one word in a sentence written on a card to make it a factually correct statement. The statement will have one word replaced with something inaccurate and usually ridiculous, so you know which word you need to change. Your job is simply to say the word you are replacing and the correct word that should be used instead. There are also “House of Games Specials” which incorporates anagrams, questions that are read backwards and song titles showing only the first letter of each word of the title. All offering a lot of variety and fun. The final game is “Answer Smash” where there is no host and everyone must play. You draw three Answer Smash cards and place them into the game selector sleeve. This will then just leave just a picture and a question visible. You need to combine the picture with the answer to the question to create the winning answer. For example, a picture of a mermaid and the question, “Which Irish actor plays the title character in the BBC drama series “Poldark?” Would lead you to hopefully say, “Mermaiden Turner. This is the perfect trivia game for any fan of the genre. Especially if you enjoy the TV show.

By @tabletopjables What’s up, friends? Today, I’m so happy to share with you my top 3 favorite games of all time! All three of these picks have a special place in my heart and they all bring me so much joy when they hit the table. I’ll be giving some insight on game design as well as why the core mechanics of each of these games put them at the top of my list! Let’s go! 3. Raja’s of the Ganges. “Raja’s” is actually a newer obsession of mine and it didn’t make it’s way into my collection until last year. Worker placement has always been a top mechanic of mine and I wanted to find something off the beaten path. Not only did I find a solid worker placement game, I found a worker placement with a mix of juicy mechanics. The first time it hit my table was like finding a diamond in the rough! In “Raja’s of the Ganges” you use workers to gain a multitude of actions in an attempt to get your fame and money track to cross. Once the tracks cross, the game is over. What an incredibly unique end game trigger! I don’t know any other worker placements that use this kind of end game trigger but I absolutely love this design. Most actions you take will lead you to strategies that either push you down the path of gaining money or fame, so as the game progresses you start seeing where you can balance out both tracks with your actions or go super heavy on one and hope that leads you to victory! The economic use of the dice is a great addition to this game as well and I love how they are used! Throughout the game you will use workers to gain dice which become your primary resource in the game. Dice can buy tiles that allow you to expand your province, allowing you to build palaces that give you fame and gain resources to sell at the market for money. It’s such a good feeling when you start manipulating the dice and trading for those routes that fit perfectly in your strategy! As you continue to build your province, you start to see the deeper connection of your strategy start clicking and how important it is to pick up the exact dice you need. All in all, “Raja’s of the Ganges” is a super underrated game that I love introducing worker placement fans to! 2. Viticulture Who doesn’t love a game about wine!?! For real though, so many people enjoy “Viticulture” and it deserves the attention it has gotten over the years! “Viticulture” is a worker placement game where players use workers in four different seasons to plant grapes, make wine, construct buildings, welcome guests, fill wine orders for points, and so much more. The worker placement mechanic is very straight forward in this game but “Viticulture” is by far one of the most streamlined games I have ever played. I want to start by talking about choices of actions! “Viticulture’s” design allows players a plethora of action however, each season only allows a certain amount of actions to be taken. Incredibly smart game design right here. Some worker placements get really out of hand with what the amount of actions you can take causing a lot of player paralysis. However, splitting up the choices of actions, like in “viticulture”, is a design choice I really can get behind. With each season only having a certain amount of actions and only a certain amount of spots for workers, the game design really ushers you in a direction of strategy that helps you narrow down what you should and should not do. The overall thematic design for “Viticulture” is incredibly strong in my book as well. Each action you take has to do with the process of wine making and running your own personal vineyard. I love when game designers really take into consideration the relationship of game design and theme! You really get that tabletop experience of making wie and running your own business as you pave your way to an endgame win! If you’re looking for an incredibly smooth and well designed worker placement, get yourself a copy of “Viticulture’ and pour yourself a glass! 1.Root Yup, I said it, “Root”! I adore this game and it will always be welcomed at my gaming table anytime, anyday. In, “Root'' each player plays as an asymmetrical faction of woodland creatures battling it out to gain control of the vast forest. Everytime I play “Root” I am reminded why games with asymmetrical factions have a huge appeal to me. After you learn the rules of the game which for the most part applies to everyone, you end up having an incredibly different gaming experience every time you switch to a different faction. The Marquise de Cat has a huge engine building theme that allows you to trigger building multiple times where as the Eyrie are very programming heavy and you have to plan far ahead how you want to piece the plan together, These are just two examples of the multitude of factions that have come out so far for the series. I love finding games that have a great base foundation of rules but everytime you play, your experience is so different because of how your faction is built. Having games like “Root” with these asymmetrical factions make games so incredibly replayable in my book and makes me want to come back to them constantly. As more expansions and factions continue to drop for “Root”, I become more enticed to learn the ins and outs of each faction and how they work in the world of the game. “Root” will always be one of those games that continues to hit my table and I’m so glad when it does!

