Search Results

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. The game is coming to Kickstarter soon. You can find more details of that here. Bad Trevor is the brainchild of first-time designer Mark Hurdle, who, despite a background in video production, teamed up with his long-time friend Steve Penfold, a professional comic book artist. The result is the prototype version that currently sits before me, and I must say, I've had a blast with it. The game operates on a remarkably simple premise. Players are dealt cards evenly, and whoever receives Kamikaze Kevin must declare it, place the card in the centre of the playing area, and become the first player. Any pairs of Civilian cards in players hands can be discarded now, or held onto to use in the game. Turns then unfold as players select three cards from their hand and lay them face down in front of the player to their left. The recipient must then choose one of these three cards to pick up. If it's a villain or hero card, they read the actions and execute them before discarding. A Civilian card is added to their hand. If it's Bad Trevor, they must pick up the remaining two cards and add all three to their hand. If a player accumulates pairs of civilian cards, they can play them in front of them and either continue as usual, reverse the order of play, or request a specific civilian card from another player. These powers are why you may want to hold onto some during the opening phase. You do not get to use these powers if you discard them before the first turn. If you are successful in obtaining the requested card in this way, you are allowed to play a second match and make another choice or continue with your turn as normal by playing three attack cards against the next player. Failure to receive the requested card results in forfeiting their turn. Certain cards offer assistance, while others pose challenges. The game progresses until only one player has cards in hand, inevitably holding Bad Trevor, the one card that cannot be discarded. That player loses, and the remaining players emerge victorious. An additional card in the game, Kamikaze Kevin, adds an interesting dynamic. When a player passes Bad Trevor to another, everyone knows if the next player picks it up, they'll have to pick up the other two cards as well. Only Bad Trevor possesses this power, making its location generally known. However, when a player suspects Bad Trevor is placed in front of them, they have a choice: take one of the cards, risking picking up Bad Trevor, or use Kamikaze Kevin to detonate Bad Trevor. The Kamikaze Kevin play involves slapping the card down on the suspected Bad Trevor and shouting "Take that, Bad Trevor!" If correct, the player gives all their cards to the one who placed Bad Trevor, who also reclaims the placed cards. The Kamikaze Kevin player is now out of the game. If wrong, the player who had Kamikaze Kevin played on them gives their cards to the Kamikaze Kevin player, and they exit the game. Kamikaze Kevin can be used by anyone at any point, but only once per game, adding a significant risk factor. Once it has been used, it is out of the game for all players. As the game progresses, players find ways to mitigate this risk of playing the card incorrectly, increasing their odds but you will never be certain. You can never play Kamikaze Kevin on just one attack card. It's a thrilling gamble that keeps players on their toes throughout the game. Some of the Villain and Hero cards offer some very interesting powers, forcing players to play reduced hands, mitigate affects of hero cards, miss their turn, or even be forced to take Bad Trevor from whomever currently holds him. Outbursts of much hilarity is a regular friend in this game. The hero cards in the game add a dynamic twist, allowing players to influence others either negatively or positively. For instance, these cards empower you to pass on Bad Trevor to another player, provided you currently hold him. One personal favourite of mine allows you to force the next player to only lay two cards on their following turn, effectively making the odds of a successful Kamikaze Kevin victory 50/50. If they choose to play Bad Trevor of course. The game's ongoing bluff and double bluff elements consistently bring laughter to the table, enhancing the overall enjoyment of the experience. The rule book is a thing of joy. It looks great. Is easy to read, and learning and teaching this game is a breeze. Game sonly take a few minutes too. For me, games often fall into clusters. One is never enough. It is so simple, but so fun, and if you lose, you just want to play again to try and change your fortune. There is a wonderful how to play video you can see here, and I must commend the card art. It is stunning I hope you would agree. I really hope this game finds a welcoming audience during the funding. It deserves a lot of love. I am a big fan, as our my children.

The 7 Seas is a new game from Critical Hut, a Franco-Belgian studio. The game is coming to Gamefound in March. You can find details of that here. This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. Let me introduce to you The 7 Seas. An interesting new exploration game that offers players the chance to dive into a rich Pirate themed game. There are two modes to play, one a lot simpler to help you learn the basics. Another a little deeper with a few more elements to get the full (current) experience of the game. More on that later. The game works by players taking it in turns to place one of their two workers down into the central area, to chose to carry out two actions. The locations in which you can place your workers are next to a number of different actions. The actions next to your worker dictate which actions are available to you. These actions can be to move, upgrade, or repair your ship; interact with an island, port, another non-playing ship, sea monster, sea creature, or sea hazard; or start a fight with another player. You know? Pirate stuff! The interactions are dictated by cards that placed round seven areas, representing the seven seas. Each sea area has one of each players coloured sea gems there during set-up. The cards come from seven different decks, linked to the seas in which they are placed. The cards offer players the chance to trade, fight, and attempt various missions. If players are successful then you will take the card and your sea gem and add it to your player mat. If this is the second card of the same type, then players in the advanced mode can also take the sea bonus (if it is still there) which allows players special one off powers. Although, you can recharge these powers and use them again if you get a third card of the same type. As you place your worker, in the basic game, it doesn't matter which one you use. But in the full game, there are rankings. One worker acts as a Captain, the other as the Officer. If you place a worker with another of equal or higher ranking you can only carry out a reduced action this turn. Players are looking to interact with as many cards as they can during the course of a maximum of seven rounds to score points for their collected gams, completed mission cards, state of their ship at the end of the game, and any resource, coins, treasure, sea bonuses and parrot tokens (stolen in battle) in their possession. As the game progresses, you will be looking to maximise your efficiency. Balancing movement and actions. You need to place your worker in the right spot to carry out the right actions, depending on what cards are available, and in what seas you wish to complete a mission. But you may not always be able to get to where you want to be, or use the specific actions you want, based on what the other players have done. Sometimes, other players can block you, the cards you want me be out of reach. Or on occasions, there