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Dubious: A New Wave WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 3-6 You’ll like this if you like: Dixit, Codenames, Decrypto Published by: Hobby World Designed by: Dave Neale This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Dubious first came out in 2021. It received favorable reviews from fans of social deduction, leading to calls for more content. This standalone expansion can be added to the main game to add more variety or played alone. It comes with everything you need to play the game. But how does it play? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Dubious There are three new settings with this version of Dubious: Science Fiction, Cthulhu, and Antiquity. Make your choice of which arena you want your game to be set in and take one reference sheet from this choice for each player. Give this along with a pencil, clip, record sheet, and screen to each player. Players will now affix the setting card to the middle of their screen with the clips. Place this around the record sheet so the screen shields your sheet from all other players' gaze. Next, take the occupation and secret cards from your chosen setting, shuffle each deck separately, and deal out two of each card to all players. Players will choose one occupation and one secret card to play as from their choice of two. They will mark their choice on their player sheet, along with the other card they saw but did not choose. This helps them eliminate one option from their guesses for the other players. Finally, set up the questions for the game. You will need to have two appearance questions and three assorted questions. Take the three thematic questions linked to your chosen scenario and add these to the general question deck. Shuffle the two decks separately, then draw one appearance card, one general card, a second appearance card, then two more general cards and stack them in this order with the first appearance deck on top. You are now ready to play. How To Play Dubious One person will now read out the first question aloud. All players will write their answer to this question on their record sheet. You will want to answer the question in a way that hints at your occupation and secret. To score points, you need for at least one other player to guess your occupation and secret correctly. But if everyone guesses correctly because your answers were too obvious, you will score nothing, and the other players will score instead. Equally, if no one guesses as your answers were too vague, again you score nothing, and the other players score instead. Think about your roles and how they link to their choices in the game, and try to write answers that give some clues, based on the other players playing and how well you think they know you, so you can find the balance between blatant and obscure! The remaining four questions are then read out, and again all players write their answers. When this is done, players take turns reading out their answers to all five questions. As this happens, players take notes on their record sheet, trying to figure out what each other player's occupation and secret is. For each answer they give you can take notes and make a guess, then there is a space on the record sheet for you to note down your final guess for each player. Players then read their answers aloud one final time, and each player now has 30 seconds to make their final guess. There are then two final minutes to sort your guesses out, before all players reveal their answers aloud. Each player will score a point for each correct guess they make for other players' occupation and secret, as well as a point for each time someone else guesses their own occupation and secret correctly. Unless of course, everyone guesses correctly, in which case they score nothing. The player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Dubious Party Game Review Dubious is incredibly simple to play and teach, and you will get through a round in no time at all. This is all the vital ingredients for a good party game. But is it any fun? Well, yes. It is a lot of fun. Working out your own answers to find the balance between being too obvious, but knowing you are giving just enough information away so that some of the other players guess correctly is a very enjoyable experience. If you like that sort of thing. There will be some players who find this too difficult. And some combinations of secret and occupation are just too similar to allow you the freedom to do this well. Being a Gladiator or Pirate who was raised by Barbarians for example can be a hard combination. However, if you enjoy this sort of thought process, and the deduction required to then figure out what the other players are talking about, you will have a lot of fun with this game. Guessing correctly based on a few obscure clues feels incredibly satisfying, especially if not every other player managed to do this. There is then a shared moment of celebration between you as the guesser and the player who gave that answer as you both score from it. Conversely, when players are not on your wavelength and do not understand what you were hinting at by only wearing one boot because the other was stolen at the local baths, it can be frustrating. This is just an example though of course. This absolutely did not happen to me, leading to a rant about how obvious this was, questioning loudly why my fellow players did not figure this out! There is enough variation in this box to play the game over and over, but by the very nature that this is an expansion with three new settings, I suppose after time, you will grow tired of these three arenas and the occupations and secrets they offer. But great news! The original game is still being printed and offers three more. If you already own that, well, now you have six, and I suppose that will take longer for you to outplay all the scenarios. We have played it eight times in just one weekend and loved every minute! I think it would take 50-100 plays before I was wanting more due to repetition. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the original game and wants more variety. For anyone who doesn't own the base game yet, pick either one based on the settings and which three appeal to you the most. And if you are not a fan of social deduction, then well, this may not be for you. But there is no acting, no lying, no being put on the spot. This removes many of the things people don't like about this sort of party game, so I would encourage you to give it a try. The questions are written for you, and lead your answers in quite a specific way. This could be the social deduction game for people who don't like social deduction.

Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Lords of Waterdeep, Viticulture, Cytosis Published by: Genius Games Designed by: John Coveyou, Steve Schlepphorst This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey What happens when Cytoplasm, Chloroplasts and Mitochondria get in trouble? They get put behind a Cell Wall! Trust me that joke is gonna go down a storm with the plant experts out there. Right, let’s get to the root of this plant cell game. How to build a cell wall Set up by laying the main board on the side appropriate to your player count and then laying the roots and shoots board next to it. Give everyone their flasks in their player colour and place each players coloured discs on the roots and the shoots track. Place either on or two of the grey flasks on the central vacuole depending on player count and then determine a start player and give everyone an amount of water determined by where they are in the turn order. At the start of each round there’s going to be a sunrise phase. Here each player will take resources on the roots and the shoots tracks depending on where their tokens are. Next is the daytime phase. On your turn you’ll place one of your flasks on to one of the spaces on the board and take the action. At the end of your turn, you'll have the opportunity to play a card if you can afford to. The majority of the spaces will have a single space that only one player's flask can go on. They’ll also have an open space that anyone can go in but only one of each colour flask can go in there. Some spaces are nice and simple, you just place a flask and gain the number of resources. The water space will get you an amount of water depending on where the water marker is on the track. Once you take water, move the water maker down one space. When you take this action, you’ll also have the choice to place up to three water into the central vacuole. If the track reads zero then you can’t take this action. You’ll also do that when you use the “collect Co2” space, but you can still take this action if the water track is at the bottom. One space will let you convert resources to make a cell wall piece. Another will then let you use that piece to add to the cell wall. When you do, place it on the leftmost empty space on the cell wall and then take the points depicted on it. There’s a space that will let you move your tokens on the roots and shoots tracks for a cost and these spaces will sometimes net you one-time bonuses. One more space of note is the cards. Place your flask on the space of the card you want in the row and pay the cost. The first card in the row is always free. When all the players are out of flasks you’ll move onto the evening phase. First add one carbohydrate to the cell wall, this will act as a semi game timer. Then reset the water track. Lastly check the central vacuole. The player with the most water here will discard their water from here, move their marker up on the points track and take the grey flask. This is their extra worker for the next round. In higher player counts there’ll be two flasks up for grabs here. The players who didn’t win will leave their water there. When the cell wall is complete the round and end the game. Should you place or plant your workers? At its core (I would say root but I’ve already used a root pun earlier) Cellulose is a good, solid worker placement game. In fact, it actually serves as a good introductory worker placement game if you’ve got any friends or family that you’re wanting to pull down the rabbit hole of worker placement games, or board games in general. After all, it's always nice to have others to share in our financial turmoil. The reason it works as a first foray into worker placement games is that it’s not quite as tight as others in the genre in terms of available spaces. The majority of the spaces are pretty open allowing all players to go there at least once in a round if they want to. Even though it is more open it does have some nice touches to keep some race element to those spaces. The ever-dwindling water track feels like a constantly ticking timer and has the potential to drop massively even in just one round. Most spaces have a single spot for one player with a slightly better benefit to the regular space. They aren’t always a huge difference but that one or two extra proteins could go a long way. What I really like about the openness of the spaces is the rule they’ve applied that says “only one of each colour per space” It may not sound very restrictive (and in most cases it’s not) but when you get the opportunity to nab an