by Tom Harrod - @buryboardgames WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2 players You’ll like this if you like: Memoir ’44, Hive, Santorini Published by: Elwin Klappe Designed by: Elwin Klappe Clash of the Ardennes is the quintessential game of cat and mouse, occurring within a haunting, snow-capped, Belgian forest. You’ll play as a relentless general, staring steely-eyed at your opponent across the table. Can you outwit each other in accomplishing your secret Objective? This is a two-player abstract strategy game, set on the backdrop of the Battle of the Bulge. One of you plays as the Axis, and the other, the Allies. You both have an army of troops at your disposal of even, identical weight. There’s no board as such, but rather a ‘jigsaw’ frame, depicting the Ardennes region of Belgium. It’s a woodland terrain, and in December 1944 it sat choked under a deluge of snow. Oh, and talking of wood: every tile in Clash of the Ardennes is wooden, not cardboard! Each payer takes a secret Objective Card. These goals tend to involve capturing and dominating ‘Streets’ within the frame. It could be a specific Street, or a quantity of Streets among the seven available. These are not literal streets; the term means getting your troops to reach your opponent’s side of the frame. But this isn’t a simple stroll through the woods. Your opponent isn’t going to let you rock up to their front door. They’ll place troops of their own to block you. And when your troops square off against each other, nose-to-nose, that’s when a Clash occurs… The Beating Heart Of Clash The heartbeat of Clash of the Ardennes is the tile placement of your wooden units. They come in a variety of ranks and types. As a result, some are larger than others. The biggest – the General – is the same length as five of the smallest – an Anti-Tank Mine – lined up one after another. On your turn you spend four action points to deploy your troops within the seven Streets inside the frame. These include: • Place any of your units in any street – 1AP (action point) • Take any rear unit and place it to the front of the street from which you removed it – 2APs • Retreat a leading unit from a street; return it to your supply – 2APs • Retreat a leading unit from a street where you’re blocked; return it to your supply – 3APs When you place a unit, you slot the tile in any Street of your choice. It advances from your side of the frame. From a theme-meeting-mechanisms point of view, it’s advancing/encroaching ever-closer to the enemy. Tiles cannot overlap. This means that they cannot overhang beyond the frame’s boundary, nor can they sit on top of an opponent. Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock Straight away, this provides something of an abstract puzzle. The quantities of player troops are public knowledge. It costs the same amount of APs to place a unit, regardless of size. You’ve only got a limited supply of them, though. Your smallest troop tile is the aforementioned Anti-Tank Mine. Considering five of these make up the largest troop tile – the General – I’ll refer to this tile as 1/5. (Let’s call The General 5/5, but more about him, later.) Your most common tiles are Infantry, which are 2/5 long. You’ve also got a bunch of tanks, which are 3/5. Troop tiles aren’t a mere variation in size for the sake of a placement puzzle, though. When your units reach your opponents’ in the same Street, a Clash occurs. Each unit can trump another in a Rock-Paper-Scissors manner. It’s not quite as simple as A > B > C > A. This is more akin to Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock! (Fans of The Big Bang Theory: that one was for you…) Who Beats Whom In A Clash? Taking the three main units into consideration, it’s simple to explain which is the ‘stronger’ unit in a Clash. The Tank beats the Infantry. The Infantry beats the Anti-Tank Mine. And the Anti-Tank Mine beats (yes, you guessed it!) the Tank. Let’s say the Axis player placed a Tank down a street, and it comes face-to-face with the Allies’ infantry. A Clash occurs, and the Allies player has to return that Infantry tile to their supply. If multiple troops of the same type sit back-to-back in this line, they too get booted off the Street. (In this example, if two Allied Infantry line up next to an Axis Tank, both Infantry lose the Clash.) You learn from your mistakes quick in Clash of the Ardennes. It’s not a sensible strategy to place units of the same ‘weight’ next to each other in the same Street. Two matching units don’t beat each other, but instead both remain on the Street. The attack ends once the unit comes up against a stronger or equal unit. Digging A Little Deeper There are extra layers, though, within this system of X trumping Y, adding deeper strategical considerations into the mix. First of all, this comes in the form of Infantry ranks. Each player has the same nine Infantry tiles. Six of these are Privates, who are the lowest rank. Two are Corporals – one rank higher – and you have one Sergeant, higher still. A higher-ranking Infantry beats a lower-ranking one in a Clash. Also, it wipes out any lower-ranking units in the row, up until the point it meets the same (or higher-ranking) unit. This includes Anti-Tank Mines. Your Corporals and your Sergeant are powerful troops within your arsenal. They’re your insurance, and can prove deadly if placed at an opportune moment. Each player also has four one-off Special Units. (One of these, The Mortar, is a Kickstarter Exclusive.) These four units each come in different sizes: • The Spy (1/5 in size) • The Mortar (2/5) • The Command Tank (3/5) • The General (5/5) The Spy might be small, but it is fierce. This can beat anything on the board in a Clash, except for another Spy! There is a limit to the Spy’s power, though. At most, it can attack/remove the first two units in a Street. The General, meanwhile, is the largest unit. This can beat everything but the Spy, and a Tank. (Think of it like the Big Daddy of your Infantry units, in that respect.) It’s also a bully of a tile, because it eats up the Street at an alarming pace. The Command Tank is like a regular Tank, but it can also attack Infantry units on either flank to the left and right. If this causes a Clash, the opponent has to remove the Infantry unit and all other troops in front of it (if applicable). Whenever you have units along a Street, after all, they need to be in one continuous line – no gaps between troops. The Command Tank can be devastating, wiping out an entire Street at a time! (You can’t use this to flank Tanks though – only Infantry.) Last up, the Mortar is an interesting tile. This has a single arrow on it and you can use this to ‘fire’ in that direction over a Street. You can only use this to attack Privates. Like the Command Tank, the opponent also