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Tucano WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Azul, Jaipur, Kawaii. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Théo Rivière Toucan play that game. Actually it's up to four. I love Helvetiq games. Everything they do is full of joy and happiness and Tucano is no different. This is the latest in the line of their small box family games, it puts the players into the shoes of birds in the tropical rainforest, and I love it! The fruit of your own hard work is the sweetest The idea in Tucano is simple. Collect the most points from the fruit you acquire during the game. This is a set-collection game at its heart, and it brings this mechanism to the table in a brilliantly family friendly way. To set up the game, separate the Toucan cards, shuffle the deck and split it into two equal halves. Add the 12 Toucan cards into one half of the deck and shuffle them together, then place this half under the other half to form a draw pile. Then lay out the three top cards from the deck face up on the middle of the table and place a second card half covering the middle card. And that’s it! You will be set up and ready to play in under a minute. Players then take it in turns to pick one of the three face up columns and take all the cards from this column and add into their collection. Once each player makes their choice, they then must add one new face up card from the draw pile to each column. This means some columns will grow in number, whilst one column will always only have one card. But as not all cards are positive scoring cards, some column may grow quite large until the positive cards on it out-way the negative ones and make this column an attractive option. Knowledge is knowing that a Tomato is not a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. Plays continues until there is only one column left on the table, at which point all players total their points and determine the winner. The cards in the game offer a huge variety of scoring options and make the game a lot of fun. Let’s take a look at some of them! There are some cards like the Banana card which score points to the player who has the most amount of them by the end of the game. 2 points per card if you have the most Bananas, or none if you don’t. This makes collecting them dangerous, but potentially very rewarding! As you can see what each player is taking from each column, you can see what people are going for. So, you can track the other players somewhat. This is not a memory game, but there is an element of this here with the cards. However, each player keeps their cards face up in front of them, so you can also see what each player has simply by looking! But, you do need to pay attention to what is being brought into each players hand as one of the Toucan cards allows you to flip all the fruit cards in front of you so they are hidden from all other players until the end of the game. The Coconut is a more traditional scoring card. Wherein, the points you gain from it at the end of the game are determined by how many you have. Most cards work in the positive, as in, more cards, more points! Whereas the Coconut reverses this. Getting one early gets you a potential of eight points at the end of the game, but the chances you will get more through the game are quite high and each time you do, you lose two points. Terreific Tucano transfers take-that to the top Another of the Toucan cards allows players to give one of your face up cards to another player. If you have two Coconuts, and another player has one or two already, passing one of yours to them is a highly entertaining and point scoring opportunity in the game! This is one small area of take-that that exists in the game, but it is small enough to not affect this in a negative way for players who do not like this in their games. The Rainbow card acts a joker card and can be turned into any fruit of your choice at the end of the game. There is only one in the deck so this is a very powerful card. The balance of this card, and all cards in the deck is perfect. A lot of thought has been put into this, that is clear to see. And the result is a beautiful balanced game that is a lot of fun to play. Each game takes no more than 15-minutes and can be set up and taught to new players in under a minute. This is a perfect family set-collection card game that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys this mechanic or is looking for something light and easy to play with their family. The card art is bright, vibrant, and very clear. Even to younger players on their first game, the iconography on each card is laid out as such that it is a very simple game to grasp. The images are varied enough that those with issues around colour differentiation would find each card simple to identify. This game will help with maths, strategy, and forward planning. A great opportunity to have fun with your children whilst secretly teaching them a few things too! For younger children there is the benefit of shape, colour, and object recognition too. And of course, it teaches us the valuable lesson that too many Coconuts can be a bad thing! I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a quick fun game to play with younger children from five and up. The game suggests six and up, but I enjoyed this a lot with my daughter who is five and she became very quickly comfortable with the game and rules and enjoyed it immensely.

by @familyofboardgames For years I thought I didn't need Gloomhaven. It's too big, too long and there is no place for it in my life. It suddenly changed after the Frosthaven campaign last year. We decided to get it and OMG it changed our lives! I love every part of it especially when you change characters. In 10 months we completed 50 scenarios and I am currently playing my fourth character. It is difficult to get to the table but we play it overall quite often - we do a longer session once a month keeping it on the table for 2 days. We usually manage to play four scenarios that way. I will not be getting Jaws Of The Lion anytime soon, but I will eagerly wait for my Frosthaven to arrive. When I first played Brass Birmingham I was stunned that this game was smarter than I am. I couldn't believe it! I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't see the right strategy. It was an amazing thing because it doesn't really happen to me. I usually just figure out the game within the first couple of rounds and this time it was different. I adore it for that and every time it gets to the table it's an amazing experience. Arkham Horror LCG was my favorite game for years. I love how incredibly immersive it is. I love the whole Lovecraft universe and this campaign game brings it to life in the best possible way. There are so many possibilities to combine cards and make amazing combos happen in every turn. Every campaign feels like a new adventure and due to different investigators it's incredibly replayable. It is an expensive game so I am not buying every circle (campaign) but so far I loved every game that I played.