are no actions available to you which are currently achievable. on those occasions you may want to take the time to spend your acquired resources to upgrade your ships movement and/or firepower. Or maybe set yourself up for a later turn. There have been a few occasions in the later parts of some games where I cannot carry out any actions, but this is rare. But when it does happen, you can always Fish at sea, meaning you can take one food cube or money token, which are always useful! When the game flows it can be a lot of fun. Players are only ever carrying out two actions at once, and most actions are fairly quick. Downtime is fairly small because of this. However, there are times when you are simply watching another player. You cannot always plan out your action whilst you wait as the cards and situation can change based on what other players do. But you can sometimes get involved in the roll of some dice, acting for ships the other player may be attacking. I much prefer the advanced mode, where the type of worker matters. Players can also interreact more with trading and fighting each other. Although in four games, not one single trade has happened! Perhaps this is more prevalent in higher player counts. I have only played this in two player. The theme comes across nicely. The art of the cards is excellent. And I like the overall table presence this game brings. Set up and tear down is all very simple. And the rules are very easy to teach. Although the rule book is not the easiest to learn from due to the order, but again, this may change in the final game. It would be interesting to see some changes to the player boards, with some small asymmetry perhaps being introduced to each player mat. And I think the game could benefit from a few more actions away from the cards to avoid dead turns. But other than that, this is a well executed, beauty looking mid-weight family game that I think a lot of people would have a lot of fun with. The player boards are very good. The clearly show you where everything goes. What scores you get for each item. And how areas can be upgraded. They are double sided, this shows the advanced mode side. Engaging in battles is straightforward yet enjoyable. Players roll dice corresponding to their current ship firepower level. Additional dice can be obtained by trading green Rum cubes. The objective is to roll enough cannonballs to surpass the enemy's defense, indicated by wooden planks. In this scenario, the goal is to match or exceed two planks. Successful rolls result in winning the encounter, acquiring the card and revealed rewards. If the cannonball count falls short, players transition to the boarding phase. In a tie, the attacking player loses, as seen in this example where both players rolled two swords. However, the defending card possesses two extra dice. If either of these extra dice displays a third sword symbol, the defending card emerges victorious. The battle system is fast-paced and enjoyable. The developers of the game have told me that the game I have represents 50% of the full game when played in advance mode. The rest will come with Captain cards, bringing the above suggested asymmetry. There will be an ancient legends module, a Pirates & Corsairs and New Governors expansions, as well as two things called Endless Adventures and Season of Mists, whatever that means! But obviously it means what I am playing with, is far from the finished article. If the final game can be twice as good then there certainly is something very special here. Oh, and I know I mentioned the card art already, but...

Tapestry is a wonderful game. You can find my review for the base game here. And then the Arts & Architecture expansion here, the Plans & Ploys expansion here, and finally the Fantasies & Futures here. They are all wonderful, I am a big fan. There has been significant discussion surrounding the balance of this game, a project spearheaded by designer James Stegmaier with considerable ambition. The game boasts 16 civilizations, each providing unique scoring mechanisms. While playtesting occurred before the game's release, the true litmus test lies in releasing the game to the public for widespread playtesting. James Stegmaier has meticulously gathered data through players logging their scores on the Stonemaier website. This data includes information about the civilization they played with and against. This extensive dataset has enabled Jamey to make adjustments to each civilization, addressing concerns about game balance. Personally, I appreciate some level of asymmetry in a game, viewing it as an inherent part of the gaming experience. However, I recognise that not everyone shares this perspective, and I commend Jamey for earnestly addressing and attempting to rectify this issue. The result of all this is this small release, offering all 31 final revised Civilization mats from the core game and all the expansions along with two revised capital city mats from the base game. Its available to buy now for $20, but do you need it? First, lets talk about what comes in this little box. 31 Revised Civilization Mats 2 Revised Capital City Mats 1 Civilization Complexity Chart The revised mats are a big deal I would say. The changes on them are sometimes quite significant. Take a look for yourself. The revised version is displayed on the left, featuring the updated logo in the bottom left corner. For comparison, the original version is positioned on the right. Not only have adjustments been made to how the Mats function and their overall balance, but there's also enhanced clarity in their functionality. Acquiring all the Civilization Mats through this set is a compelling option, especially if you haven't purchased the expansions yet. I would recommend it solely for that reason. However, it's not just about achieving a balance; it represents a comprehensive refresh. The process involved extensive research, leveraging thousands of data points from both BGG and the Stonemaier website. It is impressive to me what has been done here. Some changes are more nuanced, like those involving the Militants. However, I notice a significant improvement in the clarity of the wording. Previously, there seemed to be some ambiguity regarding the first income turn and why there were limitations on gaining anything when all the outposts were still active without having had the chance to deactivate them. I particularly appreciate the adjustments made to the Traders. The previous version's effectiveness relied on opponents placing territory tiles, which could easily be circumvented if others were aware of your Traders mat. The new rules provide the player with this mat more agency, allowing them to exert a greater influence on their own destiny. This revamp elevates the Traders mat, aligning it more closely with some of the more popular Civilization mats. Additionally, the box includes two revised Capital City mats. While I'm less certain about the necessity for these changes, I encourage you to examine them yourself. The updated versions are positioned at the bottom for your reference. I speculate that the changes to the Capital City mats aimed to mitigate the creation of numerous small, challenging-to-fill single areas, potentially complicating the use of larger Landmark buildings. While it appears to be a minor adjustment, I surmise that these alterations might not have occurred without the imperative for Civilization mat upgrades. Nonetheless, the changes are inconsequential, and they introduce a more open design to these mats. The box also contains a complexity chart and a comprehensive list of all the Landmark tiles, detailing their functionalities (which extends to the reverse side of the card). This guide proves to be a valuable resource, aiding in the decision-making process when selecting Civilization mats. It serves as a quick reference to identify the expansion from which a particular Civilization mat originates, distinguishing between those from the base game and various expansions. In summary, I consider this accessory to be quite useful, particularly for avid Tapestry fans. It is a must-have for those who regularly engage with the game. However, if you play more sporadically and haven't been significantly impacted by the asymmetry, you have the option to acquire only the necessary adjustments or continue playing as per the original game design. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f2tekc23yvb27w3/AADWdwC3POTS09LOrPk0en1Qa/Tapestry?dl=0&subfolder_nav_tracking=1