has to remove all units in front of said Private. Your Over-powerered Ace(s) In The Hole These Special Unit Tiles feel like your ace in the hole – and you have four of them! There’s a catch though: you can only have one of them on the battlefield at once. Theme-wise, this is the weakest points of Clash of the Ardennes. There’s no ‘fairness’ in real-life war. It makes sense from a mechanisms point of view, though. These are over-powered units. The challenge is not only knowing when to play them. It’s also trying to manipulate proceedings so you can remove one and place another. At the moment you place a marker down to signal the Street is yours on a permanent basis. And here comes the brilliant twist: your unit tiles stay in place on the Street. Don’t worry: your opponent can’t touch them (using the Command Tank, for example)… but neither can you. You can’t return them to your supply. You might have stormed to a finish towards claiming a Street by using your massive 5/5 General. But at what cost? Now that General’s locked in place for the rest of the game. And that means you can’t use your General again. Neither can you use any of your other Special Units for the rest of the game. Recalling Units, And Inching Forward From Behind Remember, one of the action points at your disposal is relocating the unit tile at a Street’s rear and placing it at the front. This costs you 2APs, but it’s a handy way to retain more units at your disposal. This can prove dangerous, though… If you slink forward, using, say, three units rolling in front of each other, you leave yourself open. Your opponent can wipe out the whole street by attacking one solitary unit. (If the Command Tank or Mortar takes out the rear unit in that street, for example.) Then you’ve left with no remaining investment or foundations in that Street. Nothing to show for all that ground you made up! One Objective requires having to capture the middle Street with four units. As you can appreciate now, that’s a lot harder than it sounds. You can also remove units from the front of a Street. A good example might be: you spend 1AP to place your Spy, creating a Clash. The opponent has to remove their losing units. You could then spend 2APs to then retrieve your Spy. Then you could spend your fourth and final AP to place another unit (Special or regular) out into this (or another) street. Defence Is The Best Form Of Attack There’s a certain art of ‘defence is the best form of attack’ in Clash of the Ardennes, in the form of ‘blocking’. On your turn you can opt to not Clash, even if your units meet your rivals on a Street. You can leave your unit there, acting like an immovable object. You might do this for many reasons. One might be that you’ve run out of Action Points to spend this turn. (Because after the Clash, the ideal scenario sees you using further APs to creep further forward along this Street.) Another reason might be because you want to cause irritation for your opponent. In order for them to advance along this Street, they’ll have to spend 3APs to retrieve their leading, blocked unit. Then they’ll have to spend 1AP to place down another unit – presumably one that can beat yours. Of course, this might not be possible if the gap remaining doesn’t allow for such a thing. But even if they can place a new unit, and then beat yours, they’re now out of APs. You could then spend Action Points in this Street to undo their previous turn. A third reason for blocking is that a big part of Clash of the Ardennes – if you want it to be – is bluffing. This is a game about deep-rooted player-to-player psychology. Like in a real battle, you can’t show your hand in public. Sometimes you have to lure your rival into traps and false starts. Playing the occasional sacrificial troops here and there distracts your opponent. If your Objective is to conquer the middle Street, should you pump all your focus into it? What about a decoy attack on a separate location? The Objectives feel like they’re balanced. Every time you claim a Street, you earn a secret Victory Card. This is a bonus you can cash in at an opportune moment, or sometimes straight away. Some of these are game-changers, such as getting to see your opponent’s Objective! Or getting to claim back two units from the Street you claimed. (Vital if one of these was a ranking Infantry unit, or a Special unit.) An Affiliation With Your Troops And so, we move onto the aesthetics. Clash of the Ardennes is a glorious work of art. You can tell with certain projects that they are a labour of love. This is one such game. And oh goodness, those wooden tiles! They raise Clash of the Ardennes high on a pedestal: striking table presence meeting delightful tactility. With clair-ligne artwork like this, you can’t but help feel an affiliation to your troops on a gut-wrenching, human level. This is the kind of art that transports you to the era with the click of one’s fingers. It’s important to note at this stage that this is a preview copy of Clash of the Ardennes. It’s on Kickstarter at time of press (running until 3 April 2021), and the finished product will look even better. There’s plans to add in a grid of sorts to the sky tiles that make up the frame. This will aid players looking at the distance between troops at-a-glance. Designer Elwin Klappe confirmed a player aid is coming (detailing which troops beat which, and a reminder of Action Points). Those subtle additions would elevate gameplay even further. Final Thoughts on… Clash of the Ardennes There’s quite a few mechanisms at play here, and they dovetail together with delightful ease. The rock-paper-scissors mechanism, partnered with the abstract strategy tile-placement, encapsulates the tense, terrifying tone of the historic battle, itself. This is about the small victories, inching forward along a Street one tile at time, pushing the enemy back. The wooden tiles are a delight. The board itself looks big when you fit the frame together (measuring at 61x85cm). This isn’t too disimilar, though, to larger game boards such as Scythe. You won’t be able to play this on a small, circular coffee table. Having a wooden frame adds table presence in spades. But would a board itself be a more practical approach? Not as quirky, nor as fun as a wooden frame, I’ll admit. If a board had grids running along each Street, it would make them quicker to digest at-a-glance. As it stands, having a wooden frame is quirky at least, without bordering into gimmick territory. Having tiles in a wooden finish does add a sense of deluxe grandeur into the gameplay. Overall I’m impressed with this preview copy of Clash of the Ardennes. It’s a suspenseful affair, like two predatory sharks circling each other. If you like what you see, click here to check out the Kickstarter, which runs until 3 April 2021.