extra grey flask or take one of your workers back it could serve to limit where you can go. Although, the fact that there are opportunities to get extra workers or take yours back for extra turns again serves to open things up. Do you want to build a cell wall? In a game where a big chunk of points comes from building the cell wall you’d assume that the minute you build a Chloroplast you’ll want to build the cell wall as quick as you can right? Well not necessarily. The ever-changing points values means that building too soon may not be ideal and it then becomes a bit of a stand-off as players wait each other out to see who’s going to cave first and just take the points. However, since a new piece is placed on the wall at the end of the round then setting yourself up to place first in the next round could be the way to go. The game does throw another tempting way for you to spend your hard-earned chloroplasts in an attempt to lure you away like the plant equivalent of a Siren. Again, it feels counterproductive not doing the thing that the game has told you is the goal but ATP’s are part of the currency you’ll need to play cards and cards are worth just as much, and sometimes even more points than the cell wall track. The cards are possibly my favourite part of the game with the enzyme cards being the stand out. You get the usual bonus when you play one, but, if you have others in play at the time then you can spend a protein for each one to activate their abilities. It’s really satisfying when you get to trigger a few of these on a turn and watch the resource’s flood in... I suppose grow would be the better term here, the last thing you want is to flood a plant. The game does a good job of ramping up. You'll be scrambling for resources at the start even going so far as wondering if this plant will ever start to grow, which is frighteningly close to my own experience with plant growing. Soon though you'll start to find you have resources in abundance, especially as you race up (or down in the case of the roots track) the roots and shoots track which gives you increasing amounts of resources each morning phase of the game. The roots and shoots track is a great part of the game and it’s always fun to see those resources appearing in front of you. The problem is that once you've reached as far as you can on both, you instantly make two spaces on the board redundant for you. The roots and shoots space and the enzyme space where the only use for them is to pay to advance on that track. You could argue that it makes the game a bit tighter as you head towards the endgame but I don’t like the idea that spaces are completely cut out. The central vacuole is another fun element . It’s a bit of area control at the end of each round. The points swing almost seems like it isn’t worth it at first but the points do ramp up as you get further round. But it's gaining that extra worker for the round that is worth more, especially in a game we're having that one extra turn could make all the difference. Learning is fun? Genius Games are all about making fun games whilst also making them scientifically accurate and hoping that people learn more about the subject on the table. Now of course how invested you are or how much this draws you in is completely subjective but the great thing about Genius Game is that they provide you with an extra book to teach you about the subject behind the game which is fantastic. Personally, I didn’t feel particularly enamoured to follow up this particular game with reading up on it but again this is just me. A friend who played this game is a horticulturalist and had he had the chance would have absolutely dived into that book. Regardless of if you do or don’t get into the science of it you can be safe in the knowledge that it’s accurate. I’d definitely use this game as an aid if my kids were learning this particular subject. In fact, one of their previous games, Periodic, was a big help when the kids were learning about the periodic table at school and I actually found myself learning in that one as well. If or how much you are willing to learn from this game doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a fun, solid worker placement game. If you're a worker placement fan who enjoys the tightness of a lot of the games in the genre then maybe this may not grab you as much as others. However if you’re looking for a good fun game that will give you that worker placement fix that could help you introduce people into that world then this could be the one for you.

The Mystery Agency: The Museum Heist WBG Score: 9.5 Player Count:1 - ? You’ll like this if you like: The Mystery Agency Games, Cantaloop, Unlock Series Published by: The Mystery Agency Ltd. Designed by: Henry Lewis This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey Here at What Board Game we love board games. We talk to publishers and designers about board games, review board games and write articles on board games all because we love talking to everyone out there about board games. So here is my new review... of a book. How to solve a heist. Open the book and read the instructions. They’ll tell you to cut out the first six pages of the book. Now once you’ve gotten over the horror of defacing a book AND a game, turn to the first page and get solving. The six pages contain blank information sheets for each of the eight suspects which you can fill in as you go through the game. Similarly, you'll find an incident report which you’ll fill in. Lastly There will be a map of the museum which, yeah you guessed it, you’ll populate as you play through the game. Each double page spread will have some mix of pictures and story that may or may not aid your investigation but all of them will have a puzzle for you to solve. Solve the puzzle and move to the next page. Some parts will have locked door puzzles in which you’ll need to scan a QR code to take you to the puzzle in which you’ll need to enter the correct code to move on. If you don’t want to scan the QR code then the hints section will have a link to each one. At this point I’ve played two of The Mystery Agencies games prior to this one. One of which I’ve reviewed here and the other Jim reviewed here. I really like both of these and they stand as some of my favourite puzzle games. I want you to know that so you have some context for when I tell you that this one is my favourite of the three. The big games from this company are brilliant and innovative and do some clever things with some beautifully produced components that I’ve not seen before. While none of those unique components are on display here, I think they've managed to pack just as much innovation and clever puzzles in here to rival its bigger siblings. This whole book is one big mystery and if you're into your detective shows then this is going to be right up your sleuthing alley. Sleuthing Alley by the way is just off of Baker Street. It plays out exactly like one of those shows. It follows the same rhythms and story beats and ends in a big denouement (that’s not a spoiler) and it’s wonderful. Everything they’ve managed to pack into this book captures something that satisfies that sleuth in me that sits in front of the TV trying to solve the crime before they do. I’ll tell you when it first clicked for me, no spoilers obvs. I was reading through a page when I spotted something, a piece of evidence that was hidden away, something that could easily have gone unnoticed and was a really subtle nod to something and I thought “oooh that’s good.” In fact, I think I said that out loud, probably to annoyance of the people who were watching TV at the time. I think they were watching Death in Paradise ironically. It just goes to show they aren’t spoon feeding you every piece of evidence. You really do have to turn into a proper detective to solve this thing. It really goes out of its way to put you onto the shoes of the main protagonist of the story. I think the reason I love this one above the others is that the story and the investigation is more robust. It feels like you’ve been dropped right into the plot of a detective series. This is all helped of course by the fact that this is a 144 page book rather than a limited set of components, it’s got time to breathe and really go a bit more in depth. You can see this in the way it captures the story and the characters. You get to know people's stories and their relationships to each other and how crucial they are in helping you solve this case. The best way I can describe this is it’s an interactive detective show in a book and if any part of that sentence gets you excited then you need to order this book. The puzzles themselves are great and thankfully not all quick solves. This took me three sessions of probably about two hours each one. I didn’t really time myself so these could have been a bit longer. Regardless, you're definitely going to get a lot of game amongst these pages. I’d go so far as to say that it’s better value than any of the “one and done” puzzle/mystery games I’ve played. The puzzles are clever and a big majority of them had me saying “oh that is brilliant” as I realised how they were playing out. There’s a decent range here as well, from ones that I picked up on fairly quickly to ones that took a bit longer to get, if I could get them at all. I suppose one question is “what’s stopping me from just skipping out on a puzzle and just going to the next page. Well, physically nothing. It doesn’t have the physical restrictions that the other games have. But what's brilliant is that the puzzles feed off of each other. The answers to a puzzle in one part of the book could work as a clue to solving one later on, which works to stop you just skipping ahead (not sure why anyone would want to do that though) but it also adds that extra touch that helps you connect with the story. Just one more thing You get a couple of routes to go down with the hints system and both have their advantages and disadvantages. The ones in the back of the book are all there in the open so my advice is to grab some paper to cover everything you don’t want to see. There’s nothing worse than seeing a clue you don’t want or the solution before you’re ready. Speaking of which. Online, the clues/answers won’t reveal themselves until you’ve clicked on them. But be warned though not to scroll too far. I accidentally did this going into the denouement and something after this revealed the name of the suspect and it spoiled that (what would have been) awesome feeling of bringing everything together and really capping off the whole thing because I knew which suspect it was. This obviously didn’t detract from the fun I’d already had and it certainly won’t affect how I feel about the book because this was mostly a me problem. But I do think that maybe naming that section something else would go a long way to stop this happening in the future. Just beware of this as you get near the end. I’ll also say that this was the only instance where this sort of thing could happen. The Denouement If you love any kind of puzzle/mystery/escape room games then you owe it to yourself to grab a copy of this. It evokes all of those great detective shows but this time gets you in on the action to finally show these TV detectives precisely how it should be done.