by @boardgameswithb If you could only choose three games to play for the rest of your days, what would they be? For some people this question creates indecision, but for me I can list them without thought or hesitation. My top three board games has been unwaveringly decided for quite some time now. Being relatively new to the world of board games, as well has being stifled by the financial constraints of being a young, single income family – we have had to maintain a tighter collection than most. We don’t buy new games often and when we do, they are thoroughly researched, weighed and considered. For this reason, I like to believe our humble collection is made up of a lot of the better games available – or in the very least, they are all favourites to us. While I enjoy a wide variety of themes and styles from woodland creatures, to savage Vikings and racing camels; I have always been utterly intrigued by the unknown and vast universe of which we are merely a self-important speck - and that is highly reflected in my top three games. So without further ado… Number 1 - Clank! In! Space! If you’ve seen my Instagram channel, it’s hard to mistake my all-time favourite game. I have been highly (and likely irritatingly) vocal about my love for this game. Clank! In! Space! is an intergalactic adventure which raises the bar for deck building to new and amazing heights – you could say, it is Out! Of! This! World! Forget the stuffy deck builders where you are left with a hand of cards and your imagination, this game provides the excitement of deck building, while adding a physical adventuring aspect and a great table presence. I first stumbled across Clank! In! Space! thanks to a friend who was trying to encourage me to spend money… I mean buy games… I mean play games. It was the first deck-builder I had ever encountered and I was really not into the idea of them. I was expecting him to pull a stack of cards from a bag and be done with it, so imagine my surprise when he hefted a huge box onto the table and began organising modules, gems, cubes, treasures and loot all over the table. When he finally presented me with my custom purple meeple I knew this was no slow burn, it was love at first sight. With what was a surprisingly fast rundown on the rules and speedy demonstration, we were off and adventuring. That night would be the first of many spent racing through Lord Eradikus’ flagship; making clank!, racing for treasure and creating card combos so satisfying you’ll forget the word Dominion from your vocabulary. I had ordered my own copy before all the components were back in their baggies and I have played Clank! In! Space! at least once a month ever since. This is a game that will never get old for me. It has so many wonderful variables and I love the hilarious sci-fi references and cheeky gameplay. Clank! is designed for replayability and accessibility – it’s a game that will grow with player experience and always promises a night of laughter and anticipation. Number 2 - Star Wars: Outer Rim Coming in a close second is Star Wars: Outer Rim which I will say very honestly from the start, you have to be a Star Wars fan to properly enjoy. It’s an incredibly immersive and thematic experience – essentially a “choose your own adventure” style game set in the Star Wars universe. I love that there are so many variable elements to this game, which makes every playthrough feel different and you can have as little or as much PVP as you’d like. It genuinely feels like you are writing your own Star Wars story and the theme integration is where this game is strongest. I will never say no when a game is offered! Star Wars: Outer Rim was actually one of the first and only games I bought ‘brand new’ when it was first released and without any prior research. I threw caution to the wind and decided that given my husband and I’s shared love for Star Wars since we were old enough to wield lightsabers, this game would be a safe investment for us. Granted, there is nothing particularly ground breaking about the gameplay and it is essentially a re-theming/tweaked version of Firefly: The Game (another of my favourites), but it is the authenticity of this Star Wars experience that makes it so loved in my home. If you play as Boba Fett, you’ll find bounties easier. If you play as Lando or Han, moving cargo (especially the illegal variety) is lucrative. The characters, items and ships are all designed with great consideration for story-telling and authenticity. This is a game that makes you want to go that extra mile, it makes you want to set the lighting and put on the Star Wars soundtrack in the background. You’ll give your opponent the eye as you pass their ship and pray they don’t have a ‘secret’ hidden that means they’ll steal your crew or draw on you! You’ll watch your ship take more damage than Serenity and pray it’ll hold together as well and if you’re playing as Boba, well you’re going to want to steer clear of that Sarlacc pit. In short, it’s a world you’ll have a heck a lot of fun exploring. I really hope that Fantasy Flight Games has plans for an expansion for this game because although I could play it as is until the Banthas come home, it is designed to have potential for expansions and I will always want more Star Wars: Outer Rim. Number 3 – Terraforming Mars Coming in at number three, Terraforming Mars is just as certain in my top three, but harder for me to explain why. It has always had a bad rap for its production quality and yet it’s still widely one of the most popular games on the market. For me, it comes down to the theme integration. I love that you play as corporations with different abilities or perks and you can plan your gameplay around how that specific corporation would go about terraforming Mars. I love the realism of how planting greenery creates oxygen and how raising the temperature or oxygen levels unlocks certain conditions for different cards to be played (like the ‘Pets’ card – you just can’t be breeding puppies in -20 degree conditions can you?). Pair that with the huge deck which seems endless and the tableau building aspect of this game which quickly fills the table and I’m suddenly finding it a lot easier to explain how it’s in my top three. But it’s not all theme, Terraforming Mars also presents a subtle challenge. It appears straightforward and is simple to explain, yet there is great depth to the strategy needed to be good at this game. You can’t really get way with playing hand to hand, you need to be proactive and deliberate about which cards you draft and resources you choose to gather. The game can start off slow and that’s part of that wonderful thematic integration – it realistically takes time to build a company and resources, but it’s always so satisfying come the final few rounds when you can string together action combinations and score two or three times in a single turn. It’s not an edge of your seat experience, nor is it going to make you feel like you are in another world like my other top two, but what Terraforming Mars does provide is a challenge and endless variability. It continues to draw me in with its theme and keeps me coming back for more with its subtle complexity. I don’t own any of the expansions, nor have I ever felt the need to get them, this game feels complete on its own– so if you are starting out on your journey to terraform Mars, rest easy in the knowledge that this is a game you can play a LOT at no extra cost! ---- So that’s it, my top three – carefully selected and played many, many times to be sure. I know these games like the back of my hand and yet I can’t see me tiring of them anytime soon. Thank you to Jim who allowed me the opportunity to share here. I hope you have enjoyed ‘My Top 3’, what would yours be? B

Blue Cocker games are mainly known for the hugely successful Welcome To series of flip and write games which I featured here in this article about games great for playing over video call. If you haven’t tried these games yet, I would highly recommend them! Welcome to is great in most scenarios; solo, video call or large groups. It is brilliant fun to play and is the example I always use for the perfect scale game. It works just as well in any player count, one to one hundred! There is a great catalogue of other games published by Blue Cocker and I wanted to cast my eyes them all and list my top three games. Blue Cocker looks for games with a high “natural gameplay”, which I would say is heavily present in all the games of theirs that I have played. So, without further ado, here is my top three Blue Cocker games! Save The Meeples 2-4 Players. Officially 10 years and up but worked for me with my eight-year-old. Save The Meeples is an intriguing game. First up, it looks quite different to many other games you may have seen or played before. It quickly fills a table of medium size, but there is no board. The mix of trains, tracks, rocket ships and 3D landscapes are both enticing and stunning to look at. All set up, this game will certainly draw people in! As it did for me when I first saw this at Essen 2019, where crowds of people gathered to see what was going on. Based on looks alone, I was left very excited to play this game. Secondly, despite there being no main central board, this game is predominantly a worker placement game. There are very few games that utilise worker placement as its core mechanism when there is no main shared board present to facilitate this. In Save The Meeples, there are four mini boards where you can place your workers for certain actions, but it doesn’t feel like four boards. More like four destinations. The separation of the boards into four different physically locations on the table adds to this. To get to these destinations, the Meeples are placed onto trains in an action queue mechanic. Setting up the order in which the actions can be implemented at each location. This mix of action queue and separate location-based boards makes the entire process feel much more like an immersive experience over a process of game turns. The addition of a ‘journey’ to get your Meeples to their place of action, over simply placing them down on a space on a board, pulls you into the world this game sets out to create. It sounds simple, but it really does work thematically. And finally, this game feels intriguing from the unique perspective the game presents. You are playing as Meeples. Not with Meeples, but AS