Pairing Food and Drink with Games by @saggyhead It is still lockdown here, and as such I have made the executive decision that giving up anything for lent is an uncalled for additional restriction during this time. To build on my previous blog article about pairing games and food, I have now gone for the food and drinks option and I’ll be bringing some mini game reviews along with some suggestions for food and drink pairings. If this past 12 months has taught me anything, it is that life is too short for boring food and run-of-the-mill drinks. Whereas previously in the PC (pre-Covid) times, I would have balked at the idea of making at-home cocktails, deeming them too much faff. However with the long-term closure of bars etc, I have done a 180 on this opinion. So, there will be top-tier drinks and food options in this blog paired with games. The links between the game and food and drink will be tenuous of course, but all will promise lots of fun. Rooting for Some Berries Raspberry daiquiri is one of the kings of the cocktail world. It’s decadence and sweetness belies the copious amounts of alcohol in it. It reminds me of summer days in outdoor bars on holiday, and reminds me of fun times. So I picked the drink first and paired a game with it, this is one of them. I picked my game of the moment, which is a woodland themed battle royale. Where cute little animals declare all out war upon other creatures and spring from the shadows to attack to the death. To pair with it, I see the daiquiri as more of a dessert drink, so I am going to go full woodland and suggest some mushroom soup and big hunks of crusty bread to go with it. I would always use dried porcini and chestnut mushrooms in my mushroom soup. Always roasted red onion instead of white onions as well to boost flavour further. My soup trick is to add a tin of new potatoes to bulk out the soup and get that thicker consistency so it sits well on your bread too. The artwork for Root is cutesy and beautiful. The components have such a high quality and sleek design that you’ll find yourself lining the animeeples up whilst you plan your next dastardly move. And yet behind all this cuteness and beauty lies a war game. An actual war game. I normally hate war games. But Root is such a brain burning asymmetric strategic puzzle that I just cannot leave it alone, regardless of the number of vivid woodland dreams I have. In Root you play as one of the asymmetric factions, each is able to move around the board, battle and build strongholds to try and take over the woodland. Each of the factions plays in a totally different way, although each follows the same basic three parts to their turn; Birdsong, Daylight and Evening. The winning condition is the same for everyone, you want to be the first to thirty VP. Thirty sounds like a low number, at the start it feels like it is taking ages to get anywhere, but the game builds and it's a frantic dash to the finish line by the end. In the current times, we have learned the game initially as the Marquise de Cats and the Eyrie Bird factions. As the cats, you start by dominating the board, and you have to cement this domination by building workshops, sawmills and recruit posts to gain victory points. This is the faction that starts by hitting the ground running, and you must try to keep control and keep the other factions down in order to get across the line first. The Eyrie faction is a programming faction where you must add cards to your decree each turn, these allow you to recruit, move, battle and build roosts. Trouble is, if you can’t fulfill the actions required by your decree then it all goes to pot and you go into turmoil. This may not actually be a bad thing, although breaking your decree and losing some VP and starting again does smart a little regardless. The other two factions I feel like I’m not particularly adept at yet, we are very much still in training wheels on the Woodland Alliance and the Vagabond! I recently got the app of the game from Direwolf and it actually is a great implementation that is helping me to learn the base game better. It also helps that you can play the challenges solo. Although I best get my skates on because every day this weekend MJ has played the Root app before I’ve woken up!!

By @Coffeeandcooperation Hey everyone, I’m so excited to be here sharing my top three games with you! Each of these games has different mechanics, but what they all do so well is offer replayability. Even if you’ve played these games 100 times (and one of them, I have!) they’ll still feel fresh and new. And in my opinion, that’s what makes a game truly excellent! Number 3: Roll Player This is my new obsession, and it’s what I always want to bring to the table on game night. In Roll Player, you’re creating an epic hero! The main mechanism is dice placement, and you gain reputation stars based on your rows of dice (they create the various attributes of your character), as well as getting certain colored dice in specific spots on your mat. You also gain skills, armor and various traits along the way, all of which gain you more and more reputation stars. It’s a really think-y game with lots of choices. Each time you place a dice you are given extra abilities, and it allows you to be really intentional about what you do. Every decision matters and affects your overall score so you have to be really thoughtful and I LOVE that. There are lots of times I have played this game and killed it, and other times where I lose horribly. But it’s a blast every time, and I always want to start a new game immediately. Number 2: Cartographers I’ve recently become addicted to Roll and Writes, and this is the top of the list for me. Played over four seasons, in this game you’re attempting to fill in your map with various lands (villages, forests, farmlands and waterways) and gain points based on goals that change throughout the year. But beware! Monsters can come out at any point and ruin your expedition. (Your opponent draws the monsters in on your map, and will therefore do it in the worst possible spot.) I absolutely love this game. You never know what goals you’ll have, and what cards you’ll draw. Because of that it feels fresh and new every time. It’s great in a crowd or solo (although the rules for scoring solo are brutal!) and it’s one I come back to time and time again. Number 1: Star Realms I just checked my BGG app to see how many games of Star Realms I’ve played this year and I’m already at 92. That should tell you everything you need to know. This is deck building at its finest. You start with a basic deck of 10 cards and attempt to build up the strongest fleet. There’s faction play, meaning collecting cards of certain colors gives you extra abilities if they come out at the same time. It forces you to be strategic and decide what card will truly benefit you the most (verses simply grabbing what you deem to be the best card out in Trade Row). It’s only two player, but you can make it four player with a second deck (or the Colony Wars deck). There’s also a ton of expansions that allow for everything from solo play to cooperative play! (My favorites are the Commander expansions that let you play as a character with extra skills.) The app happens to be fantastic as well, and is where I play the majority of the time. It’s a great game for experienced gamers, as well as newbies. It’s easy to learn, but leaves you wanting more. Even after hundreds of games, I always end up pulling it out over any other game.