Cards vs Gravity WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-99 You’ll like this if you like: Jenga Published by: Big Potato Games Designed by: Steve Howe This is a review copy. See our review policy here Do you like stacking things? More importantly, do you like watching your friends fail at stacking things, laughing at them when they fail, and watching as they have to pick up all the things they failed to stack? Well, if you answered yes to the below, you could be in luck! The good people at Big Potato Games have done it again, and made a beautifully produced version of the classic stacking game, providing the tools to play this anywhere, anytime, so long as you have access to a bottle. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Cards vs Gravity Place the stopper into any bottle. A glass one is best, but if you have a plastic one, that will work, just add some water to it to give it some weight. Then attach the magnetic disc to the stopper. Finally, shuffle the cards and deal an equal number to all players to hold in their hand as their own deck. You are now ready to play. How To Play Cards vs Gravity Players will now take it in turns to take the top card from their hand and place it onto the magnetic disc in the appropriate quadrant. Cards are coloured either red, blue, yellow, or green, and must be placed into the matching area. If a card has already been placed into this area, add the new card onto the previously placed cards. The cards have little slits in the corners, giving you a place to slot in new cards. When you play a new card, it can only touch one other card. If it is resting on a second card or touching a second card in any way, this is an illegal move. If you knock over any other cards in the process of doing this, add them to the bottom of your hand and play moves to the next player. If you knock over the entire stack, you lose. If all cards have been placed then the game continues. Players will now take it in turns to choose a card for the next player in turn to reposition. Color matching doesn't matter anymore, simply take the card specified out, and add it back in anywhere else. If you knock any cards down during this phase of the game, you must add them all back in before play moves to the next player. If you get a wild, the gravity buster or gravity bender card, these can be placed anywhere, and they become the colour they are touching. The gravity buster is heavier denser card. The gravity bender is lighter more delicate card. Is it Fun? Card vs Gravity Party Game Review This is the perfect, quick, fun, light party game to play anywhere, anytime. You just need a bottle, a flat surface, and some willing friends. The game can be taught in seconds, and played in minutes. It's fast, fun, and creates a lot of laughs. There is not a lot of strategy to the game. Balance and distribution of card weight being all there is to it. But do you need that in all games? The pro version comes with the extra gravity bender and buster cards, as well as some extra colour cards and the carry pouch, meaning you can take this anywhere you go. Just add a bottle. The production of this game is off the charts. For a simple party game, it feels incredibly well produced, and the quality of the components certainly adds to the fun. If you make a mistake, you cannot blame a flimsy card or badly positioned magnetic lid! I have had this game set up in our kitchen for the last week or so, and people have come to it for quick games all the time. This is how I see games like this working. You may not build an entire game night around it, but it certainly adds some fun at the beginning or end of a night, or just at random moments when someone challenges you to a quick game. Perfect for all trips to the pub moving forward, I am delighted to have this game in my collection.

Yokai Sketch WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Lost Cities Published by: Devir Designed by: Ignasi Ferré This is a review copy. See our review policy here 'Yōkai' is a universal word used in Japanese culture to describe a class of supernatural entities or spirits seen in various forms of entertainment folklore. In this game, your job is to visit the forest and calmly watch the Yokai so that you can sketch them better than your friend. This doesn't exactly come across in the game, but what does come across is a very chilled and relaxed experience, in what is actually quite a frantic tug-of-war style battle for points. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Yokai Sketch Separate the 20 Yokai cards from the 36 sketch cards. Shuffle the sketch card and deal three cards to each player. Leave the remaining cards in a face-down deck on the table. Next, sort the Yokai cards by their four different colours. Shuffle each stack separately, then place them into five piles with the number side face up. You are now ready to play. How To Play Yokai Sketch Players will now take it in turns to draw one card from the sketch deck and then play up to three cards from their hand. The sketch cards have two sides to them, a colour matching one of the five different Yokai stacks on either side. Cards must be played next to a matching Yokai stack, picking one side of the sketch card to use. Once you have played your card, check the total number of sketch cards on both sides of this stack. If the total number is now at least equal to the number on the top of the Yokai card, this Yokai is completed. The player with the most sketch cards played will take the Yokai card for end-game scoring. They will discard all sketch cards played here to the discard pile. If the other player has sketch cards here, they remain for the next Yokai. If there is ever a tie, the Yokai runs away, (placed onto the bottom of that Yokai stack) and neither player can score the card, and all sketch cards are discarded. There are two special abilities that players can use to swing the game in their favour. The first is the Call The Yokai power, which is symbolized by the handprint on the centre of the sketch cards. When a card with this symbol is played, that player can decide to take the top card from any Yokai stack and move it to the top of the stack where you played this sketch card. This will change the current number this stack requires to be fulfilled. The second power is the Distract The Yokai power, which is symbolised by a cave symbol. When you play a card with this symbol, you can move the last card your opponent played at this Yokai stack and move it to the colour represented by the other side of their card. The game carries on like this until one of the Yokai stacks is emptied, at which point the game ends immediately. Players then total their Yokai cards, the player with the most points is declared the winner. Ties are broken by the player with the most variety of coloured Yokai's. Is it Fun? Yokai Sketch Card Game Review There is a lovely pull-and-push to this game. At first, it seems very light. But as you play more, you realise there is a delicate strategy required to win this game. Do you play all three available cards now, leaving your hand weakened for later turns, potentially setting up your opponent to finish a Yokai card? Or do you hold back and strike when a Yokai is ready to reach its limit? The Yokai cards are worth between seven and three points. Is it worth adding a third card to a three-pointer if your opponent had two cards there already, so that they score the three, but you are then ahead in what is inevitably a higher card underneath? My one and only gripe in this game is the art. Now, don't get me wrong. The art is stunning. Vincent Dutrait rarely lets us down now does he! But largely, the reverse of the cards. Which sadly, you don't really see as you play the game. Just look at the reverse of the cards shown above! The side you do see is functional, and pleasant enough. It's just a shame not as much effort was put into the side you actually stare at all game. But the gameplay itself is a lovely mix of clever and strategic card play, in a light tug-of-war style game, reminiscent of Lost Cities. It creates a lovely sense of calm as you play, despite being a fairly combative two-player battle. But the theme and vibe are so relaxed, the game flows in the same way, in a sedate meditative manner. As if we actually are sketching Yokai. I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a fast, quick, light two-player card game where the vibe is chill, the strategy is relaxed but present, and the game time, quick but satisfying. Yokai Sketch has a lovely balance to it, and I can see it being a popular filler for me when I am with one other player, and have 20 minutes to fill, and I want something relaxed, rewarding, and dare I say it, cosy.