Mille Fiori WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Get on Board, Ganz Schon Clever. Published by: Schmidt Spiele, 999 Games, Devir, Coiledspring Games Designed by: Reiner Knizia By Steve Godfrey This is a review copy. See our review policy here When you visit a glassware shop as a parent you come to realise the great circle of life. When I was younger I’d always hear my parents telling me not to touch anything. I’d then shoot a look back with a disgusted expression of “I’m not gonna break anything”, I mean, do they really not trust me? Of course now as a parent I find myself doing the same with my kids because yeah, I absolutely don’t trust them. At the same time I still don’t trust myself so i still shuffle around them with my hands firmly in my pockets. Anyway, we should probably talk about this game about the cycle of glass! (You’re all singing the song from the Lion King now right?) How to blow glass During setup each player will be given diamonds in their chosen colour and have everyone set three of them aside, you may need these later. Then deal five cards from the deck to everyone. FYI they aren’t really diamonds unfortunately, I guess they’re saving those for the Swarovski edition. Place a number of cards face up next to the board depending on player count then pick a first player. A turn will see players simultaneously choosing a card from their hand and placing it face down in front of them. In turn order players will reveal their card and place one of their diamonds in the area matching the card on the board and scoring some points. Once everyone has played, pass your remaining hand of cards to the player on your left and go again until all but one card has been played. The leftover cards are placed next to the board face up with the others. New cards will be dealt out, the first player marker rotates and everything goes again. The game will end when either all the cards have run out or a player places their last diamond token. In this instance that player finish their turn using the diamonds they set aside earlier if necessary, then any player with a face down card plays their turn then the game ends. There are five areas on the board. Each one has its own way of scoring points and for the most part are easy enough to pick up. The harbour is probably the trickiest to get your head round of the five. I won’t go into how each one works but they all have a couple of things in common. Each one has an objective to complete which will net you an end game scoring bonus, which I’ll admit now, we always score during the game. For example, in one area, covering one of each symbol first will get you this bonus. The first to complete it gets twenty points, the second fifteen etc. They all also have ways to get at those extra cards that were placed on the side of the board during setup. For example, if you surround a diamond symbol in the Workshops area. When this happens you get to take one of the cards from the side of the board and essentially have another turn immediately. Everything here stacks as well, so if you claim a bonus card then the action you take could lead to a second bonus card and so on. The Circle of Glass Even though it’s not billed as such, Mille Fiore immediately gave me major flip and write vibes when I first started playing it. The whole board seems to evoke that whole ethos of those types of game, most of all, Ganz Schon Clever with its different sections and combo scoring. Place a token here, get points and if you’ve planned well then you can chain together some bonuses for some really satisfying combos. The big difference here of course is that it’s not a flip and write and you’re not playing a multiplayer solitaire game. Nope, here you’re sharing the board with the whole table, so your best laid plans can easily be scuppered by any of the players before you. It's the equivalent of having someone else lean over and scribble on your paper. The beauty of this shared board is the wonderful amount of interaction you gain. So often you’ll play a card and find an opponent glaring at you with that look of “how dare you” as you realise you’ve snapped up the space that was going to lead to their most epic scoring combo yet. I can easily see that frustrating some people but quite frankly, I love it. Aside from the fun banter it leads to, It also really adds to the tension as you wait, desperately hoping that no one steals that vital space. Although your own plays are important, working out what your opponent's are up to will be just as important, and that’s where the drafting and the strategy really shine through. For example, the residences section is all about chaining numbers together. So someone getting their diamond on a space before you get your turn could be the difference between a ten point space and a one point space. I hope you’ve remembered what cards you passed and what’s been played because that could make or break your decision. Do you play it safe and try something else or do you risk it for a biscuit? It provides a really fun back and forth as you try and second guess what others are doing, all the while they're doing exactly the same as you. Just as an FYI biscuit based bribery will usually work on me. I’m working out the loopholes on this in our review policy as you read this. The great thing in Mille Fiore is that pretty much everything will get you points. It’s a huge point salad, but one that’s made of glass……please don’t eat glass salads, they make your mouth hurt, taste very samey and no amount of salad cream will help. Getting a point or two when you put a tile down is nice, but it’s when you manage to rack up those big points on a turn that you really get that satisfying hit….and you just want more. Which makes those moments when someone takes that away from you feel like someone had let a rhino loose in your glassware shop (I’m sure there’s a better phrase for that somewhere). Walking on broken glass The theme gets pretty much lost when you're actually playing. In fact the rulebook doesn’t even try to give any explanation aside from giving names to the different areas. What wasn’t lost on me though is how pretty this game looks, especially as the game goes on and the board fills out. The coloured “glass” tiles really make the board pop. You’ll find yourself wanting to play this with the full four players just so you can see the board filled up with those wonderful colours. It’s one of those photogenic games that you’ll want to take as many photos of as you can before the sad task of packing it all away. On the subject of packing it all away, this is a pretty easy task, since once you put everything in baggies, it all gets packed away in an unnecessarily big trench in the middle of the box which is way too big for its relatively small footprint. Yes the box needs to be that big to accommodate the board, but I can’t help but wonder if the box needed to be quite so deep. Mille Fiori may not have the initial box cover appeal to draw you in the same way that a lot of recent titles, but it’s a game that you absolutely need to play if you have the opportunity. Even if it’s just to see the pretty colours on the board.