If you are hanging out reading this blog, then I am pretty sure you really like games. You probably have your own collection, be it vast and sprawling or a fine tuned capsule collection. Now looking across all your games, how many of them do you think you have given enough attention to in the past year? Are you like me and go through phases of favouritism where you play a couple of games in rotation? In December I played through my whole collection with my partner. We played 87 base games in four weeks whilst still carrying on with “life” as well. You read more on the WBG blog here. Now that we have recovered from that brain burn, we set our sights on a new challenge. In my non-gaming life I am an avid triathlete (enthusiastic albeit not good) and before I had a car crash a few years ago I was doing ultra-marathons. So setting myself challenges and pushing myself to complete them is common in my hobbies. Diminish the Shelf of Opportunity We were fortunate enough to get a lot of games for Christmas, and I do not want them to sit on the shelf unplayed. We are good at playing games, but we are guilty of favouritism. We often play the same games all the time and forget how much we like others, and some we neglect altogether. So in 2021 we will have played all of the games and expansions we bought or were gifted that we have yet to bring to the table. This of course becomes more difficult as shiny new games join our collection all the time. We all know that shiny new things beat out things that we have forgotten about. You can follow our efforts on Instagram at #anothergameofftheshelf where myself and hopefully others will be sharing our games that we have left on our pile of potential for rather too long. 10x10 Challenge This is quite a common challenge where you play ten different games ten times across the year. This sounds easy, and it is if you choose quick games. But for bigger games playing games about once a month is an effort. So publicly here I vow to play the following ten games at least ten times in 2021. Root by Leder Games. This game of woodland warfare is one where you need to practice to be good. I desperately want to be good at this game, and as we know practice makes perfect! The Bloody Inn by Pearl Games. I love serial killer documentaries, so this unique theme speaks to me. The Bloody Inn is a crunchy hand management game which I seem to randomly excel and suck at. I never know which way this is going to go for me, because at its heart it is quite a strategic game that requires you to be thinking a few turns ahead. I sometimes can execute a master plan and sometimes I just fly by the seat of my pants. 7 Wonders Duel by Repos Games. This was one of the first games we got in 2020, and we have played quite a few times. I do have to refer to the rules a lot as much of the symbology escapes me. Do you smash your opponent with your cunning scientific research, annihilate them in battle with your military might, create a political landslide and corrupt the Senate, or just an old fashioned victory point win? Lost Ruins of Arnak by CGE Games. This is a game we got in December, and immediately played, the hype around this game is both well deserved and understandable. The components and artwork are great, and the game play is combo-tastic which is my favourite way to play. Abyss by Bombyx. This is quite a light game really but with some of the absolute best artwork I have seen. I adore this theme of underwater politics. I also got both the expansions for this for my birthday back in October, and I have yet to play them! Carcassonne by Z-Man Games. In December, I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing it just the base game and just two-player. I was so wrong, I take back all I said about Carcassonne’s cultish following, and stand here repenting my sins. Carcassonne is a great game as long as you don’t have experienced players annihilating the less experienced ones. So I would like to get better at playing this game, and who knows in ten plays time I might have all the expansions and a Carcassonne room to store them in! The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine by Kosmos. This is a nifty little co-op trick taking card game that we originally played the wrong rules for. We played the first 20 scenarios with these wrong and much harder rules too. So I want to learn the right game and play that in 2021. It was still good the way we played it, but well I am pretty sure that some rounds were impossible, let’s try again properly. I might even get good at trick taking games! Magic Maze by Sit Down!. This is a real time silent cooperative game that can cause arguments. You as a team without speaking must get the four coloured pawns to their respective treasures and then out the shopping mall via their coloured exit. Only moving each of the pawns your specific action like North or South etc. Which shouldn’t be too hard, and perhaps for many it isn’t, but for us it can cause all out scowling warfare. We really should be able to do this game without losing our generally level-headed minds and yet, here I am, airing the dirty secret that we can’t work together silently. Hero Realms by Fantasy Flight Games. This is one of my favourite games and I love it. I want to get The Lost Village campaign expansion played, and make sure that we play with each of the character packs too. Disney Villainous by Ravensburger. Each character here has a different way to win and their own deck to pilot. You cannot play without keeping your head up and watching what others are doing or a win might sneak away from you. Initially I didn’t “get” this game, as I felt like the game was perhaps too hard. As I have played many more games though, I feel ready to tackle this again. Here I’ve thrown down the metaphorical gauntlet of challenges, and stated in a public forum what I must strive for games-wise in 2021. Will you join me on my challenge journey? What challenges could you set yourself for 2021?

By Favouritefoe - www.favouritefoe.com [I have been provided a copy of Take The Kingdom for free from the designer/publisher for the purpose of this Kickstarter preview, however, this has not affected my opinion in any way] Introduction Wargames. The complexity associated with those words can be intimidating. Only one year into gaming proper, I have certainly steered away from many games in this combat based genre because of their heavyweight rep. But, Take The Kingdom designed by Ian Walton and published by Walnut Games is a wargame that’s not a wargame. It’s a battle, sure, but it is one that almost anyone can play. No pedigree required. No enormous investment in table space or time necessary. Coming soon to Kickstarter, this is a medieval combative card game for 1-4 players where players are trying to protect their own kingdoms whilst simultaneously destroying their opponents’ realms. So how does it play? Each player begins with a castle card, a mercy card, and a character card. I am reliably informed that the characters are based upon real historical nobles, although I am not sure they had the special powers they have in the game! Players then take it in turns to choose a number of defend cards (up to a maximum value) in order to protect their castle. All remaining defend, action, plague, and attack cards are shuffled into a communal deck and each player is dealt 5 into their hand. During the course of the game, a player can play up to three cards from their hand – attack an opponent, add to their own defences, or take a specific action which generally results in you either reinforcing your own kingdom or removing something from another. Players do not have free reign, however, as there is an overarching “ first line of defence” rule which governs play at all times. In order to lay siege upon an