Wave WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: The Mind, Hanabi. Published by: KOSMOS Designed by: Thomas Weber This is a review copy. See our review policy here I am a huge fan of clever little card games. I enjoy surfing, although I am not very good at it, but the vibe suits me just right! And I am always excited about anything portable to play with my friends and family in a cooperative way when out and about. Wave ticks all these boxes, but is it any good? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Wave Separate the four special colour swap and number swap cards, these are used in a variant. Place the direction of play and colour value card face up on the table then shuffle the rest of the deck. Then deal each player three cards, ask each player to hold these as they normally would facing them. Then deal two more to each player and ask each player to pick these up in a way that they do not see the cards, and instruct them to hold them facing out so all other players can see them. Place the remaining deck face down in the centre of the table and flip over the top card to start the discard pile. You are now ready to play. How To Play Wave Players will now take it in turns to play one of the five cards in their hand face up on top of the discard pile. Cards must always beat the most recently discarded face-up card, either in number or colour. For example, if a "one" was played, then a card of any colour with a number of two or higher would be fine. Colour-wise, the Colour value card shows the order. White is the lowest, Blue is the highest. So a blue card with a value of zero would beat a five, (the highest number) of any other colour. Players are doing this with limited knowledge as they cannot see all their cards. But other players can guide and assist with the cards they cannot see, giving suggestions as to when certain cards may be suitable. You cannot say that a certain card is a certain colour or number, but you can say when it would be good to play it. When you play a card from your hand that was previously facing you, replace it with the top card from the deck and play the card facing out. Likewise, if you play a card from your hand that was facing outwards, when you replace this card, you can now add to your hand facing you so you can see it. Play continues like this until all cards have been played, although a time may come when you cannot play a legal card at which point, the game ends. Count up the remaining cards in the deck and players' hands to check your score against the table in the rules. Zero cards remaining is the perfect score. 11 or more left is a Wipeout! Note that some cards have a change of direction symbol. If you play a card with this on, flip the direction of play card and change the way you are playing. The change of direction card is shown on all white cards and all cards with a value of zero. Variants There are a few ways to play the game in different ways. One in which you can exchange cards in your hand with one that is face up on the table if you ever need some help. Another changes the order of the color value two times in the game, based on two cards being shuffled in the deck. They can come out at any time, so the direction of color value can shift at any point. You can also do with the numbers, changing the order of the value of the numbers. When the number of colour value change card is drawn, simply place it on the table so all can see the rule change, then draw another card to your hand so you have a full hand of five again. There is also a final variant where cards are laid out on the table rather than into a common discard in the shape of a giant wave. There are six rows, the bottom one being ten cards in length, the next eight, then seven, six, three and one. Cards must be laid in sequence starting with the bottom left, then to the right of them, the directly above and so on. Cards must always be laid in a way so that they beat any cards to the left of it and below, if that is the case. This is much harder, needs much more space, less wind, and more patience! Is It Fun? Wave Card Game Review Wave offers a lovely mix between two of my favourite card games of all time, The Mind and Hanabi. Much like The Mind, players are working together to build up a discard deck, trying to play all their cards. But similar to Hanabi, they cannot see all their cards, and need to help each other in the process. The combination of these two elements makes for a very good, entertaining, and rewarding experience. However, it is perhaps a little too easy. Most games I have scored well in, and there is never really much thinking process, the right card to play is generally quite obvious. And you will either get lucky going through the process or not. Now don't get me wrong. There absolutely is some skill and strategy required if you want a perfect score. But the difference in effort required between a bad score and a good score is minimal. The skill is required to get from a good to a perfect score. However, that is why the game offers variants to add more of a challenge, and the color and number swap cards bring a nice resh twist to the game. However, where the game really excels is in the expert version with The Monster Wave. Achieving this is difficult, I have not done it yet, but the process is generally thrilling. The game loses some of the portable charm of a simple card game. I won't ever play this variant on a beach, for example! But it is an excellent cooperative challenge that I will enjoy at home! Overall, I am left very much enamoured by this little game. It has a lovely simple flow to it, with a theme that I adore. The variants offer exactly what I want with a game like this. And they are easily explained and implemented into any game that is suitable. I wish the expert variant was a little more portable, but understand the reasons why it cannot be. And enjoy the challenge it brings. The art of the cards is nice, a little functional and abstract. I think I would have enjoyed something more realistic, wistful, and calming. The colors are a little jarring and the art style practical over beautiful. But it works, is clear to see, and does help with the teach. I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a little simple cooperative card game to play with friends if they have any interest in games like The Mind or Hanabi.

On The Road WBG Score: 6.5/10 Player Count: 2-4 Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Gabriele Bubola, Leo Colovini This is a review copy. See our review policy here On The Road was the big new Essen release from Helvetiq in 2023. The game steps away from the usual small box/after dinner style game they make. It is targeted at families with a weight of 1.5 but comes in a larger box than usual for Helvetiq, and a bigger production overall. The theme is intriguing. You play a touring band making its way to the Sunshine festival, trying to gather as many fans as you go. But does it hit the right notes? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up On The Road Kick things off by placing the barn tile on the table near the bottom of the play area. This tile marks the starting point for our game. Now, mix up the location tiles. You are going to use them to create a road. Starting from the barn tile, randomly placing seven location tiles in a row, and then end it with a city tile. Repeat this two more times. You will have six location tiles left, tuck them in behind that final city tile, and then at the very end of that road place the mainstage tile. Next up, set up the porta-potty tile and the ticket tiles near the play area. Make sure the ticket tiles are stacked up neatly in ascending order, with the top and bottom tile showing. Next, take the location tokens and organize them by colour. Place them next to the play area. Depending on how many people are playing, you might need to return a couple of the pink tokens to the box: two tokens for a three-player game or three tokens for a two-player game. Each player will now place their van pawn next to the starting space at the barn tile. They will also take their fans stars in their colour and place three of them into a cloth bag. Finally, shuffle the movement cards and deal three to each player. You are now ready to play. The player who has most recently been to a music concert gets to be the starting player. How To Play On The Road Players are looking to attract the most fans as they tour around the country. The game is played over a series of turns where players must play a movement card, and then draw a movement card, unless you are currently on the mainstage tile, and draw fans from the bag; but only if you're standing on the mainstage tile or a city tile. The movement cards are sadly a little plain, but this does make them very easy to read! Simply discard the card of your choice and move that many spaces. If you are moving from the van tile, you can go backwards, forwards, or advance at double the cards value. Your choice. You will then take a location tile for the space you landed on. When finishing your movement on a location tile featuring a mountain, lake, forest, or field, players will start a performance aimed at promoting your band. Players will place their fans (stars) into the bag equivalent to the number of location tokens of the corresponding type you currently possess, this includes the most recently acquired location token. So, you will want to build up some repeat performance in certain areas to build your fans. But there are benefits to having multiple different types of tickets. As such, you will want to try and land on as many of the tiles as you can to build up your fan base. Each locations grants you a token or power. When you end your movement on a city tile, draw fans from the bag. This action allows you to discover if your fans want to attend your final concert at the festival. As such, moving forwards and backwards in a strategic fashion, you will want to try and hit all the cities along the way to maximise your fan growth. When you draw fans, you will take as many fans from the bag as the number of music symbols you have. These symbols are found on the pink location tokens and on the ticket tiles. When drawing fans from the bag like this, you will either draw a fan of your colour, in which case you will place it on the first available space of the mainstage tile. Well done, end game points! However, if the fan is of a rival players colour, you will place it on the porta-potty tile. When a player arrives at the mainstage they will discard all your movement cards and immediately claim the lowest-value ticket tile from the stack to gain extra fans. They can no longer move, and their only action is to draw fans from the bag. At the beginning of each subsequent turn, any player at the mainstage will take one pink location token. If none are available, you can move one of your fans from the porta-potty tile and return it to the bag. Giving you a chance to move it to the mainstage on a later turn. Then, proceed with drawing fans as usual. Whenever a player draws fans from the bag, you can take various actions by returning a certain number of different-coloured location tokens previously attained to the box. If you've got two different location tokens after one of your rivals draws some fans, discard them to make them put ALL the fans of your colour back into the bag, rather than placing them on the porta-potty tile. Two different location tokens also allows you to discard the recently drawn fans back to the bag and have another try if you don't get what you want the first time. If you discard three different location tokens you can send all the fans of your colour from the porta-potty tile back into the bag. And if you ever discard four different location tokens you can put one of the selected fans of your colour straight to the mainstage tile instead of the porta-potty tile. The mainstage tile is where you will score points. The game ends when the mainstage is full. A different total required based on player count. The player with the most fans here is the winner. Is It Fun? On The Road Board Game Review Reading an interview with one of the designers, they said, “I was trying to create a game that can be played by families in 20 minutes where children can easily play... without any help. I would like to design a light game with increasing tension... The best physical element is the bag. It is nice and emotional to draw from a bag hoping to reveal one of your fans! In the first phase of the game you try to put as many of your fans in the bag whereas in the second phase you hope to extract them.” This sums up game brilliantly for me. With families who do not play more complex games, I can see this being a real winner. For my family, where we are used to more complex decisions this fell a little flat for us, which was a shame as the theme and style of the game is delightful. And I did enjoy the process of playing the game. I just wish it has just a smidge more strategy. But I can see this being a real winner in households that play maybe a few less games. The game flows very smoothly though and can be taught to most ages. The only complex part is the four ways you can use your tokens when drawing fans from the bag. It takes a few turns to remember this by heart, and we found we were referring to the rules a fair few times in our early games for this rule. The game provides a player guide but the symbology on this for the powers is a little off for me. I would recommend this game to any family with budding musicians in the ranks looking for a nice family game to play as a group. It looks great and offers an interesting theme and after a few games you will realise there are some fun ways to play with different strategies that work in different ways.