Meeples. Trying to escape the torment that us humans have put on them in various games over time! The Meeples have been enslaved by the human race in order to facilitate certain actions in games, and they are fed up! Do you feel suitable guilty!? You should! The Meeples want to return to their home planet and the freedom this will bring them. This meta idea alone is fascinating to me. I was instantaneously and whole-heartedly drawn into this world. The humans immerging from the forest quickly become the ‘baddies,’ and my escape route on the rockets was ‘my’ dream. It’s a captivating, original and most importantly, highly immersive theme. In the game, you are working towards two potential end game scenarios. Either the humans over run you and your fellow Meeples meaning you will score points based on the number of humans you were able to defeat and capture during the game. Or you will escape to your home planet launching a certain number of rocket ships triggering the end of the game, and the winner is determined by the amount of Meeples you managed to get onto the rockets. In both scenarios, the point gained from the other facet become worthless. As in, if the number of rockets triggers the end of the game, the humans captured become worthless. Likewise, if the humans overrun the forest ending the game that way, then the Meeples that escaped become worthless. This is another intriguing part of the game where you need to watch your opponent’s moves and try and judge which end game scenario they are favouring and working towards. There is no point capturing more humans if your opponent is about to end the game by launching the final rocket. Every part of the game is cleverly inter-connected. The mechanisms of each location are all intrinsically linked in a way that adds both to the theme and fun on offer. In order to build the rocket, you of course need to build it first. To build it you need the parts. In order to get the parts you need to visit the mine. But once the Rocket is built, it still needs to be launched and of course, for you to benefit, have your crew onboard. It feels very intuitive to play, as you puzzle out the best order and manner to get your Meeples to work for you. Deciding what to do, in which order to do it, all the time whilst watching what your opponents is a very enjoyable process. In an ironic twist of fate against the games theme, the Meeples essentially are involved in “one last job,” working for the human overlords (you!) to get away from the humans looking to play with them! If this paradox hasn’t blown your mind, then you are going to have a lot of fun! I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys worker placement games and is looking for something a little lighter and more family friendly than many other worker placement games on the market. The games offers a theme that doesn’t take itself too seriously yet offers an immersive experience. As much as this is a mid-weight game in terms of the rules and set-up, (which does take a while) the game itself is relatively straight forward, as most worker placement games are. But it pulls you in and you will be surprised at how invested you are, quickly doing all you can to defeat those pesky humans! ARGH 2-4 Players. Officially 8 years and up but worked for me with my five-year-old. Continuing the theme of pesky humans, ARGH, which stands for “Animals Revolt aGainst Humans,” is a hilarious family friendly card game, pitting animals up against their human overlords! ARGH can be set-up, learnt and taught within minutes. It offers a fast, fun and quite unique game experience suitable for younger children and adults alike. And if your family is anything like mine, will lead to a lot of laughter, screams and most pleasingly, pleas of “Can we play one more time please?” The game is simple. You play as revolting animals. In that they are fighting against the status quo, not unappealing! Having been held captive in laboratories, you join forces with a lab rat looking to blow up the human’s domain! Set-up is simple. There are three decks, easily identified from the colour on the reverse of each card. Shuffle each one and lay them out face down. Players then take it in turns to take a card to add to their collection or offer to another player. Keep the card and place it face down in front of you. But face down cards are always open to be stolen by other players! Cards offer either positive or negative effects. This is why you wouldn’t necessarily want to keep every card you draw or indeed, are offered by another player! When you offer a card to another player, they must chose to keep or return it without looking at it first. If they return the card, you can then keep the card face up, meaning it cannot ever be stollen. If they look at it, they must then keep it, again, face up. And herein lies the genius of the game. Why would you offer someone a good card? Well, in the hope they think it is a bad one and reject the offer. You now get to keep it face up and protected for the remainder of the game. But this choice is not simple for the person you offer the card too. What if it is a bad card? Maybe they think you are trying to get rid of it and don’t want to take the risk of accepting the offer. “Why is this person smiling at me as they hand me a card? Why am I now smiling? Why are we both now hysterically laughing? Nothing has happened!!” The game very quickly becomes all about the hilarious interactions between players. Stare outs. Fits of giggles. Bluffs, double bluffs and triples bluffs! The game brings so much to the table from so little components, words or rules. In order to win the game, you simply need to have two bomb cards face up in front of you or in your possession come the end of the game if this doesn’t happen. The end game is triggered when one of the piles runs out, but we play when all the piles are gone to make it longer as we are always having so much fun! Each pile starts with one bomb card in it, but before the games begins, one random card is blindly removed from each pile. So, it may be you are all chasing bombs that are not there! As such, if none of the players manages to get hold of two bomb cards, the winner is determined by the points acquired by the other cards in their possession. Any face down card can be stolen by other players. On their turn, players can choose to take a card from the central draw piles or other players face down cards. But of course, they may not be good cards. They may have been looked at and placed there as a bluff too. The bluffs don’t only come in what is offered to you, but in what is never offered to anyone! This works just as well with adults as a late-night filler. It may be met with scepticism to start with due to the simple nature of the rules and cartoonish style of art, but once you get playing, you realise there is a whole sub game of bluffing and tricking your friends akin to many other popular party games. This is great fun family card game and an entertaining and hilarious adult party game all in one! Rest in Peace 2 players. 8 and up. Rest in Peace is a lovely little box two-player only production that brings some interesting mechanisms into play. Mixing auction bidding, set collection and elements of a race game, this clever little game packs a lot more than first meets the eye. In Rest in Peace, players are competing as one of two families of ghosts, competing to control the most majestic and sort after mansions and castles across the land. Control four manors or three castles and you will win the game. At the start of play, nine of the available psychic cards are randomly delt in a line. I say available, as there are 29 nine included with the game, and there are nine starter ones to use as you learn the game, and 20 others made available to you later as you learn the game. A mansion or castle token will be placed in each of the cards, and each player is given their deck, shuffles it and draws 5 cards. The decks are made up of ghost cards of different numerical values. On each player’s turns, you will lay a card next to a psychic card in an attempt to win that token. The player who commits the highest amount of ghost cards to it wins. How much are you willing to commit to each card in order to win it. Your deck will become exhausted if you are not too careful, so there is some strategy here. The loser doesn’t go empty handed though, they get the psychic card as compensation. The psychic cards can later be used in subsequent rounds, giving players many different powers. Being able to look at their opponents’ hand, boost their scores, copy other cards or even switch unclaimed tokens around of later psychic cards. The game creates a delicate and perfectly balanced tug-of-war as players compete to be the first with either four manors or three castles. On occasions you will bow out of a round without even playing a card, letting your opponent take the token happily. Other times you fight tooth and nail to win, perhaps even both exhausting all your available cards and powers. There is a tension and sense of competition here that is pure and unadulterated two-player gold! As both players start with identical hands, but are drawing them randomly, there is some luck to be said in the early rounds but the catch-up mechanism works well. As the loser on each round gets the psychic card, if you win some of the early mansion tokens, you may climb ahead in the game. But your opponent will become more powerful than you, due not only to the psychic cards that they win, but also the cards they are not having to play from their hand to win! As players enter the middle and later rounds, often the player in second place draws back the score s their dominance from having more powerful cards shines through. Quite often making this game have a close and tight finish. The variety with the 29 psychic cards keeps this game fresh. I like how the game brings these in batches. Instead of randomly drawing 9 from 29 each game, the cards are grouped into sets. The starter set and then four other groups. I like to play the game in a campaign style of five games. Each time with a different group of psychic cards. I am surprised the game doesn’t have this as a suggested campaign style best of five in the rules but it is easily done. I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a simple two-player game that is light on rules, but still brings a fun and tense experience.