opponent’s castle, you must first attack and remove all other lands and defences surrounding it. Given that defences are continuously being rebuilt, invasions denied, and traps set, this is no mean feat! And that is before we have even considered the rare but devastating plague cards hidden in the deck ready to lay waste to an unsuspecting player’s round. After the onslaught is over, a player’s hand is then replenished at the start of their next turn. Overview If it sounds like there is a lot going on in this little game then, in a way, there is. The unsuspecting and colourful deck (designed by Luke Horsman) reveals a surprising amount of battle/conflict card play. And, because of this, our first few play throughs were quite mechanical with a lot of verbal narration; working out which cards could wreak havoc on what, and likewise, how to successfully engage damage limitation. But once you get your head around the rules and you become familiar with the cards and what they can do, the flow and momentum of the game picks up and it becomes a satisfying speedy race to be the last kingdom standing! For me, Take The Kingdom is one of those games which, bearing in mind the small size of the box and single card mechanic, may look a little involved on paper but is actually easy to learn and fun to play. It is a lighter take on an all-out war but it does involve some strategic decision making when, for example, faced with an attack which could theoretically be blocked but may then leave you open to more devastating blows further into the game. Or when players must decide whether to “waste” cards in their hand in the hope of picking up better ones from the deck on the next round. Over the course of the past few weeks, Take the Kingdom has been brought to our table and played when time is short and also when we have the chance to play a number of different games in a single sitting. The future I was privileged to be a play-tester for this game early last year and, whilst I could see it had potential then, I think the tweaks and tinkering Ian has made so far to the cards, artwork, and rules in response to feedback have worked. For example, the introduction of a proper solo option as well as options for different playing styles make it a more versatile game, enabling it to be better tailored to the number and mood of players around the table. Similarly, the greater use of symbols and colour to differentiate between cards at a glance enhances accessibility for players with colour vision deficiency. Playing now compared to playing a year ago has given me a more thematic and satisfying experience – not bad for a little game! Plus, I am sure that through the Kickstarter process more refinement will be made, and I am looking forward to playing and (hopefully reviewing!) the finished product. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/169068487/take-the-kingdom-2021/ www.walnutgames.co.uk BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/102881/ian-walton Twitter: https://twitter.com/walnutgamesuk

Dinosaur Island WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1–4 You’ll like this if you like: Tiny Epic Dinosaurs, Dice Hospital, Unfair, DinoGenics Published by: Pandasaurus Games Designed by: Jonathan Gilmour, Brian Lewis By Tom @buryboardgames Dinosaur Island first came to Kickstarter in 2017. Upon release, it captured many gamers’ imagination, akin to how Jurassic Park enthralled cinema-goers back in 1993. When we saw that T. Rex stomp out of the paddock for the first time, jaws dropped. That was the moment we were ready to believe. That was when we dreamed that Michael Crichton’s science fiction could become real. Shove a few frog chromosomes into fossilised amber and bingo! Dino DNA. Let’s not mince words. In Dinosaur Island, 2-4 player build their own Jurassic World – a zoological theme park. And, quoting the movie’s poster caption: ‘the park is open’. The public enter through the gates and enjoy the attractions. But mirroring Jurassic’s franchise reboot, if your park security isn’t up to scratch, assets could get out of containment. And then there’s running, and screaming… The crux of the game sees you collecting different types of DNA, so you can build dinosaurs. The more dinosaurs you cook up in the lab, the more end-game points they’re worth. Plus, the higher your park’s Excitement Rating climbs – which attracts more visitors. But the more dinos you build, the higher the need for tip-top security measures! Blood-Sucking Lawyers Dinosaur Island is part-worker placement, part-tile purchasing. There’s set collection, dice, and action points to consider. And, like any Euro worth its salt, you have to manage your tight finances. (There’s a solo mode too, a feature becoming all the more popular and accepted in these COVID-19 times.) Each player has their own A4 Park Board, representing their own Isla Nublar. (It’s not the actual island, but it might as well be! Dinosaur Island flirts with the Jurassic IP to quite the gushing, fan-boy level. Even the font on the box matches the movie poster! I’m amazed, in fact, that Universal Studios’s blood-sucking lawyers didn’t get involved…) This mat comprises of an empty grid, bar-one simplistic herbivore paddock. Meaning, you start with one meagre dino in your park. Your second A4 mat is your Lab, which tracks your DNA quotas, lab facilities, and security levels. There’s no denying: even at a two-player count, this game is a table-hog. It’s footprint is as big as that famous Rex’s, squelched into the mud. A Fly On The Wall In Dr. Wu’s Lab The first phase is Research. Players take turns placing their three Scientists in a traditional worker placement fashion. It’s go-here-get-this, first-come, first-served, but with a few neat twists. Each of your Scientists have values: 1, 2, and 3. To claim a new type of dinosaur paddock tile, you have to send a Scientist of the appropriate value (or above). Want a low-risk, low-scoring herbivore? You can use any Scientist for this. Want a small carnivore – harder to create, but worth more points? That requires a 2- or 3-value Scientist. Large carnivores – high risk, high points – demand a 3-value Scientist. Once you claim the tile, you place it onto a vacant spot in your park. The second option is one of the most modular mechanisms I’ve seen in a long time. For set-up, you pick twice as many DNA dice as there are players, plus one. (Seven, for example, in a three-player game.) Each die has a combination of different action faces. Each game of Dinosaur Island differs based upon this random selection of dice among the 12 that come in the box. At the start of this Phase, the DNA dice get rolled. Players can use a Scientist to claim a die, taking the action it provides. Most of these offer quotas of specific DNA types. Three are rare, with three being common. (Depending on which unique dice you selected at random during set-up, some types of DNA could be rarer, still). You earn die rewards dependent upon which Scientist you placed to claim it. For example: sending a 2-value Scientist to claim a die with 2x pink DNA? You get a total of 4 pink DNA. The trick is that you can only house a certain quantity of DNA in your lab. That’s where the third option comes into play… Classic Worker Placement, Classic Cat-And-Mouse The final worker placement location is less of a mad rush, with multiple spots available. Whichever Scientist you send here, you can expand your DNA storage. The total amount you increase by is the value of the Scientist you place there. This is more than a mere last resort for getting blocked elsewhere. You can never have too much DNA! A fourth option exists, of passing, if nothing appeals to you. In such a scenario, that Scientist acts as an extra worker (a.k.a. extra action point) to spend in the later Worker