The Mystery Agency: The Vanishing Gambler WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Exit, Unlock. Published by: The Mystery Agency Ltd. Designed by: Henry Lewis This is a review copy. See our review policy here SPOILER FREE REVIEW There is very little I can say in this review without spoiling things. Don't worry though, we won't spoil a thing. But I also don't think spoilers are necessary. If you like escape room style games, you will love this. It's phenomenal. If that's not enough and you want more, well sure, red on, and I will tell you a little more about how it plays. But let's face it. You are just delaying the inevitable. How To Set Up The Vanishing Gambler Unlock the main box and retrieve the padlocked envelope and loose newspaper page contained within. Inside the box, you'll find basic instructions prompting you to scan a QR code. After scanning, you'll be presented with a selection of games to log into. Opt for "The Vanishing Gambler" and input the password displayed on the box. From there, you can decide whether to play with a timer or without. The choice is yours. Once selected, your first clue will become accessible, marking the beginning of your adventure. How To Play The Vanishing Gambler In this game, you'll confront a series of puzzles, navigating a path that may not immediately reveal itself. Your initial task is to decipher the sparse clues provided to unlock the padlocked envelope. Once opened, the contents of the folder will equip you to tackle the challenges ahead, but where to begin? The array of possibilities may seem overwhelming initially, but maintain your vigilance, and you'll discern your next target. Each accomplishment will unveil your next step, propelling you forward until you reach the mission's conclusion. Should you encounter an impasse, rest assured that each puzzle offers two hints and a final solution accessible through the associated website. Utilising these resources may prolong your game time if you're playing with a timer, but otherwise, they won't hinder your progress. Even if you're not the most adept at these games, like myself, the hints are there as a safety net. I personally found I only needed to resort to them twice, and with a bit more patience and confidence, I believe I could've solved the puzzles independently. Nonetheless, remember that the primary goal is to enjoy the experience. Use them if you need to. Progress through each puzzle until you reach the ultimate objective. This game is about success or failure, but I am certain you'll eventually get there. Best of luck on your journey! And remember to have fun, and look for everything... everywhere! Is It Fun? The Vanishing Gambler Escape Room Board Game Review This is hands down the best experience I have ever had with a game in this genre. It was so smooth, satisfying, and rewarding to play through, while navigating the tricky balance of being challenging but achievable. As you would expect with all products from this publisher, the components are seriously impressive and add a real premium sense of quality and class as you play, elevating the experience to one you may otherwise expect from visiting a physical escape room. The story and puzzles are genuinely engaging, and there were some real "WOW!" moments for us as we played. Actual gasps of exclamation as we saw things for the first time, discovered hidden clues, and accessed new parts of the story. It all felt a little more believable than some of the other storylines in this series. It felt more plausible, which, if it suits you, may add to your experience too. Although, if you prefer more sci-fi storylines, I would encourage you to check out The Man From Sector Six, which is also fantastic. The game can only be played once; after that, you will know everything, and the challenge and excitement are gone. However, like all products in this series, when you complete this, you will be offered simple and clear guidelines to reset the game to look 100% good-as-new, for you to pass on to a friend or family member for them to enjoy. There is a difficult balance for publishers of these games in this regard. Do you build something disposable, cheap, and small that people don't mind throwing away when done, or something more luxurious like this that offers an objectively better experience, but that comes at a real cost? I like that we as consumers have the choice. But personally, I prefer these experiences. Sure, they cost more. But they are unquestionably better. And as mentioned, easily resettable. Nothing is damaged or destroyed. And I am excited to give this to someone else and discuss their experiences with it when they are done. If this sounds like fun to you, I would encourage you to get into a little group with some local friends, buy all the games this publisher has, and share them amongst yourselves. They are all truly amazing experiences.

Star Trek: Away Missions WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Warhammer Underworlds Published by: Gale Force Nine, LLC Designed by: Andrew Haught, Mike Haught, Phil Yates This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey At this point you’ll probably expect me to make some sort of stupid joke where I pretend to mix up two of the most popular space franchises because they’ve both got the word star in their title just for the cheap laughs. Well do you know what? I’m not gonna do it. Over the last couple of years of reviewing I think I’ve grown up and I believe I’m past such childish antics. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve just received a message from the USS Orville that a Vogon constructor fleet is making its way towards a Stargate bound for earth with a view to destroying it to make way for a bypass. So I’d ideally like to get this review out before then. Turns out planetary destruction isn’t good for the views. May the Schwartz be With You! How to engage warp For your first game set the board up as per the quick start guide. If not, see the rules to find how to customise the board set up. Pick the faction you’ll be playing with and set up the characters by filling in any of the holes on their boards with skill pegs. This base game comes with two factions. The Federation and the Borg but expansions will introduce others. Players will then pick their main objective on their double sided objective card. This will get you points at the end of the game if you complete it. Some will let you accumulate points throughout the game when you do certain things. Each player will then draw five support and five mission cards from their deck. Roll a die for initiative and the first player chooses one of their characters to activate. On a turn a player can take two actions. Move up to your activated characters max speed through normal spaces or turbo lifts but not through opposing characters or a space with two friendly characters. Take cover puts a take cover token on a character which allows them to roll an additional defence dice if attacked. This gets removed when that character moves out of that space. Special actions are any actions on cards or character boards. Mostly you’ll be using cards to complete missions that will get you those all important victory points to win the game. These generally need you to complete skill checks at particular terminals in the game. To do this check the skill score on the character and take that many dice. You can then take an extra die if you share a speciality with the mission. For example, if the mission wants a security skill check and you use Worf, who has a security speciality, then you get the extra dice. Roll those dice, and any rolls of four or above count as a success. The card then gets placed in a score pile for the end of the game. Attack. To attack, choose your target and check line of sight (three words that send shivers up many gamers spines) here it’s pretty simple. As long as you can draw an uninterrupted line between the space you're in to an opponent's space (that doesn’t go through a friendly character) you can hit them. Pick your weapon and gather the dice it gives you and add them to your attack skill dice and roll them and line them up from highest to lowest on the dice track. The defender does the same with their defence dice and lines those up highest to lowest next to the attack dice. Then compare the dice. Attacks that are higher than the opposite defence dice score a hit regardless of what was rolled. So a 2 against a 1 will hit. However any unopposed dice needs a 4 to hit. Damage is taken by removing pegs from that defender's character board and weakening their skills. When a character has no pegs on their board then one more hit will neutralise them and they are out of the game. If you happen to neutralise someone as the Borg then congratulations, they’ve been assimilated and you now have a shiny new recruit to the cause. With both skill checks and attacks/defence you can discard a card from your hand to re roll dice. You can do this as many times as you want. Once everyone has activated all of their characters the round ends. Remove all activated tokens, discard any unwanted cards from your hand and draw back up to five mission and five support cards. Roll a die for initiative and go again. At the end of the third round the game ends. Score all mission cards and your main objective and the player with the most points wins. Star Trekkin’ across the universe. I’ve got a certain amount of respect for publishers who try to make an original thematic game out of any big IP (intellectual property), especially one that’s as big and sprawling as Star Trek. It’s difficult trying to capture the essence of what fans love about it whilst still being a fun and engaging (pun not intended) game. When it comes to themes I think Gale Force Nine do a great job with any IPs they touch, well certainly the ones I've played anyway. Now I've got a decent knowledge of Star Trek and I reckon I know enough to do pretty well in a pub quiz, but not enough to get caught up in a deep dive conversation at a Trek convention. For example I had to look up who Shelby was (one of the characters in this box. I’ve only seen those episodes once). I’ll also commend them for going with this character because it’s thematic to the initial setting rather than one of the other more popular characters. If their previous Doctor Who game is anything to go by then they definitely put a