Dog Park WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Parks, Wingspan Published by: Birdwood Games Designed by: Lottie Hazell, Jack Hazell By Steve Godfrey This is a review copy. See our review policy here Finally! After so much begging, pleading and saying how I’ll feed it, walk it and clean up after it, the folks at Birdwood games have finally let us have a Dog themed game. Now I’m off to name it……I’m thinking Roger because I find the concept of dogs with human names hilarious. How to walk your dog. I won’t go into how you set up except to say that if you're playing with two players you’ll need to set up for an “auto walker” to act as a third player. Given the bidding element of this game that’s normally pretty standard. You’ll also need to randomly set up the breed cards down the awards track. The game is played over four rounds, each consisting of four phases. At the start of each round flip over a location card and populate the walk track with the tokens pictured. In phase one players will secretly use their dial to set a bid for one of the face up dogs on the board, spending a maximum of five reputation. In turn order players will place their walker next to the dog they’re bidding on. All players will flip the dials over and the player with the highest bid on each dog will win that dog into their kennel, also paying the reputation they bid. The losing bidders will get to take another dog, in turn order, for the cost of one reputation. More dogs will be flipped and the bidding phase will be done again so each player will get two dogs each round. One crucial thing to note is that you’re bidding with reputation which in this game is your victory points. So spend wisely. In phase two you’ll need to pick up to three dogs in your kennel to go for walkies. In a perfect world that’d be all of them but that doesn’t make a very competitive game and that would be a lot of poo to clean up!. Put the dogs you want to take onto your lead board, pay the cost in resources and place a lead token on them. Dogs are placed one at a time because all dogs have special abilities. So any that say “when placing on the lead” will trigger. Some abilities may get you resources which you might need to help place another dog. The next round is WALKIES! Don’t shout this out loud with your dogs in the room though otherwise this could be a long round! In this round you can move your walker up to four spaces through the park. When you land on a space you immediately take the resources, points pictured or action on it. If another walker is in that space you can still choose to take the benefit but you have to pay one reputation point to do so. This will go on until all but one walker has left the park, at which point the phase will end and the last player left will lose one point. When you're walking your dog you’ll also be triggering any abilities on your dogs on the lead that apply to this phase. Some spaces have actions on them. The swap action lets you swap a dog in your kennel with a dog in the field (display) . This is a great way to get dogs you want without spending reputation in the bidding phase. Swap and walk does the same thing but this time the dog you take has a lead token put on them so you don’t lose points at the end of the round. Finally, scouting lets you look at the top two cards of the deck and replace one of the dogs in the field with one you’ve just drawn. In the last phase you’ll score two points for each dog you took on the lead and lose one for each dog without a lead token in your kennel. After four rounds you’ll score points for each breed on the awards track. Whoever has the most of a certain breed will score the points next to them. Ties are friendly. You'll also score for any end of game goals on any dog cards in your kennel and for your private objectives. How do you park a dog? One of the first things you’ll notice about Dog Park (once you’ve stopped staring at the dogs of course) is how distinct each phase of the game is, more so for the bidding and the walking phase. Games that have very distinct phases that consist of very separate mechanisms can easily be a bit worrying. It could be so easy for any one of these to not integrate well or just not be as fun as other phases and if that happens it could ruin the experience of the game. Happily all the phases of Dog Park work well and more importantly work really well together. The bidding phase offers some really good decisions especially when you throw in the fact that your spending victory points to do it. There’s a lovely amount to consider when choosing your best friend. The special ability, the breed and if you can afford to put it on the lead to avoid losing out on victory points. You may only lose one point per dog, but those points could be vital for the next bidding phase. Let’s face it no one wants to take a dog only to not be able to take it for a walk. Whether you lose points or not you’d just feel guilty. (As an aside I think there needs to be a flip side to each card where each dog has those puss in boots style sad eyes and it stays on that side until you walk it. No dog left behind) Regardless of why you’re initially picking a dog you’ll find choosing how much to bid a genuinely tough choice. Not only because you’re your spending points, but because you’ll usually find that you may not have that many to spend and with two bids each round you really need to pick your battles. When you come to the walking phase you really get the sense that this game loves to put the players in a position of uncertainty and second guessing your opponents and both phases encompass that. In a perfect world during this second phase you’ll want to stop at almost every space to maximise the number of resources you’re getting; but not everyone has those ideals and that’s where the race element comes into it. All this depends on how you’re faring on the resource front. Too few and you’ll want to take as long as possible, but there’s always that one player who’s managed to acquire the whole pet shop full of resources and has merely to skip down the track as fast as they can. It's tense! Other players will see this sprint towards the end and soon need to decide if they want to follow suit just in case everyone else is. You just need to decide if you risk it for a dog biscuit and try to gather as much as you can, or join the mad dash through the park. Dog Park certainly gives you lots to take into account with every decision you make, but there’s nothing that feels overwhelming. In fact I’d say it’s a great game to introduce to newer gamers. I’d say it would work as a good family game, especially if you're a family of dog lovers. You call the dog, then I’ll call the dog….. Ok, let’s talk about the real reason you're all here. The dogs! You get a huge stack of them (163 to be precise), each with individual and fantastic looking artwork with what feels like every dog breed imaginable. The fact that there are already expansions with more breeds kinda disproves that idea but being able to have more dogs is never a bad thing. Dog Park falls into that pantheon of games where you’ll often find yourself torn between picking a dog for its ability…..or because it’s just so darn cute. This is a big stack of cards though and much like other games that also have those big decks (Wingspan, Ark Nova) you’ll find that you won’t get though a fraction of that. It could mean that end of game breed awards could easily be won because one player just happened to get the only dog of that breed that came out. It might also hinder any end game scoring that relies on you getting multiples of a certain breed. There are a couple of actions in the walking phase that will help you cycle through the deck a little bit but it still won’t be enough to make a huge dent in the deck. One thing Dog Park brings with it compared to the games I mentioned (I’ll include Meadow in that list as well) is the personal touch. If you’ve ever owned or known a dog in your life then it's lovely to know that you could potentially have your dog in your kennel. It potentially may not work for you strategy wise, but I’d take the personal aspect of it any day. For a first game it’s an impressive production. The components are great and I think we all appreciate game trayz in our boxes. However I think the colours could have been better matched throughout the game. The lead boards are hard to differentiate the colours on the front. The backs are better but they don’t quite match the meeples and the offer dials. Ultimately, knowing which colour meeple you are is the only thing that matters but it’d still be nice for a little bit of cohesion between everything. The two player game is fine, it employs a dummy player and I personally don’t find these particularly engaging (in general, not just in this game). It's easy enough to run, but It’s also easy to predict where the auto walker is going to go during the bidding phase. So unless you really want a particular card and want to take a chance, it’s easy to avoid sharing the same spot. For me it takes away the unpredictability of the other players which in turn, takes the edge off of the tension that a three plus player game gives. The unpredictability is still present for contesting bids and the walking phase since this is determined by a roll of the dice. Dog Park is a worthy game to celebrate our most loyal furry friends and whether you want to play a game or just stare at pictures of the goodest boys and girls then Dog park is definitely worth a look.