Phase. Like any kind of worker placement title, this Phase is an intriguing game of cat-and-mouse. Not all Scientists get created equal! This gives you delicious decisions with regards to prioritising what to claim, and when. Turn order can become crucial towards grabbing these array of goodies. In particular with regards to the dinosaur exhibits. Large carnivores are worth 7VP each (but expensive, DNA-wise; more on that, later)! At least in later rounds the current last player, points-wise, becomes the new Start Player. This feels like a fair catch-up mechanism. (It’s a major feature I felt rival title DinoGenics lacked, big-time. In that game, the rich became richer and it’s brutal to those in last-place.) Honey, Did You Want Lunch At DNAchos Or Dinosaur Fryland? Next is the Market Phase. Players take turns to buy up to two items to enhance their park. There’s a set price, plus the item’s marked price (if any). Attraction tiles come in the form of food stands, rides, and merchandise stalls. You place these tiles onto your island’s grid, like dinosaur paddocks. They range in price, and some pay out end-game points. Some are mega-expensive, and not affordable in the time given for shorter games. Longer games, with tougher-to-achieve Objectives, provide enough game-time to fill your coffers with dino-dollars. Lab Upgrades improve your default facilities. Investing in these helps maximise efficiency in the all-important Worker Phase. Sometimes you have to overbuild on top of your default Lab board, but this never feels punishing. Specialist staff are asymmetrical and provide game-long benefits. Some give you extra workers for the Worker Phase, which is crucial. You can hire up to three Specialists. As an alternative, you can spend money to buy more DNA. (You’d do this with the next Phase in mind, if you’re short on certain DNA to create dinos.) If none appeal to you – or if you can’t afford any – you can pass, claiming $2 instead. Passing means missing out on a chance to invest, but sometimes you need the extra cash to spend in the next Phase. Time To Play CEO: Now You’re John Hammond The Worker Phase is a simultaneous event. Here you deploy your workers to perform actions in your lab. Workers are action points. The more you have, the more things you accomplish. (Hence hiring Specialists that provide extra workers being an appealing long-term investment!) Lab actions include Refining DNA (mixing 2x common DNA to create 1x rare DNA). You can spend DNA to build a new dinosaur. (If you make dinos, you obey the DNA requirements on their tile.) Pay them in, and then you add a dinomeeple to the paddock. When creating a dinosaur and placing it onto its tile, the paddock needs to be large enough to house it. Another option in this Phase is to pay to upgrade the paddock size. Plus, once you place a dino, your Excitement Rating increases. The more dangerous the dino, the more exciting it is. It also carries a Threat Level. Careful: if this Threat Level exceeds your Security Level, it’s bad news for the guests when gates get left ajar…! Another option, then, is to invest in better security. This latter feature is a fascinating one, because it comes at a price. You want to create as many dinos as possible, because they’re worth end-game points. Also, because the higher your Excitement rating, the more guests you attract to your park. And guests mean potential income and further points. But there’s a couple of hurdles you have to overcome… Open The Gates, And Welcome Your Adoring Public! The Park Phase is where everything starts to stitch together. Each player picks visitors blind from a draw-bag, equal to their Excitement Rating. The bag has 80 meeples inside; 70 are regular yellow Patrons, but 10 are pink Hooligans. It’s a complete lottery to what you draw, of course. You get $1 per Patron you draw; Hooligans slip into your park without paying an entrance fee! Then you allocate Hooligans to viable spots within your park. They push to the front of the queue – boo! You place your polite Patrons, afterwards. Dino exhibits hold as many Patrons/Hooligans as there are dinosaurs in it. Attractions have varying spots for guests to visit, too. (They’re vital to housing larger quantities of guests, later on in the game.) If your Excitement Level exceeds the physical space your park provides, you’re wasting potential points. Once all Hooligans (and, secondly, Patrons) have a space, excess guests have to wait, forlorn, at the park entrance. Next you check your Security Level versus your Threat Level. Plus, if not all DNA dice got claimed during Research, there’s more bad news. The die with the highest Threat Level pips gets added to everyone’s Threat Level total. This factor can impact your choices in the Research Phase, like an unspoken game of ‘Chicken’. Will anyone take the sacrificial hit and claim that die, so as it won’t punish everyone’s Threat Levels? If your Threat Level beats your Security Level, you lose the difference in Patrons in your park. (Hooligans are sneaky, and can run away from hungry dinosaurs.) You lose 1VP per Patron eaten! You score 1VP per Patron left in your park, after this. (You can opt to take $1 per Patron on a Food Stall instead, if you want). Nothing for Hooligans. Nothing for Patrons stuck outside the park. The Chaos In Among The Structure After this Phase, you do some minor clean-up and reset for the next round. But first… let’s talk about Hooligans. From a theme point of view, they make a lot of sense. Sometimes you get a few rotten apples make it through the turnstiles in real amusement parks. They queue-jump. They’re rowdy. They make life miserable for the majority of the well-behaved guests. Talking from a pure Euro-gamer’s perspective though, they could irritate players. Their presence in your park is one based on the luck of the draw, which can leave a sour taste. Yes, luck evens itself out over time, but that doesn’t make you feel any better if the bag draw spits in your eye! This wild element of luck feels a little jarring in among a game that elsewhere rewards you for your efficiency. (As a comparison, the luck of the DNA dice roll feels more of a positive output.) Drawing one or two Hooligans per round might not sound like much, but it adds up. You earn less money from Patron income. You earn less points from Patrons in your park. At least one way to mitigate this is to hire certain Staff cards. Some give you opportunities to discard and redraw guests, for example. You have a track to measure your park’s security against the threat of dinosaurs. What if there had been another security track for keeping on top of Hooligans? That way, if you draw some of the pink rotters, at least you might get respite from this track. Or even a reward for handing them into the authorities? As it stands, they offer nothing but irritation. I suppose they represent a nod to Ian Malcolm – they are the chaos factor. If you want the rainbow, you’ve got to put up with the rain. Objectives: More Flexibility Than A Brachiosaurus’ Neck Want a short, medium or long game? Pick as many Objective Cards as there are players (plus one) from the short, medium or long decks. These sit face-up in a public pool. These goals are what drive the game, incentivising your long-term strategy. They’re worth extra points, and it’s a race to accomplish them. If you complete one, you place your Corporation Token on it. Other players have until the end of the round to match said goal. If they cannot complete it in time, then you alone earn its end-game points. Some Objectives demand certain quotas of dinosaurs or Attractions in your park. Others involve earning income, or building attractions. You can also add in Plot Twist cards, which alters the gameplay in varying directions. Both are superb for replayability, since you