lot of effort and research into their themes. In that game alone there are some pretty deep cut references. They seem to have some real fans working on these games and if nothing else the fans will get a kick out of seeing some of these cool thematic elements and little nods to some of the more obscure references, all whilst appealing to more casual fans of these shows/movies. I’m talking about the theme a lot but getting that essence right in games like this is key, even if the game is solid, if you’re using a well known brand like this you need to make it feel like it and if you don’t get that right, even on a surface level, then you’ll be sure to alienate a lot of your core fan base. It’s a tough balancing act to get right that unfortunately a lot of IP based games don’t manage to pull off. Star Trek: Away Missions, thankfully does get it right. At this point I’ve only used the base game but the two factions involved in that box really feel like their on screen counterparts. Resistance is useless The Borg slowly stomp round the decks like some horror movie villain posing the ever looming threat of assimilation. I don’t know if having seen the Borg on screen helps, but seeing one of those figures getting closer to you felt genuinely tense and imposing. Mostly because if a Borg neutralises an opponent they take control of them for their collective. They’re not all about assimilating others though. Even though they have a couple of missions based on assimilating opponents units, they’re more about taking over areas of the ship. That doesn’t mean that the player in control won’t go for your characters though because their hive mind ability (the active Borg can give one of their actions to another one) is a great way of helping complete their more difficult skill cards, so the more Borg they have in the collective the better. These particular mission cards ask you for multiple accumulative successes to complete and aren’t always possible in one round with one Borg so to get through more missions you’ll certainly need to sacrifice part or all of another Borg's activation to complete those cards. Unlike the Federation who have lots of specialities, the Borg start off as blank slates but they’ve got lots of opportunity to upgrade themselves with those all important skill boosts. I love how customisable this makes them. You can put any one of them in a space and throw an appropriate upgrade on them for a boost, where the Federation have to spend time manoeuvring certain characters into position if they want those boosts. Adapting is the other important game in town. If you compare the Borg to the Federation you’ll quickly see how squishy they are compared to their human counterparts. Maybe having robot parts isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? However, completing some missions will get you adapt tokens and these will be used in conjunction with some support cards that will let you add additional dice in combat, defence, skill checks etc. So before you know it those squishy Borg will be a force to be reckoned with. Especially when you consider that more of the metal mickeys will be populating the board every round. The more difficult the task, the more sweeter the victory. The Federation on the other hand are more than happy to wander round completing missions and keeping themselves to themselves, after all why would you purposely start a fight with the Borg? When it comes to combat, the Federations main phasers are set to stun but don’t be fooled into thinking that they won’t bring out the big guns when need be as they have a good array of firepower to equip if you want something with a little more kick. They’ve got a few missions that rely on neutralising a target but for the most part they’re all skill checks and some of them require two separate checks to complete. I.e. Complete one at one terminal and then complete another at a different terminal with another character. Their whole thing is very much cooperation. It creates a lovely chess-like puzzle as you try to manoeuvre your characters into position to score as much as you can. Even more so when you’re trying to do it with the characters who can get you those skill bonuses. In fact a lot of their support deck is all about cooperation. It’s composed of healing cards and a good assortment of cards that grant either extra movement or ones that give movement to other friendly characters. It’s certainly thematic and really helps get into position to score those higher point cards. Set phasers to fun I’ve seen people mention that the game isn’t interactive enough and that potentially combat doesn’t happen often enough and in some respects that can be very true. In regards to that though this game very much reminds me of Scythe wherein the focus is very much on manoeuvring and objectives and combat is there as an objective and tactical move but certainly isn't intended to be used as a long term goal. Again, this for me all feels very thematic, after all I never really saw Star Trek as an all out action show. Of course how much combat there is in the game completely depends on how, as a player, you want to approach each game or even how you go about building your deck of cards should you choose to do that. But the fact that this game isn’t just about combat is one of the reasons I enjoy it as much as I do. Outside of being thematic, Star Trek: Away Missions is just a lot of fun. I love the puzzle of trying to get your people in position to try and complete missions. Succeeding is great but failing them brings its own agonising decision of whether you’re going to discard a card to try and re roll some dice. Granted that may be an easy decision at first, but the more you fail the more you find yourself hesitating, can you afford to discard another card to try again? should you just accept your fate and walk away? Or should you try again?, because you can’t possibly fail a third time right? I really like that the game ramps up as the rounds progress and makes each one an ever desperate clamber for points. You generally never know how well each other is doing, well, unless one player's score pile is looking a little light, but you’ll all be trying to eke out one last card just in case that’s the one that takes the game for you. There's Klingons on the starboard bow. As I mentioned earlier this set only comes with the two factions. At the time of writing there are 7 additional sets that have been released. Another Federation box, two Klingon and two Romulans. These are all The Next Generation based sets and there are 2 more Federation sets but these cover the original series (I’ll be reviewing those two boxes soon so watch this final frontier…err space) so at the moment I’m giving this game an 8. There's enough replayability in this core box to keep you going for a decent amount of games. The variation of the tile setup, the missions, playing both factions and even doing a little bit of deck building with the extra cards. But that’s only going to get you so far before you’ll be gagging for something extra. Of course this isn’t designed to be just these two factions so eventually you’ll want to think about getting some expansion sets. At the time of writing this I’ve only really used the two Original series expansion sets so I've not really managed to dive into everything this game can offer in terms of variability with different factions. I do think that this is where the game will really start to shine though. Even if you only get one box of Klingons and Romulans I think that will give you that bit of extra choice you need to make the game pop. With more choice comes the need to store all of this stuff and that’s something that the core box isn't designed for. Which I’m still a bit torn on if I’m honest. In one respect I would have loved it if they'd designed the insert with some future faction storage in mind (not everything of course.) On the other hand, having each one in their own separate boxes does make them easier to grab at a glance for a quick plug and play style game. Although this goes out of the window a bit if you’re changing up a team or wanting to create some decks. Let’s hope for some kind of storage solution in the future. Star Trek: Away Missions is billed as a 2-4 player game but the 3 & 4 players games need the addition of a few extra tiles to create a bigger map so you’ll essentially need access to another core box which I think is a big shame. Unlike games like Star Wars Rebellion or Memoir 44 that are 2 player games with rules in place for more players (which personally I think should only be played at 2) I would love to try this with more players. I think having more players running round the map could be a lot of fun and at this point I really hope Gale Force 9 see their way to releasing an additional map pack, a) to have a change or setting and b) to add in the tiles we need to play at the higher player counts. Don’t get a big head So certainly the most divisive thing you read about in the game is the miniatures. They’ve gone down a more cartoony bigger head approach and the be frank, your either gonna love them or hate them. They join a pantheon of marmite board game miniatures along with the Marvel United minis. Personally I really like them, it makes them easier to tell apart from a distance when they’re unpainted and it adds a bit of character to them. I’ll admit that it is a bit of a contrast when you consider that they’ve used screen shots on the cards and then used non realistic minis but I do think the scale is needed, especially if you’ve got no plans to paint them. The Borg are a little harder to tell apart being as though they’re very similar looking so you’ll have to reference the card with the model art work. It the names/numbers on each base go a way to helping. It’s life Jim but not as we know it. If you’re a fan that’s been on the lookout for a fun and thematic Star Trek game (that isn’t based on ship to ship combat) then Star Trek: Away Missions is well worth checking out. The core box does a great job of pulling you in and giving you a fun experience that, even though it’s enough on its own, it’ll leave you eager to pick up more factions and really open it up to the final frontier. Right, I’m going to board my own enterprise, open it up to warp 6 and gonna find me some Klingons!.......by which I mean I’m gonna drive to my FLGS to get some expansions.