by @favouritefoe Venice came alive for me on 25 March 2021. 1600 years after the city was first founded, and almost a year to the day that we were due to have arrived in La Serenissima ourselves. But with the Pandemic changing everything, our own travel plans to visit the sights and smells of the Floating City (and other places) were unavoidably cancelled. I have no doubt that we will resume our plans to tour the waterways one day. But for now, I can cruise the canals courtesy of designers David Turczi and Andrei Novac, and publisher Braincrack Games through their latest Eurogame release, Venice. Queen’s Gambit Gearing Up! Before I begin, however, I think I had better give a little more context to this piece, as it is not a straightforward review. You see, anybody who knows me will be acutely aware that I am extremely patience-challenged. Waiting is not my natural state. Shop queues, traffic jams, even being processed through the IKEA showroom; the glacial crawl is just too much (or too little!) for me. Good news, bad news. It doesn’t matter. I just need to know now. I need to react and I need to act. Time waits for no woman, and I am never in the mood to see-what-happens. And so, a week prior to its official retail launch, I downloaded the rules for Venice. Looking up at my ceiling at midnight whilst lying in my pillow palace (the only time I allow myself the luxury of going horizontal), I tuned out the rhythmic snoring of my Bearded Moon bed-fellow and dived in! Ignoring the complete lack of actual components to parse, I just wanted to skip over the wait and start playing. And with the entire 12am – 5am slot available to me and my imagination, I doffed my merchant garb and (along with two other make-believe mongers) went paddling, stalling, racing, and sailing around the imaginary board. Over the next few hours, I worked my way up and down the narrow canals, collecting goods, activating assistants, and completing missions along my way. I won, of course 😉 If you haven’t already, you can read my Queen’s Gambit inspired experience in full here, and, having now played the actual game with Bearded Moon and our brilliant bubble sharing mother-in-law, I feel like many of my preliminary predictions were pretty on ponte. Gondoliering Gameplay! Without doubt Venice is a beautiful pick up and deliver game weaving together other big mechanics in the form of resource management and engine building. It also dangles the possibility of linking multiple actions/bonuses together in one turn which is not always the case in this type of game (and one of the reasons why pick up and deliver isn’t often my favourite mechanic). And for me, knowing that there are ways to earn even a little bit more money that will let me sail around the board faster, hitting up more buildings, activating more assistants and their bonuses, and achieving more missions as the game progresses makes it feel like there is always the potential for something interesting or different to be done in this game. Having played other pick up and deliver titles before Venice, this chaining is now a sought-after element for me going forwards. Whilst it is true of course that, in all games of this type, you are going to need to use your first few turns stock-piling as no engine runs on empty – even gondolas need their boatmen and their oars! But the potential to ratchet up a number of points and bonuses through linked actions in a single turn definitely makes Venice feels less like a simply “going through the motions” move-pick-move-drop-sell-move game than many of my other experiences. Golden Gondolas! Speaking of which, going around the board in two gondolas can be an expensive business (especially if you don’t want to swap over - continuing your ride in one will cost you 3 coins!). But getting your lengths in is the way we found that we were best able to get our assistants out on the board (remembering that the first to get all 10 out gains an 8 point bonus!), to accumulate the goods needed to really start cranking our engines, and therefore to pay for those missions that rewarded our financial sacrifices multiple times over. And some missions did, over and over again! Which was brilliant especially when they resulted in more coinage. (Beware, however, because if you go for the upgraded metal, stackable coins, you can lose hours just staring at the beautiful things!) If you’re not into hard graft, when the opportunity arises, you can also build a bridge which will automatically gain you one coin every time you sail under it. And conversely slap your opponent with an intrigue every time they have to do the same – as Mark Knopfler once famously didn’t sing; money for nothing, intrigue for free! In each of our first two plays, I admit that I was initially too scared of intrigue – projecting too far ahead to the end-game scenario where I could be arrested and prevented from winning for being too much of a gossiping Gertie. I focused on avoiding this for more of the early play than I should have, and it cost me dearly in the end. But there are ways to lose intrigue and it is only really towards the final stages where you can and should start thinking about zipping your lip. Using what is on the board (like mooring at the Minor Council or the Church for example which reduce intrigue, or choosing an action that will gain you scrolls) to wipe your indiscretions away is a better strategy than being a fraidy-cat because early on intrigue is actually quite useful. Especially when visiting the Major Council which rewards you if you have more intrigue than other players and allows you to move along the track for possible huge end game points – those curious council folk love to know the 411! Even bargaining your way out of jelly-gum jail is a possibility at the end if you have enough coins and scrolls to pay the price! Final Thoughts There are a number of elements in Venice which I really like (and not just those very cool floating gondolas!). Having different buildings coming up on each game means that no single strategy is ever going to work. This is because the actions which the assistants can do (and will advance onto) are always going to change in the game-scenario, and therefore so are your preferred routes around the board. With more plays, I know we will become more familiar with the “best” ones and so the race will be on to get to them as and when they shuffle into the set up. But the overall collection is always likely to feel quite fresh. Similarly, I love missions. In anything. Give me a goal or a purpose and I will laser in on it. I will do it. No matter what. In fact I think these are what I enjoy the most about Venice – working my way to a connected building, paying the price, and tucking the completed mission card under my board. The coins and points for doing it are almost irrelevant to my enjoyment (although not my end score!); the real satisfaction comes from knowing that I have connected certain steps together to achieve the objective itself. I also like the influence cards but, hey, who doesn’t like something for free?! However, at the time I rode around in my ghost-gondola, I think my brain oversimplified or at least underestimated some aspects of the gameplay which felt more fiddly or involved once factoring in other players and in-game interactions. Our initial plays were long and that was in part because we kept losing track of all the things we could and should be doing on each turn. And that compounded the time-element. I think we sort of lost focus on the big picture, in part because I for one wasn’t concentrating enough on what I needed to do in order to actually win overall, but also because there is a lot of options generally. The board is also quite busy – especially when gondolas are vying for the same spots – and my hand issues meant I knocked my boat and my opponent’s boats over numerous times, scattering little cubes everywhere. Something which I think has also happened to others when playing at higher player counts. A little more space would have therefore been appreciated to make things less fiddly. But on the flip side, that lack of oar-room also felt quite realistic – the tight waterways and boatmen having to bump and squeeze past each other in order to continue their journeys. And this is going to sound very silly indeed, but as well as having a tactical purpose, just the action of being able to offload goods from one gondola to another as my ships passed within a hair of each other in the day (or night!) made me smile. The versatility of Venice is also not to be ignored as it is a welcome element– with the solo Doge automa and the 2 player Smugglers rule set (which promises the tension many pick up and deliver games often lack at power player counts) to try when my very accommodating mother-in-law is busy, there are a number of ways to play this game which I haven’t yet tried and could resolve some of the minor issues I have and which are probably in truth more about me and my gaming style than the game. Going, Going, Gondola! Ultimately, I have a feeling that my imaginary ceiling playthrough was probably conveniently perfected in places by my willingness to skip over a few details, preferring to think that some things would just work when it came to the real thing (basically completely ignoring the rule goofs/missteps I would actually make in real life). In truth, the limitations of my cerebral and mechanical processing power have been exposed by the steeper than expected learning curve in Venice but we will play, and we will practice scenarios, and I will improve. This is of course not to say that Venice was not what I was anticipating – it is indeed a beautiful pick up and deliver game which twists as nicely as a Venetian palazzo pole. But it is perhaps also more game than I had initially expected or needed. Left to explore the waterways unrestricted, I can get lost which is a little frustrating for a fast-laner like me. And so Venice has become one over which I initially need to pump my internal brakes. One I need to understand better so that I can then select what I am going to focus on in a particular game in order to get me (hopefully!) to first place at end game in a timely fashion. And therein lies my main personal hurdle in Venice. In order to take full advantage of the momentum boosting assistants (which set this game apart from a lot of other pick up and deliver titles), I need to know it. I need to know which buildings to target, which actions to chain, whether to drop some elements entirely, and how much intrigue to handle. Because, by implementing your knowledge, your turn set-ups and hard work pay off in satisfying, visible ways. But it takes time to learn these things and, as such, those first handful of playthroughs are going to be slower than ideal. And this could risk you seeking a similar appetite-quenching feeling in a shorter, less open game. However, I would suggest bearing with early trips around Venice because, once firing on all cylinders, if you like pick up and deliver games then it is a worthy investment in time and experience.