Forever Home WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Reef, Century: Golem Edition Published by: Birdwood Games Designed by: Lottie Hazell, Jack Hazell By Steve Godfrey This is a review copy. See our review policy here Dog Park was all about taking your furry friends for a (whisper it) walk. Birdwood games second offering gives you an even more noble task of finding them a new, loving home. Now if that (combined with the gorgeous art) doesn’t make you want to run out and buy it immediately then let me try and convince you further. How to find your dog a forever home. Give everyone a shelter board and together everyone chooses to play with either the regular side or the advanced side. Take each of the home card types, shuffle them and place out one of each. Place out a number of training cards depending on the player count and do the same with the dog tokens. Place the dog meeples randomly on the commendations board. Give each player two training cards then create a pool of dog tokens equal to two per player. In turn order players will take one dog from the pool and place them on your board with the last player taking two dogs then drafting will go in reverse order. On your turn you can take two actions. You can take a dog from the display and place it into the grid on your shelter board. The display then gets filled immediately. Since you can take the same action twice you can wait until the next dog is revealed before you place it down, just in case you want to take another dog and it might affect where you want to place things. As an action you can also move a dog in your grid one space in any direction as long as the space is empty. Taking a training card works the same way as taking a dog, you take a card, it’s immediately replaced. You can have a max of five cards in hand. Each card shows a pattern on it and if you can complete that pattern on your grid in any orientation then you can complete that card. You can only complete a card on your turn and it will trigger as soon as you fulfil it, even if you’ve only just taken that card into your hand. Cards will have a point value on them and a graduation number on them. When you fulfil a card you move a number of dogs (as dictated by the graduation number) that completed that pattern from your board and place it into one of the four home sections on top of your shelter board. These will contribute to scoring the home cards at the end of the game. The game will end when one player has completed seven training cards. All players will go until they’ve had an equal number of turns. You’ll then score the points on your completed training cards, the home card objectives and for the commendations board. Knick-knack paddywhack give a dog a home Forever Home is a much lighter and smaller affair than Birdwood Games previous game Dog Park, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make your brain itch. In fact I’d say Forever Home is more of a brain burner. It presents a really interesting puzzle as you spend your turns trying to set up patterns for not just one card, but as many as you can. It certainly gives you plenty to think about. You’ll soon find out that the two actions you’re given for a turn is never enough, but that just goes to add to the tough decisions. You’ll want to take dogs so you can build up your grid to complete those all important training cards. But I’ll guarantee there’s gonna be a training card staring lovingly at you (but that just may be the dogs on the card) that you’re so close to completing, it’d be rude not to take it……but you also really need two of those dog tokens but you can’t guarantee that either of them will still be there by the time your next turn comes along. Player count plays a big part of how you approach the game. In a two player game there’s a fairly decent chance that something you want will still be there when your turn comes around. As the player count increases, so do the chances of those same things being taken. It really changes up how you plan. In lower player counts you can easily form a plan and still be in with a good chance that you’ll be able to pull it off. In higher counts you're probably best off waiting until your turn comes around. I know that’s not necessarily what a gamer wants to hear. It brings on nightmares of elongated turns. But I’ve never found that to be the case in the games that I’ve played, turns have always been fairly snappy. The end game scoring is the thing you’re going to be racking your brains over. The training cards offer some points but you’ll find that you'll mostly be concerned with the graduation number and the puzzle of which dogs you’re going to rehome and where. I (and a few of my group) found that we didn’t really pay much attention to the Commendation board scoring for our first game and only worried about it from game two onwards. It felt like maybe one too many things to worry about in the first game but maybe that’s just us. You’ll certainly want to get onto using the advanced board as soon as you can though. This adds spaces on the board that have special actions that you trigger when you place a dog on that space. The arrow will let you move a dog on your grid as many spaces as you want following the arrow’s direction. The card swap lets you swap a card from your hand with one in the display. And the swap a token action is the same as the card action but with a dog token. Each action is really simple but I love how they open up the game and help to expand your options on a turn and may even help you do more than the usual two actions. Some dogs are solo dogs. The multiplayer game is a lot of fun and it’s definitely one I’d recommend. However, it’s the solo mode in this game that really shines for me. The solo mode works much the same as the regular game. Set up the dogs and cards as if you're playing a 2/3 player game. Shuffle and place out the solo deck then put out the solo commendations board but don’t place any of the dog tokens on it. Then take three dogs from the bag, pick two to place on your board. Once you’ve taken a turn as normal, flip over a solo card and remove and replace the cards/dogs pictured on the card and move the round marker. Now the clever part. You’re going to place one of the meeples on the commendation board. You’re going to be doing this every round and eventually you’ll build up your own set of end game scoring parameters for those objectives. This is a brilliant touch. How many times have you played a solo game and been hamstrung by the objectives going against you. Well now you get to build them to your advantage as you go along. So now if you mess up you’ve only yourself to blame. This doesn’t mean it’s going to make winning any easier, it’s still a brilliant challenge and this just serves to mitigate any situations that may put a damper on the experience. The solo game ends after eight rounds…maybe. You can take two extra turns but you lose 4 points if you take one extra turn and a massive eight points if you take two extra. The downside of the solo game? It’s darn (I’m trying to keep this family friendly) addictive. You’ll immediately want to set up again (which is really easy) and go again to try and improve your score. On many occasions I’ve sat down to play A game and found myself crashing out three games in a row and I could’ve easily gone one but had to stop myself. The art here is beautiful and serves to give the training cards that extra pop and, yes, the temptation to take the cards just for the artwork is a problem that the folks over at Birdwood games just love to see us struggle with. Dog Park is a fun family game and not wanting to rest on their laurels, Lottie and Jack Hazell have followed up with this brilliantly fun, light puzzle game that will easily make you want to go out and rehome all the dogs.