Vaalbara WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Libertalia, Citadel, Santo Domingo Published by: Studio H Designed by: Olivier Cipière This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey Vaalbara is, according to the rulebook, an as yet undiscovered continent and not the nickname of the local pub landlady who has a penchant for banning the locals (Val barrer?No...? Fine I’ll get on with the review) How to discover a continent. To set up separate out all the land cards relevant to your player count, shuffle them and place as many cards as you have players in a row. Then set out another row behind those. Place the rest of the deck behind those rows face down and orientate them so that the grey triangle points to the right. Then give everyone two victory points and their deck of 12 cards which they’ll then shuffle and draw 5. On a turn everyone will pick one card from their hand to play face down. Everyone reveals their cards and places them in ascending order. In the case of any ties look at the top card of the face down land cards. It’ll show each of the colours in a descending order and the leftmost player colour will have their card go before the other/s. This is why the orientation of the deck matters. In ascending order players will trigger their cards' effect and then take a land card from the front row of cards to be placed in front of them and then score it immediately. Each type of land card will score differently. Forrest’s are straight up points. Meadows get you 1 point for each one in your and your neighbours realms. Mountains gain 10 if you have two or 20 if you have four. Fields get you 2 points per field in your realm including the one you just played. Villages get you 2 per different land in your realm. Rivers get you points equal to the card number you played (max 6) multiplied by the number of rivers in your realm. At the end of a round slide the back row of land cards forward and then fill in the back row. Players draw back up to five cards and you go again. After 9 rounds total up your points. If at the end of the game you have 5 different lands you score 5 points, or if you have 6 different lands you score 10. Choose your role Do you remember the game where you realised that a particular mechanism clicked with you? Was there a particular tussle in an area control game or a particular combo you set off in a deck builder where you had that eureka moment that made you want to start buying as many of those games as you possibly can? Well in the case of simultaneous role/card selection games (there’s gotta be a better descriptor for it out there) Vaalbara was that game for me. There’s something about this genre of games that I find kind of infuriating but also really tense and fun in the same way you might find a game of poker but without the massive dip in your bank account afterwards (note to self: get better at poker) That moment as you carefully work out your plan for the round, pick your card and dubiously place it face down on the table just hoping that someone else hasn’t foiled your best laid plans. Then the tense waiting and the reveal as you find out if you’ve even got any chance at all of your plan working, or if someone has had a better plan than you. Even worse, they’ve had the same idea but they happen to be the one winning the tie this round. That one little card flip can be the line between a low scoring round or a high scoring round. Having played quite a few games with this mechanism I've really come to love it…..for the most part, there’s been one exception so far. 12 explorers of such lethal cunning. In Vaalbara you’ve only got 12 cards in your deck but all of them are good. There’s none that I look at when they come into my hand where I think urgh, why is this even in here. However, they’re not all going to be good all the time, some are quite situational, but they’re not going to be so situational that you’ll only play them once in a blue moon. For example, the carpenter is going to get you 3 points per Forrest in your realm which is mainly going to get played over something else if you’ve got a few forests. Some cards let you swap cards from your realm or the deck or even swap between rows and here’s where a touch of “hate swapping” if that’s a thing, comes in. Generally you’ll be doing it to help yourself but now and then swapping out a mountain that you know someone else wants is pretty fun. Some cards will have you getting a reward depending on where you come in the turn order, or which cards your neighbours play and these are some of the most tense in the game because they’re always a gamble. They can be genuine mini nail biters. A lovely little touch with these cards is that you’ll only be against your two neighbours which means that the odds won’t change across the player counts except for two players Carpenter No 5 The low and high initiative cards have a great risk/reward factor to them. The lower cards (meaning you’ve more chance of going first) will generally give things to other players but it may just be worth it to get what you want. The higher cards have the better benefits. The Farmer, No 12 (which incidentally isn’t a follow up to Mambo No 5) lets you double the rewards of the land you take but is like the famous box of chocolate as in, you never know what you're gonna get. One game Vaalbara frequently gets compared to is Libertalia and even though I like that game, one thing it does that I find fiddly (I’ve only played the new Winds of Galecrest) is the tie breaker. I know they’ve made it easier for the new version but for some reason my brain still has trouble figuring out which way it reads, I know this is probably more a me problem. Regardless, Vaalbara takes out any uncertainty and makes tie breakers nice and simple. You look at the card on top of the deck which has a colour sequence and there’s your tiebreaker. I love it. This does bring me to one of my little issues with the game and that’s determining colours. Every card in every deck is only discernible by its card back meaning that when you check for tiebreakers and even when you need to see who’s card is next (because I guarantee you’ll forget) you need to turn the cards over. Now I know this is a little niggle and it takes a second to flip a card over, but I think just the addition of a symbol in the player colour on the front of the card would have made things so much smoother. They’ve added this to the cards on board game arena and it doesn’t cover any of the game's beautiful artwork. In exploration, there’s safety in numbers. The two player game falls a little flat for me because you’ve now only got that 50/50 chance of one of those “before your neighbour” cards working or failing and it makes it a little less interesting for me and I think that’s the best way to describe the two player game. There are also cards that don’t work quite as well, or are just less interesting in general. The fighter #1 (as mentioned previously) is now not worth keeping in your hand to rack up points since at best you’ll only get one out of it. The bard (#2 give two points to a player of your choice) and the falconer (#6 steal two from the player who played before you) can easily turn into a back and forth coin swap. I much prefer the better choice of lands you get with more players, it just makes for a more interesting decision over the cards you play and the land you could get. This decision gets better as the player count scales up which makes this a game that I’d much rather play with as many as I can and I honestly think that 3 may be my minimum player count for this one. The box for Vaalbara looks cool. It’s got this drawer that pulls out that makes access to the game quicker and whilst it’s a cool concept, it’s one big flaw is that, like any drawer that’s put on its side, it slides out. It doesn’t take much for someone to accidentally pick the game up by the wrong end and before you know it the game you took such joy in packing away so quickly, has deposited itself on your floor and now you're playing hunt the coin. On the subject of coins, I don’t love them and most of the people I’ve played this with haven't either. Coins are great in most games but because here you’re constantly taking coins and changing them up every round it just feels fiddly and annoying, especially as everyone is trying to do the same thing at the same time. I’d much rather there was some kind of scoring dial. I know it’d add to the cost of what is essentially a £20 game but I think it’d make for a much smoother experience. What, no Dora? If I’m looking to get my role selection, Libertalia style fix but in a smaller box and in around half an hour then Vaalbara is the first game I’m going to grab. In fact, I may even go to grab it over some of the others regardless! Now if we could just get a Dora the explorer expansion pack?