by @exploring_boardgames Picking my 3 favorite games was not an easy task and it is probably a question that most gamers find hard/impossible to answer. I did suffer from the dreaded analysis paralysis trying to make my selection. Finally, I decided on those games that I will never say no to. The following 3 games always bring me joy when they get played. 3. Deus – Pearl Games This game came to my attention after discovering Troyes and checking out the publisher. In this game, you start with 5 cards in your hand, and you try to build your civilization (6 different building types) on a common game board. To build, you must have the building type, you must be able to pay the resources required and you must have the right card. If you meet these conditions, you can place the building on the common game board and place the card in the corresponding column in your personal game area. Finally, you activate all the cards of that column which can create some fantastic engine building possibilities! One tricky part, you can only build a temple if you have a set of the other 5 buildings. Each temple awards victory points for different scenarios so you want to keep that in mind when selecting your strategy. To get more cards, you must make an offering to the gods. Each god will allow a different benefit such as resources, money, or victory points. The more cards you offer, the more additional benefits you get. This act allows you to obtain new cards, but also to get what you need if it is not available in your little engine. This game has some unique features, and it is easy to learn and quick to play. Therefore, this is a game that should be known and played by more people! 2. Gùgōng – GameBrewer In this game, you take on the role of a Chinese family, trying to gain influence with the Emperor by bribing officials for certain tasks. This is done by exchanging gifts and that is exactly the core mechanism of the game. You exchange gift cards with higher value to take a specific action. You want to have the most victory points by the end of the game and you can get those from 7 different areas on the game board. But be careful – you need to get to the top of the Palace of Heavenly Purity track to gain an audience with the Emperor or none of your points will be scored. It gives the game a nice twist as you must keep an eye on this track whilst trying to maximize all the other areas of the board. Once you understand the different actions, the game plays very easily and there are so many strategies to be tried out. Furthermore, I love the artwork of the main gameboard, and the different tokens used. This game deserves more attention! 1. Paladins of the West Kingdom – Garphill Games This game was the first one I played in the West Kingdom Trilogy and I fell in love immediately. I have all 3 games in the series, and I am truly impressed by the consistency of the symbology and artwork, and still each game feels different. In Paladins, you hire 1 paladin at the start of each round out of 3 options, and you place 1 on the top of your drawing deck and 1 on the bottom. Each paladin will grant you 2 workers and a special ability. You also get 4 more workers from the tavern to help you with your actions. So, you do not have your personal workers at the start of the game, rather they change every round. Workers have as well different colors, allowing you to take distinct actions. It is a unique challenge to balance the color and number of the workers with the actions available and trying to maximize it all to gain the most victory points. Furthermore, actions are linked to your level of faith, strength, and influence. Sounds complicated? A bit, but once you get your head around the gameplay, it is fantastic. Go try it out if you haven’t played yet!

I love print and play games. The world it opens up is huge! Way more impressive than you may think. And a whole sub-culture of board gaming. What you can create with just a few simple tools will amaze you. I spoke with a few people within the industry to learn a little more. Aleksandar got into to games from a young age and has now become a huge fan and advocate for the PnP world. This interview was conducted in 2020. What got you into the hobby as a player I played games even as a kid. Here in East Europe in 1980s, some boardgames occasionally found its way into youth magazines, and that is where I met them first. During university years, back in 1990s we played a lot of DnD, and later I was introduced to Warhammer. Warhammer was to much for me, and as introvert I preferred to play solo at my own speed, so I started investigating other solo wargames and RPGs. During this quest for solo games I learned about solo boardgames (it was only Friday and Onirim at the time) but I stayed in solo boardgaming until today. And how did that lead into PnP? It all started with paper terrain for wargames. Then it occurred to me that I can make complete games like that. and then I discovered that there is a whole PnP scene. I am proud to be part of it now. Print and play opens up games to new players but the revenue stream is very differnet to normal publishing. What are your thoughts on this? For me, gaming was always a hobby. I do not like to mix my hobby with my day job. My day job provides for my family and for my hobby, both. Therefore the games I make are usually free. The one that is not, directs funds towards the artist, not me. As player, I built a lot of PnP versions of commercial games. But I do not think that designers who give PnP games for free or sell PnP files for smaller amounts of money are having losses due to this. If a person who made a PnP version of a game likes it, they will promote it on the net constantly. Giving PnP for free is a marketing investment. Some designers (like Cole Wehrle - Root, Pax Pamir) understand this and offer free PnP versions of their games. How do you feel when people have made one if your games at home? One always feels proud when something he/she makes reaches the hart of some other human being. Every built copy pushes me further, makes me think about the next project. Without feedback, there would be very few things to push us forward to make new games. What do you see in the future. What’s next for you? 2020 Solitaire BGG design PnP competition is just around the corner. I hope to throw in my 2 cents again this year. If you could have any other game not made by you in your rosta of designed games what would it be and why? At the moment, I am playing a lot of Pax Porforiana and Pax Pamir. I wish I designed one Pax game. I might even do that - my entry into 2020 Solitaire PnP competition might be something called Pax Napoleonic. Which other designer would you most like to have a games night with and why? Cole Wehrle at the moment. I love both Root and Pax Pamir, and I would discuss with him about his design processes. Thanks Aleksandar. There are some amaizng facebook groups for PnP, and I will be featuring more information about this world on this blog over the coming months.