Outrun the Bear WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Exploding Kittens Published by: Around the Stump Games LLC Designed by: Samuel Barmettler By Steve Godfrey This is a review copy. See our review policy here Being from the U.K I’m lucky that having a bear disturb your picnic is never going to be an issue. In fact the only animals we really have to worry about is an ambitious dog or if we’re at the beach, seagulls! But let’s face it, being from the U.K we rarely get the weather for picnics anyway. I’m gonna talk about the game now because I can Bearly contain my excitement (I assure you this will be the only bear pun……maybe, but don’t be grizzly if it isn’t)) How to outrun a bear (FYI, you can’t!) First build the park by setting aside the campsite and parking lot, shuffling the rest of the tiles and choosing three randomly with either side face up. There’s also a first play variant for your first game if you want to follow that. Place the bear standee at the end of the board and each player's chosen characters at the campsite. Give each player the card for their character. If you're using the “park pass” variant, flip the card over to use that runner's ability. Deal each player two cards, give the last player the bear token and you're ready to go. On your turn first trigger the effects of the terrain type you’re on. This could be moving an extra space, moving back to another terrain type or it may even stop you from performing a sprint action. Once resolved you can take one action. Crawling which will move you 2 spaces. You can sprint by discarding four cards from your hand to move 5 spaces. You can also play an action card from your hand which will have a variety of effects on you or other players. Lastly you can play an equipment card which will stay in front of you (unless told otherwise) and give you an ability to use throughout the game. There are also reaction cards which you can play at any time (not just on your turn.) The card will tell you exactly when it triggers. After taking an action you draw 2 cards from the deck. Once all players have gone it’s time for the bear to activate. The player with the bear token counts all the paw prints between the lead runner and the end of the board where the bear is coming from. They then draw that many cards from the bottom of the discard pile. If there’s not enough cards they draw from the top of the deck. They then total up the numbers in the top left side of the card and move the bear that many spaces. If the bear overtakes a runner then that runner is removed from the game. All the cards in the discard pile are placed in the bottom of the runner deck. The bear token is passed to the right and the player on the left will go next. It essentially means that the last player from the previous round will go first in this one. The game will end when there are no runners left either because they’ve made it to the car park or they’ve all been bear food, or if there is one runner left standing. There are also four different variants you can use, including the park pass (as I mentioned earlier, a co-op version, a version where everyone starts with equipment and a last man standing game. You can also set the difficulty. You should stand tall, wave your arms and talk loudly and calmly Before you bring this game to the table you need to ask yourself one question. What type of friends are you playing with? Should you ever be chased from a picnic by Paddington's bigger, angrier cousin, what would those friends sitting across from you do? Would they come back to save you should you stumble or would they quite happily leave you as a distraction for the disgruntled Yogi. The answers will probably determine what version of the game you should probably play. I personally wouldn’t want to play the co-op version with someone who would happily throw me under the furry bus. The main game of Outrun the bear is very much a “sacrifice your friends and get out of the woods” style of game and is, with the right group, a whole load of fun and weirdly, I’d imagine, thematic? With reaction cards getting thrown about and the game state changing fairly quickly it’s the sort of chaos I’d imagine would ensue if a bear appears while you were munching on a pork pie. The most important thing of course is that the game (in its base form) is a lot of fun!. You definitely need to try and keep some strategy in mind. Which terrain you start your turn on is always going to be an important decision and choosing how to use your cards can be a genuinely tough decision depending on what you have in your hand. Ditching four to move five spaces is a tempting proposition, especially if your lagging behind……but on the other hand, keeping hold of those reaction cards for future use could be the difference between being lunch and a narrow escape. But! Be careful what you discard and how you discard it. Having the bear move based on cards you discard is a really clever idea. It’s throws another layer of things to consider when you play a card and it gives you (some) level of control in how the bear moves. Back away slowly and stop moving if it follows you The looming threat of the bear edging ever closer is the thing that for me stands this game above other “take that” style games. It starts off as a mild threat and moves at  almost a snail's pace. So much so that you can see people thinking “well this is going to be easy.” However, as you make your way down the path and those footprints pass you by, the bear pursuit really starts to ramp up and panic ensues. You quickly go from a state of thinking you’ve got loads of time, to, I need to book it and if I have to sacrifice my friends to do so then so be it. Screwing over your friends doesn’t necessarily have to be a result of you playing a card directly on them of course. It could be from playing a card that just affects you. But! Discarding a card with a high value on it can massively affect how far the bear moves and if you plan it well it could be just enough to feed your friend to your ursine pursuer. There’s one card that lets you move 5 spaces but it’s a 3 value card and specifically tells you to place it at the bottom of the discard pile. Of course giving an evil grin to a person on the brink of being bear food as you place this card down would be a bit mean………but you should absolutely do that, oh and also feel free to wave at them as you sprint away. Unless of course it’s attacking then it’s a different story all together Given the “take that” nature of the game which also includes player elimination, it’s not going to be for everyone. If you’ve bounced off these style games in the past then I don’t think the regular game is going to change your mind. Luck of the draw can still determine how your game goes and how or if you can react. Now if none of that bothers you and this sounds like your jam then it’s well worth picking up (I probably wouldn’t have jam near a bear, I’m not totally sure how much they love it but better safe than sorry. Before you ask, yes I did google “do bears like jam” don’t say I don’t do research for the nonsense I spout) The game does have a co-op variant where the goal is to get everyone to safety. I’ve not tried this version since the groups I’ve played this with prefer the regular style. If the game does sound fun to you then this variant could be worth trying out if you can. The cards are all worded in a way that they’re easily applied to a co-op game so there’s no changes to the rules. Whilst we’re on the subject of variants there are a few in the box. You can opt to use the characters special abilities found on their card. These are good to change things up a bit with some being passive or ongoing abilities while some are quite situational which is great, if the situation occurs, if it doesn’t then your ability can easily go rarely used or unused. I’ve had a couple of games where I didn't get to use mine because the situation didn’t arise. We’ve not tried the last man standing game yet but I’m sure that’s going to be on the cards at some point. We’ve tended to play this as a last game of the night so we’ll probably do it when we’ve got a bit more time just in case this version goes on for a bit longer. It does sound like fun though. Essentially you don’t use the car park and keep rotating the tiles until only one person is left. Outrun the Bear takes a quite divisive game mechanism and adds an element of tenseness and agency to it that for me makes it stand above the rest of the games in this genre. It invokes all that fun table talk and laughter that I love about board games. Now if they can just make Outrun the Seagull for a British audience that would be great