can create a unique experience each time. As a result, there’s no one-strategy-wins-all to Dinosaur Island. The game has no set length. Instead, it has an end-game trigger, which occurs once there’s only one Objective remaining. Until that point, the game has a formulaic round structure. To begin with, you’ll need the rulebook to hand to ensure you don’t forget anything. But Dinosaur Island’s rhythmic nature means you’ll learn at a quick rate. Anyone Fancy A ’90s Dino Rave? The first thing that captured the public’s attention about Dinosaur Island was its art. This colour palette is extreme. It’s an obvious homage to ’90s nostalgia – fluorescent oranges, lime greens. The dinomeeples are DayGlo pink. It smashes through subtlety like a Pachycephalosaurus head-butting your senses. Yes, it’s a nod to circa ’93 art and graphic design fashionable for the era. It’s also one hell of a gimmick. You’ll either love it or hate it; there’s no sitting on the fence with this because you can’t ignore it. You have to applaud the bravery of artist Kwanchai Moriya. This 2.0 version of Dinosaur Island comes with different custom dinomeeples. In the initial release, they were all pink, plastic Triceratops silhouettes. Now you get different shapes for the different categories of dinosaur. Herbivores are still the Triceratops, but small carnivores are now Velociraptors. Large carnivores are Tyrannosaurs. These are both aesthetically pleasing and also function as a quicker means to gauge one’s park, at a glance. I’d feel a tad let down were all the dinos the default Triceratops – which says a lot about the industry’s standard right now. Dinosaur Island’s had to evolve, too. Publishers are trying to keep up with each other, spoiling their clientele with quality components. The DNA dice deserve individual praise. Wonderful and chunky, they’re amber-translucent in colour. For fans of the Jurassic series, these are one among 65 million nods to the franchise. There’s 30 Attraction Tiles and many of them have delightful names, adding oodles of flavour. I grinned in delight when I saw one restaurant called ‘Clever Grills’. The draw-bag is a flocked fabric. It’s massive considering it needs to house 80 small meeples! But hey, players won’t struggle fitting their hand inside it, so no complaints there. The player boards are marvellous in their cardstock. These things are durable! The Lab Boards are dual-layered, which is handy for clumsy players in case they knock the table. Their cubes, tracking their various DNA, Security and Threat Levels remain safe. There’s a lot of cardboard in the box, and I found it nigh-impossible to fit everything into the default insert. I even searched for tips on YouTube! I ended up removing the insert, instead having nuermous zip-lock loose in the box. Yeah, But John, When Pirates Of The Caribbean Breaks Down, The Pirates Don’t Eat The Tourists Glancing at grid-like player mats, one might assume: ‘Is this like Dinosaur Agricola, then?’ That’s not the case, though. There’s no ‘feed your people/animals’ mechanism in Dinosaur Island. If you want that kind of game, I’d suggest trying Tiny Epic Dinosaurs, or DinoGenics. The worst-case scenario that occurs if your Security Levels are shoddy is you lose a point or two. I even once toyed with a strategy where I didn’t sweat and panic about maintaining security every round. Instead, I focused my interests towards building dinos, accepting the occasional small loss of points. (PR would hate to hear their corporation’s CEO admit that!) But this let me race towards other goals, and I had, arguably, more fun doing it. When digested, Dinosaur Island isn’t as complex as it looks for a game that spans an entire table. It’s a medium-weight Euro, sure. But the Phases are formulaic, so newer players should pick it up after the first round. The heart of the game is all about your DNA tracks. You need to manipulate these in a set collection fashion to build dinos. If not to meet the selection of Objectives, but to raise your Excitement Level. Because that’s how you attract more visitors, and visitors bring in the money. Invest that money into further attractions, and the cycle continues. Ahh, capitalism… The fact there’s 39 Objective Cards, spanning over three difficulty levels, is superb. It’s replayability-galore, personified. Plus, there’s 11 different Plot Twist Cards. Some make the game a smidgeon more welcoming to newer players. You can tailor Objectives and Plot Twists to make Dinosaur Island as challenging or beginner-friendly as you wish. I’m now keen to see where Pandasaurus Games’ goes with this, with the forthcoming Dinosaur World…

Derk Grant - @thebaldtable So, when tasked to pick my top 3 games, I am going to have to choose the following in no particular order (which could and just might change next week!) Trekking the World, Raja of the Ganges and Parks. All 3 are beautiful, fun to play and easy to teach. 1. Trekking the World is the most recent release on this list. I backed it on kickstarter mainly for the theme. Then it arrived and sat on my shelf for a few months and when it finally reached the table it blew me away at how good it is! This is a light game that works as an amazing gateway game for nongamers! It has great components, beautiful art, simple rules and very few actions to choose from. That being said, it is also solid enough for experienced players to enjoy playing. I also am partial to the amazing box insert it comes with that other games should take note from. (I’m looking at you Isle of Cats!) Its fun to travel the world collecting souvenirs and visiting some of the worlds greatest attractions. Overall, this was a game that surprised me with how good the overall experience was. The concepts in the game are not new, but they are well balanced, easy to teach and easy to learn. Giving that new gamer playing a shot at winning! As such, this has turned into my go to game for nongamers! 2. Raja of the Ganges, despite being the heavier game of the 3, I could not in good conscious make a top 3 without a worker placement game on the list. Worker placement is a favorite mechanic of my wife’s and I. The first time I saw this game being played, it had my attention. The table presence is fantastic. The components are great quality and i'm a sucker for dice! Raja of the Ganges offers various ways to score victory points (fame) as well as money. The two tracks run towards each other and once the fame and money meet together, the end game is triggered. I have seen games won by seeking out just fame, others by collecting soley money; and then other games won by collecting equal amounts of both. I love games that offer various roads to victory. Although it does tend to give way to longer games and turns as there are just so many choices each turn to choose from. You can sail the river, create your providence, visit nobles, visit temples and so on. This is a great game that I feel doesn’t get the love that it deserves. 3. Parks. My wife and I are avid backpackers and love the outdoors. So, anytime there is a game that bridges our hobbies, we want it! This game has seen many gamenights as we hiked and visited the National Parks. Utilize gear, collect resources and hope for good weather! This is the smallest game on the list, but packs a good time! It’s a game that i'm always willing to play and offers enough player interaction without feeling like a take-that type of game by stealing spots on the board you know an opponent needs. The art is gorgeous and the wooden resources are great especially the wildlife tokens as they are all different animals. This is also another game where the box insert is worth mentioning! This game was well thought out from the game-play to the art, and also the packaging! Parks feels like a different game each time you play it.