I love print and play games. The world it opens up is huge! Way more impressive than you may think. And a whole sub-culture of board gaming. What you can create with just a few simple tools will amaze you. I spoke with a few people within the industry to learn a little more. Tovarich has been designing games since a child! It was a joy to talk with him about this beautiful world. First up could you talk a bit about your background in designing games? Although I have no memory of this, my parents claim that I was designing games as far back as when I could first hold a crayon, as I made my own cards to insert into the family copy of CandyLand. I’ve been a kit basher, making unofficial expansions for games that I love, pretty much forever. Most notably I was part of a group of rabid fans for the cult classic Star Wars Epic Duels, which was really where I sort of honed my skill as a designer, getting experience with playtesting and iteration. After doing that for years, I suddenly asked myself why I hadn’t been doing any work on my OWN games, and the family card game Spy Guys (now sadly out of print) was the result. I’ve also dabbled a bit here and there, most recently creating additional cards for the fan-made Star Wars retheme of Marvel Legendary. Awesome! What got you into the hobby as a player I literally don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t playing games. I would play such “classics” as Monopoly and Clue with anyone who would sit still long enough, slowly working my way up to more complex fair. I was paying Car Wars and BattleTech before I left middle school, and it just kept going from there. What are your thoughts on how PnP can help bring new games to new players and how it affects the industry financially? Print and play isn’t actually cheaper for the consumer, in many cases. I mean if you just want to print of a couple custom cards to throw into sleeves to expand a favorite game that’s one thing, but to produce a professional looking, sturdy copy of a game that will stand up to many plays takes time, effort, and more than a bit of specialized equipment. It’s a fun hobby but it’s got a learning curve like any other, and in the long run it’s far from free - you’re just spreading the cost out as you go instead of paying all at once, like you would with a commercial game. Now with that said - I’ve been somewhat astonished by the reaction of the game publisher community to the pandemic and lockdown the world is currently facing. Over 100 games or expansions have been released by publishers as print and play files in light of the catastrophe, and I don’t really think there’s a precedent for that in the history of the industry. I’m really curious to see the long term ramifications this has on gamer behavior. As far as income is concerned...let’s be honest. There are maybe 6 people in the world who are able to make a living JUST as a game designer. No one does this just for money. I don’t even think my royalties on Spy Guys covered the cost of producing the prototypes. Ultimately I make the games and expansions that I want to play, and hope other people want to play them to. Granted I’ve got a pretty good day job, but at the end of the day I’m not in this for the money. How do you feel when people have made one if your games at home? All of the confirmed printings that I’ve had are of things that I’ve specifically built as a part of a community response to expand a favorite game, which makes it feel really personally good. Partly because it’s affirmation that I was able to tap into and expand the original zeitgeist of the game that brought us together, and partly because I consider game design to be art, and the greatest enemy of art isn’t lack of quality - the greatest enemy of art is obscurity. To be played and hated is still better than to not be played at all. Wise words! What do you see in the future. What’s next for you? # I’m at something of a crossroads just at the moment. I developed a sequel to Spy Guys that I’m pretty happy with, but I just did a major interstate move, and just when I was about to gear up to start pitching it, covid-19 happened. I’m actually considering releasing it print and play, but I’d need to find a graphic designer to help me get everything ship shape first - I’m a designer, not a publisher, and I don’t have those skills. I also need to find a new community to bounce ideas off and playtest with. If you could have any other game not made by you in your rosta of designed games what would it be and why? It’s a card game called The Agents, that I received blind in a math trade at a convention and absolutely fell in love with. Every Agent card you play in the Agents will give you either an ability or a scoring opportunity - and give one of your opponents whichever half you don’t take, but you then have a secret hand of Missions that might allow you to score big bonuses based on the board position, which would allow you to capitalize on giving your opponent a seeming advantage. It’s an incredibly tense design and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Which other designer would you most like to have a games night with and why? There's a great group of designers in the LA area that I spent almost a decade hanging out and testing games with. I'd love, LOVE to be able to round them all up for a game day, if for no other reason than the diverse personalities in play would mean a lot of different KIND of games to play! :) From an admiration standpoint, there's really no one designer I consider to be a mentor or guru - I find something to love about the design of every game I like, and I'm very eclectic about who I steal from...I mean, from whom I take inspiration. :) Thanks Tovarich. There are some amaizng facebook groups for PnP, and I will be featuring more information about this world on this blog over the coming months.

I love print and play games. The world it opens up is huge! Way more impressive than you may think. And a whole sub-culture of board gaming. What you can create with just a few simple tools will amaze you. I spoke with a few people within the industry to learn a little more. Giang has been involvedin the PnP scene for a long time and I was keen to find out what it was that first interested them in this amazing world! I'm a crafting veteran but a novice in hardware (things like printer and such). My list of made games has gone way over twenty by now, including both big or small builds What got you into the hobby as a player? My group of friends started playing light card games like Exploding Kittens and Uno. Then we started playing Shadow Hunters, and we kept on playing it for months! I started to get sick of it and wanted to find new games to introduce to my folks. Now we're actually playing a new game every game night! If I could build the new games in time! Print and play opens up games to so many more people like this but doesn’t help with the income for the industry so much! What are your thoughts on this? Well, it actually depends on the target of audience that you're leaning into. If a company targets the avid or casual gamer then obviously PnP wouldn't be a good choice. However, there are quite a handful of nerds like us that are much more willing to purchase a cheaper, more affordable PnP version rather than a whole big box. It's shipping friendly too, because my region (and I believe many others) has lots of problem with all the shipping shenanigans. Very true! How do you feel when people have made one if your games at home? Obviously great, if I am actually distributing the pnp version officially. Other than that, to each their own, if one managed to get their hands on the files without paying anything, they deserved it (haha). I wouldn't really mind because I know once something is on the internet, there will be always be people that can get it free. What do you see in the future. What’s next for you? I'm hoping that pnp games will become more widely known. Many people I meet still think that PnP games are not right. And that people get by to play the game without paying the real price. There are real games that are made for the purpose of to be print and play games! If you could have any other game not made by you in your rosta of designed games what would it be and why? Gloomhaven. Or Mage Knight. Love the genre, never got to try them out. Which other designer would you most like to have a games night with and why? Honestly I've never thought about it. Maybe the couple that made Afternova, Jeff Chin and Andrew Nerger :) Thanks Giang. There are some amaizng facebook groups for PnP, and I will be featuring more information about this world on this blog over the coming months.