Unrest WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Air, Land and Sea, A Battle of Wits Published by: Pandasaurus Games Designed by: Brendan Hansen By Steve Godfrey This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Unrest is many things. It is not, however, a game about the constant state my wife and I found ourselves in after our kids were born. There’s yet to be a game made about that. Unrest, it turns out, is actually about a ruling Empire that has to fight against the constant disturbances and uprising of a rebellious faction or factions who feel that they are being unfairly treated and don’t like the rules. I dunno, maybe this is a game about parenting after all! How to stir unrest. Pick which player is playing the Rebellion and which is the Empire. Place out the five district tiles. The order doesn’t matter unless you’re playing with the Capitol variant, in which case place the Capitol tile in the middle. The rebel player takes five cards from their deck and the empire player takes the four power tokens. These are beautifully weighty poker chips that you’ll want to keep playing with so maybe don’t hand these out until you’ve been over the rules. Take the Revolution mission card and then three other random missions and place them face up. The rebellion player chooses two adjacent districts they want to target this round and places the area of interest token between them. They then choose three cards they want to play and place them one face up and two face down by the token. The cards come in four different “suits” and each suit is numbered from 2-6. There’s also going to be four misdirection cards. Then it’s the Empire's turn. The Empire player will play two of their four tokens. The Surveil token will reveal one of the face down rebel cards. The Destroy token discards one of the three cards keeping it in its current position (face up or down). The Reroute will place a rebel card into any district and the Blockade card will stop the rebel player placing cards in the chosen district for that round. The two played tokens are not available to be used on the next empire turn. It’s only when all four tokens have been played that they all refresh. After this the rebel player will then place the remaining cards into the two districts. They can all go into one or they can be split. They must stay in their current position. What’s the point of all of this? To liberate districts. If the rebel player liberates three then they win. However if the empire player can stop this from happening until the deck runs out then they’ll win. Districts are won by the rebel player satisfying one of missions. There are four missions and you can satisfy any of them in a district to control it. You can use the same mission multiple times. For example, to complete the Revolution mission the numbers on the cards in that district have to total at least 21. For another mission you could have at least one card of each suit. You’ve also got misdirection cards in the deck, these have to be placed face down and, as the card says, are a good misdirection tactic. Rise of the Rebellion. So, you want to bring down a big “evil” empire huh? Well you need a plan and you need to out think your opponents. Well good news because that’s exactly what playing as the Rebellion will entail, and playing as the rebellion is where you’ll find the meatier decisions in the game. Each time you come to choose your cards you’ll have a slew of things to consider. You’ll need to decide which districts you want to play in, which missions are out on the table and more importantly, which cards you want to play and how you’re going to place them. Each of them is going to inform how devious you’re going to be in your attempt to liberate districts. You’ll always be able to see which actions the empire has available to them and It’s a lot of fun plotting how you're going to manipulate the cards you play to try and either use their actions to your advantage, or avoid getting stung too harshly by them. Working out how to bluff and even tease your opponent with your exposed card is a great feeling, especially setting up a cleverly planned out bluff, watching them agonise over it and then fall for it. It’s a thing of malevolent beauty. How easy your victory will be depends a lot on which missions will be out. The ever present Revolution mission while simple, can be a big ask but it’s good to have one that is ever achievable. But I really like the variety you get each game from the different missions. It keeps what could have been a repetitive game, on its toes. A Reactionary Tale If you're playing as the Empire then prepare to be playing a completely reactionary game with potentially limited things you can do. But it’s also about deduction and calling your opponents bluff. I'll admit that’s the start of the game your turns can feel like they have no real direction and you’ll most likely play the same two tokens first every time you play. As the game goes on though and more information starts to drip feed though you start to get a feel for what they're planning and so your turns, while still reactionary, start to get more tactical and more important. It starts to evolve into a nice deductionary puzzle. As the cards build up in different areas, randomly rerouting a card to another district could be a touch of brilliance……or you could be playing right into your opponent's hands and putting that card just where they want it. It makes paying attention to what you know is already out on the table all the more important. I do think it’d be nice to have an alternative win condition for the  Empire though. Just running out the deck feels a little anticlimactic, especially compared to the nail biting finish of the rebellion. Again, maybe that's another thematic touch. Perhaps crushing rebels as a grand Empire doesn’t evoke those whoop whoop moments the way that rebel victories do. Perhaps it is a case of “another rebellion trodden down, now, everyone get back to work.” Don’t get me wrong, I still have fun playing as the Empire and games have certainly come down to the last turn genuinely not knowing if the rebellion will be able to pull off one final push for liberation. But it’s one of those games in which one side (the rebellion) will kinda know if the game  can be won or lost before they play their cards for the last round. In a scenario when they know they can’t win then it can make the game fall a little flat. Unrest is one that we’re going to be adding to our two player “playlist.” It’s simple to jump into, gives you enough of a strategic hit, some nice back and forth and is quick enough to rack up a second time and swap roles. It very much gives me “the battle of wits” in the princess bride vibes and I’m absolutely here for it. Right I’m off to try and get another game in. Let’s hope I don’t fall victim to one of the classic blunders.