I wanted to clarify the review policies we work to here at WBG. Any questions, please reach out to me directly at jim@whatboardgame.com I will happily answer any questions or concerns. 1. We do not accept payment for reviews or previews anymore, but did so on three occasions. I have in the past accepted payment for previews. It was for three Kickstarter prototypes that wanted coverage as a time priority. It was during the pandemic. I did not have the usual financial security from my day job and I accepted a small figure to create content for the publishers. It did not feel right and I have not done it again since, nor do I expect to ever do so again Although if that changes I will make that very clear. But I have to be honest and say a big part about why I accepted the money on these occasions, was that it was flattering that anyone would consider my channel worthy enough of payment. There was some vanity present, no doubt. I declined the reviews initially as I was too busy and they then replied and said, what about if they paid. In the coverage I did for them, I have marked all posts, reviews, and YouTube videos with very clear notifications. This is what it says. This is a paid preview. The publisher paid for this preview to be made. The payment did not affect our opinions but we want to acknowledge the payment here. This is at the very top of the preview and the title also included the word "Paid". The money did not make me feel more inclined to be favourable to the game, but I was aware of the unconscious bias it may have on me. I therefore offered minimal opinion and gave the games no score. As this was a preview, not a review, this would have been the case anyway. The content was really just a rules run down. In my opinion, all the money did was bump the game forward in the queue for me and force me to do the work sooner. I always have a long list of games I want to review or preview, and these three payments made me work on these games sooner as I felt obligated to get the content out asap for the publisher/designer as they had paid. But it did not make me say anything that I otherwise would not have said. It just made me say, as otherwise I would not have had time. And say it sooner. This is another reason I don't want to accept payments again. It adds an unnecessary time pressure I would otherwise rather avoid. Other people who accept money for previews do so for their own reasons, and I have no issues with that. For me it is not an issue as long as it is declared. I just personally don't want to do this anymore. I love games, and enjoy writing about them. That is why I am here. The website has a significant cost for hosting and domain names and email etc. But that is my choice to pay that. No one else should have to cover that in my opinion as this is not my job. If it were, that would be different. 2. Our Previews have no scores and minimal opinion. If I am not playing a final copy of a game, where things may change, I feel this should be a preview and not review. The distinction for me means I cannot rate the game, and should avoid as much opinion on the game as possible. Simply as it is not a finished product. Although I do want it to be helpful, so I do include what I currently like and dislike about the game but mention where possible, parts of the game that may change in the finished version if I have that information. 3. We do receive free review copies of games. I personally cover hundreds of games a year and I could not afford to do that if I only reviewed the games I paid for myself. There are multiple review networks on Facebook where publishers reach out to people like me and ask for help. I also get contacted directly via email and on Instagram. I have also created relationships through meeting designers, publishers, and distributers at various conventions which leads to conversation where I am offered games. I accept these game under zero obligation other than to cover them on my channels at some point. I accept them so I can offer more reviews here than what I could otherwise afford. The increased reviews mean increased traffic to the site, but the site is not monetised in anyway, so it makes no difference to anyone or to me financially. I do get a kick out of our growth from a personal pride level, and feel a lot of this is down to the quantity of posting. Which is assisted in a big way by the review copies. So there is that benefit I suppose. But free review copies do not change my stance on game. They do not compromise my integrity. They do not sway me either way. But I appreciate if others think they must. All I can say is that they don't do so consciously, and I am mindful of the unconscious bias. When I accept a review copy, I do not promise what I will do with the game. I do not promise timings, or any favourable opinions. Or any specifics on anything. I simply agree to post something, at some point. But the free game has to affect me somehow, right? Unconsciously, or consciously, there is some extra bias created here based on the gesture alone. However, I am mindful of that, and I am not about to sell my integrity for the price of a game. I second guess every point I make to make sure I mean what I say. Generally speaking, I can see the good in most games, although we have plenty of low score reviews on this website. But I think my main bias is my love of the hobby. I like a lot of games as I like games. The free game for me doesn't affect the score consciously. The fact that I have played a game, with friends or family, and got away from screens and work and the stresses of life. That is my biggest bias and would affect any game. When I see a game that looks bad, or simply appears to be not for me, I generally decline the opportunity to review it if one is presented to me. I do not have time to review every game. So, I pick and choose the ones that look good to me, or interest me in anyway. I am not always right with this early assessment, and some games I think may be great, turn out to be disappointing. Others I turn down, turn out to be great. But this early filter does mean that the majority of games I review are games I want to play and think are probably going to be good. I see it as my duty to find what makes each game enjoyable for a certain type of person when I review but never to the point of ignoring what doesn't work in the game. I will happily comment on any problems when I see them. But most games I review do OK here as that early filter gets rid of most of the bad games. I also feel there is way to much negativity in this hobby for what is essentially just adults enjoying a pastime playing with toys. Let's be honest. I love games. But I don't want to over analyse them. This is how I like to think when I review a game. What's good about them? What is bad? Is it fun? Who might this be for? That is how I like to cover games. I feel it gets to the route of a review a lot more quickly. I feel a review serves one main purpose. Helping people decide if a game is for them or not. There are obviously lots of other side benefits, but this is the one I want to focus on here. So this is why I do it like I do it. I would welcome any comments on the above. And am sure things will change and adapt as I learn more. Jim Cohen. May 21st 2023. Updated April 2024

The Mystery Agency: The Man From Sector Six WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Exit, Unlock. Published by: The Mystery Agency Ltd. Designed by: Henry Lewis This is a review copy. See our review policy here SPOILER FREE REVIEW Have you heard of The Play That Goes Wrong? Well, it has been running in London's West End since 2012. You can get a flavour for it here. The main writer behind this is a chap called Henry Lewis. And in 2020 he decided to put his writing skills to the test and create an escape room style puzzle board game. This launched, as most things go, on Kickstarter and over 1,000 backers brought his vision to life. This lead to follow up releases, and now this new box of tricks, The Man From Sector Six. It's ridiculously good. But there is only so much I can tell you in this spoiler free review, but I will do my best to give you a flavour. If you have any more questions drop me a line and we can talk in more detail. But, without further ado, let's get this to the table and see how it plays - spoiler free! How To Set Up The Man From Sector Six Open the box and take out the zipped folder and loose newspaper page. On the inside of the box, you will see some basic instructions that will instruct you to scan a QR code. When you have done this, you will have a choice of games to log into. Select "The Man from Sector Six" and enter your password as shown on the box. You can then choose to play with a timer or not. It's up to you. You will now be able to access your first clue, which will start you on your adventure. You will also have a website asking for the input of the name of a person. This will be your final answer in the game, so don't worry about that for now. How To Play The Man From Sector Six Throughout this game, you will be presented with a series of puzzles to solve. There is a linear path, but initially, it will not be overly apparent where this path starts. Although, opening the padlocked folder does seem like a good idea. Once you have done this, the options of things to look at and study will grow exponentially. However, keep a keen eye open and you will see your first goal. Solving this will be crucial to the way the rest of the puzzles unfold. And that is all I can really say without spoiling anything. You will have to use all your wits to solve various puzzles, get codes, input answers to weave your way through this mystery. If you ever get stuck, there are two hints for each puzzle, and the ultimate answer. Looking at these will add on time to your game clock if you have chosen to play that way. I suggest always giving yourself five more minutes thinking time before you use a hint. I think most of the time you will get there. Good luck! Is It Fun? The Mystery Agency: The Man From Sector Six - Escape Room Board Game Review Wow! We had an amazing experience with this game. It is very much a one and done. But we have reset the package and can now give it to friends. And the game even recommends you do this. At the end you get detailed instructions as to how to do this as well. It's great. Just use a separate piece of paper for your notes as you go so you don't spoil anything in the game. Simple. There is no folding or cutting. Resetting the game is an easy operation. Even though I will only play this game once, it will live long in my memory. Some of the puzzles are incredibly clever, and the process by which you will solve them will make you feel incredibly satisfied. Now, of course, like all games of this nature, there is the possibility you will get stuck and have the complete opposite feeling. Becoming confused on one puzzle is frustrating and can make you feel annoyed. And this did happen to us twice. The first time, I missed one vital clue midway through, and we got stuck. I did not want to use a hint, but eventually when I did, it did not help us at all as I had missed something prior to this and the hint made no sense. The clue told me what I needed to do, but I did not really understand why or how as I had missed something before. Eventually, I had to read the hints and answers for the previous clue that I had already solved to see what I had missed, and there it was. A glaring mistake made by me, overlooking a crucial clue. This can be frustrating. It's hard to say how often this will happen to other people, but I can only think it a possibility if it happened to us. With a game of this nature where you are free to look and study multiple things, there can be times when you are not quite sure what to look for or where to start. The hints list the puzzles in chronological order, so this can help in this way. You can see a timeline of where you are and where you need to go. But I feel there should be a way to input something into the system when you have solved something so you can then see the hints for your solved puzzles, without being penalised on your time. Or penalised less so you can check you covered everything. You prove that you got the puzzle solved by putting something in, but then can see if there is anything else you missed? But outside of these minor irritations, that can always arise when you are trying to solve puzzles like this (you don't want them to be too simple) this is a box of delights. The story is genuinely interesting. The production is through the roof. As you would hope for this price point. And I cannot wait to share it with friends and talk to them about their experiences with this after they play. The mystery, suspense, and sense of discovery felt throughout is unparalleled for me, and I would rate this much higher than the Exit or Unlock games, but the price point again is crucial here, when comparing. If you are a fan of solving puzzles with your family or friends, then I would highly recommend this game. It doesn't come cheap so you need to decide for yourself if 2-3 hours is enough value for a £50 game. Even if you can then give/sell to other friends. It's hard to subjectively say if I would do that myself having been given the game for free for purposes of this review. I think I would. I would pay that for an escape room experience, which I tend to avoid due to my claustrophobia. So this is a better option for me, and similarly priced. With no locked rooms! So, yes. I think I would pay this money. And if I had, I would be happy with my purchase because I loved every second with this game and cannot wait to share it with other people. As soon as we finished all my family asked for me to get another one. They all loved the experience, and the shared sense of satisfaction we had as we inputted that final name was something that will live on for a long time for us all. If you are interested in trying this for yourself, head over here.