by Alex Eugenio @gamergriffson Hello everyone! My name is Alex, and I am so excited to share my Top 3 games with you! Bear in mind I just got into the hobby maybe two years ago? So, take my top three list with a grain of salt. I think the hardest thing about making a Top 3 list is that my favorites are always changing. It usually boils down to the current game I am playing but these three are games I will always come back to! Clank! I couldn’t not add a deck-builder to my list of top games. Dominion was my gateway game so naturally I gravitated to Clank! and I have a deep love for deck-builders. This game, to me, is just pure FUN. The theme alone just screams adventure, and you can’t help but get excited the moment you enter the dungeon. The way the cards integrate with the artifacts and movement on the board is just so well done. It perfectly combines strategy and heart-racing mechanics. Is that a real mechanic? It is now! And I appreciate a game that has me sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time. This is that game that I will always suggest bringing to the table whether you have experienced gamers around or not. To me, the fact that everyone at different gaming levels can enjoy this game speaks to how great it is. Inviting me over for a game night? I’m bringing my buddy, Clank! Terraforming Mars Terraforming Mars is the most played game in our household! I am a sucker for anything space-themed so that alone was a win for me already. In Terraforming Mars, you’re playing as a corporation that seeks to raise the global parameters on Mars so that it is habitable. You do so by drafting and playing cards that manipulate your personal tableau of abilities. This lets you place certain tiles that increase oxygen, raise the temperature or discover ocean areas. When I first played this game, I was impressed by how fun it turned out to be. Each global parameter you raise earns you a point and while it may not seem like a directly competitive game, the parameters max out at a certain point. So, basically, it’s a race to get those points first! Who doesn’t love a good ‘ol fashion race? I love how the cards and components integrate with each other wherein your components/tiles on the board are a physical depiction of the strategy behind the cards you play. You can see the effects of your cards in real time and to slowly watch Mars become terraformed is so enjoyable! This is a much longer gameplay than Clank! but I will never turn down a game. Lisboa I have no business liking this game. It involves every mechanic I am terrible at: economy, tile placement, city building, politics, etc. But, in fact, I LOVE IT! So much so that this is for sure my favorite game in our collection. It just hits all the marks for me- everything from the theme, gameplay, components to complexity. I love that the theme is so personal to Vital Lacerda deriving from an actual event in history in his hometown in the 1700s- destruction of a city after an 8.5-9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and three days of fires. The artwork from Ian O’Toole is just top notch (as always) and the detail of each component is astounding. There was never a time during gameplay where I thought to myself, “I wish this did this,” “I wish you could do this,” or “I like this game BUT…” To me, that’s a sign of a- dare I say it- near perfect game. A bold statement, I know, but remember when I said take my opinions with a grain of salt? :) Nonetheless, even if this is not the perfect game for you, it is so worth giving a shot and strong consideration for a space in your collection.

Dive WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 1–4 You’ll like this if you like: Port Royal, Colt Express, Tiny Epic Mechs. Published by: Sit Down! Designed by: Romain Caterdjian, Anthony Perone Dive is a beautiful production. Let’s make this very clear from the off. It looks beautiful. The effort that has gone into the manufacturing of this game is stunning. Both in terms of originality and quality. It looks stunning set up, and all works very much within the theme of the game. This is not style over substance. Dive is set in the beautiful world of the Windbark. A beautiful remote island beyond the last continent, where diving is an ancestral tradition. During the summer solstice, divers compete to see who can navigate the shark infested waters and dive into the depths to retrieve the sacred stone of the village and become the town hero. Players will compete to analyse and in truth, guess what creatures will appear as they dive deeper in a mechanism new to me, but one that offered a lot of entertainment for my family. Simultaneous, Pre-Programmed, Push-Your-Luck! What would technically be described as simultaneous, pre-programed, push-your-luck movement, Dive employs clear plastic sheets that represent each layer of the ocean. Players look into the depths and try to assess where Sharks will or will not appear. Layered as they are, these sheets create a confusing cacophony of images. Making it very hard to predict what will appear where. Some of the sheets have holes cut in them, creating illusions of depth that can confuse players. With the thickness of the ocean cards, the slight blue hue, and the sheer number of them, making predictions can be somewhat haphazard. There are also many other creatures and plant life on the cards which have no affect on the game, other than creating more confusion. Mechanically this may not be new, but this is something I have not see on a gaming table before. And it’s barrels of fun! Each round, all players will place five tokens on their dive board. Simply trying to assess if a shark will or will not be present at each level of the dive. The tokens are numbered one to five. On the levels where there are no sharks present players can get bonuses if they predict correctly. If more than one player correctly guesses that no sharks will be there, and there are also one of the three helpful animals present, the player who played the highest number gains that animals assistance. The Red Sea Turtle will help you dive down two more spaces. The Green Sea Turtle will swoop you down one spot. And the Manta will help you catch up with the next player ahead of you, as in, you catch up to the next player deeper than you, if there is one. After each round, players move down the same number of spots on the score tracker for each correctly guessed level. If you guessed wrong on any level, that is your dive over! It is harder than it looks to guess where the sharks are. It feels like it should be easier. But it just isn’t. But it is certainly fun to try and guess. There are a lot of “Oh no!” and “Yeah” moments as each ocean card is lifted to reveal exactly what was on it after all. Race you to the bottom? This is a race game in truth. The first player to reach a 23 on the score tracker wins. This typically takes between 15-30 minutes, depending on how well each player assesses the ocean. As this is somewhat guesswork, the game could outstay its welcome if much longer. You may feel this game isn’t for you were it a 45 minute plus game. Getting your predictions wrong over-and-over can be frustrating. But in this light family game, played in under half an hour it works well. There are lighter rules for younger players where making a mistake in your predictions doesn’t stop your dive. And there are companions to add to the game if you want some diversity. The companions offer a lot of different options. Players can choose one of the seven extra animals to play with and they all feel quite different. From the Anglerfish who offers you the chance to dive down one further level on your turn, to the Giant Octopus which can be placed on the Ocean tiles obscuring the view of all players for what may be lurking underneath, each companion adds a nice subtle asymmetry to the game. A family favourite in this house was the Fugu which is available with all pre-orders from Sit Downs website as one of three bonus companions. When you play with the Fugu, all players are given the length of time that they can hold their breath to programme their tiles! This is a hilarious rule that has become a must have addition to every game we now play! Style and Substance If this game was set-up on your table at home, I would suggest it highly likely your kids would put down whatever they were doing and come and ask to play! Games like this serve a purpose. Their attraction comes less from their complex gameplay and strategies, and more from their unique visual appeal and table presence. This can be a good thing. More games should consider this for this age bracket. Games that are fun to play with your family are important. Once everyone has understood the rules and played a game few times, a good game should make people want to play it often. But to overcome that initial hesitation or intimidation of learning new rules, some games should be appealing right out the box. Having something as beautiful as Dive to draw your children in, cannot hurt. Many great games can discourage people from wanting to play them as they look complicated or dull. Conversely, many dull games can attract players to them as they look fun or original only to then disappoint. Dive has the best of both words. It is a Dolphin mixed with an Anglerfish. Sure, it looks light and fun to play with. But it also draws its prey close ready to pounce! Not letting go when it get a chance to play with it!

Free Market NYC WBG Score: 6/10 Player Count: 2-5 players You’ll like this if you like: Clans of Caledonia, Stockpile, Century Spice Road Published by: Unique Board Games LTD (UBG) Designed by: Izik Nevo A Free Market in New York? Seems unlikely! But it does exist in Board game form at least. You may have missed this one from Unique Board Games. Released in 2020, this game has flown well under the radar for a few reasons I expect. But I am going to park all pre-conceptions and just talk about the game itself. Which is really rather good. At its core. Free Market NYC is worker placement game with an interesting commodity speculation and action queue mechanic. And also with auction style nodding and area control! But we will come to that! You are playing as a business leader in the middle of the American great depression. Doing all you can to bring in trade and commerce to your home city. Make the most bucks and win the game! The era and city does not really shine through in the game, but the sense of business does. You feel close to the prices of goods and the moving markets. The feeling of building your economy is strong throughout and keeps your focus and attention. Its fun to try and beat the system. Buy low. Sell high. And this is all done in a very familiar ‘gamer-friendly’ way. Imagine playing Century Spice Road but being able to buy and sell the cubes. And the prices fluctuate throughout the game. Step-by-Step! At first glance, this game does appear quite complicated. The rule book and board look busy and intimidating to new players. But it can be learnt relatively quickly, an hour I would say. And taught in twenties minutes or so. It feels a lot at first to learn as there are 17 steps in each round. But this isn’t really the case. The first four steps are quick and more mechanical; more set-up in truth. And two of which you miss in round one anyway. And then the 13 steps after, well you can only choose to do three of these. So, in round one there are only five steps. There are a lot of available phases sure, but not a lot of things to do. Just a lot of choice. The rule book does not convey this clearly so it may seem intimidating and laborious if you assume as I did you need to go through 17 phases each round, but you don’t. I thought it important to clarify this. Like any worker placement game, this is what makes the game fun. You want to have choices and feel your selections make a significant difference to your overall success in the game. The strategies you employ should genuinely influence your game. So, in most worker placements you have a lot of choices. Just like this game. But usually, it is a map with multiple locations and you place your worker based on what you want to do. In Free Market, it is a line of actions you go through from left to right in a linear manner. This makes it feel more mechanic and perhaps less appealing. But this is just a assumption, not an actual feeling when you play. It looks complicated. It is less visually appealing than what most are used too. But it’s essentially the same thing as many other work placement games, just with more structure. I mention this as I think this is one major reason the game may not have been seen by as many people yet. If this was a more attractive modern looking board, and perhaps from a larger more well known publisher, I am confident this game would have sold a lot of copies. It doesn’t do the game any favours selling itself in this way. But if you can look past that and judge this game by its workings and not its cover, you may find a diamond in the rough. Substance over style! I appreciate aesthetics are a core part of the modern board game industry. But I bet you have a few games in your collection you would rate higher in terms on looks that actual gameplay? I know I do. Well, this is one I would suggest is the opposite. And that is fine for me. Style over substance can be disappointing. Substance over style can be rather joyful! As you move through the 17 stages of each round, one player will place a large blue meeple on each space to signify which phase is active. Each payer in order then has to decide what they are doing on these phases for the first four spots, and then if they want to do this phase on the next 13. As you can only pick three of these in round one, and in later rounds, generally only up to five, you will be missing out more than you will be choosing. This creates genuine tension, and excitement to the game. Most phases only allow one player to take the action. So, the fear for the first player to turn something down in order to open it up to the next players is a fantastic part of this game. Equally, the apprehension as the other players wait to see if the first player is going to block them from doing what they want is great to watch! Control your F.O.M.O.! The game levels this out too. The very first choice in the 13 optional steps is to get the first player token. And the final action is the ability to re-do any action from the previous 12. There are ways to control this F.O.M.O.! But its is there throughout, and builds up fantastically throughout the game, and is the core reason why the game is fun. Your core focus will be acquiring commodities at the best prices possible. And then selling them for the most profit. But each part of this has its own mechanic to make it feel unique and important. This has caused some reviewers to suggest this game feels like a miss-mash of mini games. I disagree with this strongly, as each phase moves very quickly and feels intrinsically linked. And importantly, they all work for each phase they are employed. Buy! Sell! For example, in the third phase, each player will bid in an auction style for the available crates (commodities) available at the shipyard. The minimum bid must be the cost price, but with all the market fluctuations available in the game, this could be well under the current re-sale value. You also have the ability through various means to influence and directly affect the market price in each round, both in and out of turn. This makes this part of the game feel exciting and very much alive. Just pulling random cubes would be lazy. Taking turns to take one wouldn’t seem genuine. Buying them in turn order would be dull. The auction phase works. And importantly, I see this as being closer to how it works in real life. So why not employ this in the game? Its quick, fun and feels realistic. Later in the round, when it comes to selling your products, you need to make sure you have a shop that sells this particular type of product and a truck to get it there. A roadblock could stop this and other players involvement in the ownership of that shop would affect your profits. This all feels very much how it would be in real-life. You couldn’t make this an auction like the purchase phase. It needs to be more area control and worker placement, so it is. Yes, this is a series of different mechanics, but they are all chosen for a reason. And they link up and feel right to me. Take control! If you can see this game for what it is, I think you will really enjoy it. You are the boss, controlling your workers. Each worker has a different role. And you need to think about the right way for your truck drivers, buyers, sellers and political ‘pole-greasers’ to all behave! If you can think like that, and could imagine yourself enjoying that, then this well could be a game you will enjoy a lot. If you cannot see past the board then I would suggest this is not for you. It is busy, and that is a shame, I think the designer wanted to make the game easier to understand with all the iconography laid two times for each phase, so players could read it no matter where they are sat round the table. Personally, I think this is not needed. You quickly learn each phase anyway, so I would argue you could remove all the icons. But I get why they are there. In short. This game is an excellent idea, perhaps not brilliantly executed considering the current aesthetic demands in the board game industry. But I wanted to feature it here as I think it serves as an excellent example of a game that is a lot better than it looks and one worthy of your consideration. For people who enjoy a crunchy euro, this may not matter as much anyway. But if you want the next Everdell, this is not for you. However, if you are a fan of economic/commerce building games that build up tension and employ interesting and varied mechanics, and can look past the aesthetics, you will not be disappointed.