Obsession WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 Published by: Kayenta Games Designed by: Dan Hallagan By Steve Godfrey This is a free review copy. See our review policy here At this point you’re probably expecting a review filled with more Downton Abbey puns than Maggie Smith's film roles. Thankfully for you I’ve not seen Downton Abbey, Bridgerton or really any of those era programs for that matter so you’ve all been spared. Considering Maggie Smith has 221 credits to her name it seems like so have I! How to court a Fairchild I won’t go into how the setup works, but I do want to highlight one part. Get players to pick a house to play as, once they do hand them their house box. Now, if you’ve done the prep work when you were punching the game then this should be filled with all of their starting components including any starting bonuses they have. It makes life so much easier and is such a simple and beautiful component. Plus they look at you like you’ve just handed them a small box of chocolate. However if you just punched the game and threw everything into the big boxes then this is going to be an empty box and just know that Dame Maggie is very disappointed in you right now. Games of Obsession will play out over 16 or 19 rounds depending on how long you want the game to run. Each round will play out the same way but some will have the added bonus of special events that will trigger on each player's turns that round (except for one which I’ll get into.) I won’t explain all of them but for example, the Village Hall round will net a player £300 if they have the private study tile flipped over. On a turn you can do one of three possible things, each made up of a few steps. The first thing you do on a turn will be to rotate your staff. As the game goes on and you use staff they will become exhausted and will take a couple of turns before they become useful again (honestly, nothing has been more relatable to me in board games than this sentence.) Rotating the staff shifts them one step towards becoming usable again. Next you trigger the rounds event if it has one. Here’s where you have a choice of things to do. If you decide to host an event you choose one of the event tiles in your house that is numbered equal to or lower than your current reputation level. The tile will tell you which member of staff it requires and how many and what type of guests it requires. So maybe 2 gentlemen or 3 gentry. Because let’s face it, you can’t have any old riff raff looking into your Cabinet of Curiosities, it’s not an episode of Come Dine With Me. You play the required guests from your hand of cards and, like events, they have to have the same or lower reputation level as your own. Each card will have a number of benefits on them and some guests may also require you to spend staff to see to their needs. Which you’ll do next by taking staff from your available service and placing them on the cards they’re needed on. Next, take all the benefits from the event and the cards that you played. These could be money, reputation, gaining new guest cards or discarding guests. Be aware though as some cards have negative effects. Next you get to add to your estate by buying a new tile from the market. New tiles mean new events to host, potentially better benefits and more points. Speaking as someone who's about to start their second house renovation, the idea of adding entirely new wings to my house is giving me all kinds of anxiety. Lastly clean the board by placing any used staff in the spent area, place the played guests in a personal discard pile and put the tile back in your estate. If it’s the first time you’ve played that tile then flip it over. This new side will now either be worth more points, have a better benefit when used or a combination of both. Gaining new staff works largely the same with the same phase structure except rather than hosting an event, you play the staffing tile and take two new staff from the supply on the board which then go into the spent area on your board. The last thing you can do is pass. Here you’ll reset all your staff to the available area, return all your cards to your hand and then you have a choice to either collect £200 or reset the market board. After that you can buy from the market as usual. One important round event is the courtship. At the start of each phase you’ll reveal a theme card from the deck. This will show a tile type. When the courtship round begins whoever has the most victory points on this tile type in their house will have the privilege of courting one of the two Fairchilds. The winner takes one of these cards into their hand to use in future turns. These cards have powerful benefits and are worth eight points at the end of the game. The winner will also take a victory point card. These cards can be kept and used for their VPs at the end of the game, or cashed in at any time for the bonus on them.  A couple of things to note are that ties for first place means that no one gets the card (but all tied players get a VP card) Also courtship happens a few times during the game so if in a future round someone else wins they could potentially take that card from you. The Fairchilds are fickle people and your opponents shiny new riding stables could be enough to sway them over to theirs. The game will end after the allotted rounds and points will be gained from cards in hand, money, VP cards, tiles in your house and from objective cards you’ve completed. Shall we take tea on the lawn? I first heard about Obsession a few years ago while watching 3 Minute board games top ten games on YouTube. It seemed to have been out for a while and seemingly no one had heard of it, but it was one that I’d kept on my ‘to check out’ list. Then, out of almost nowhere, it was everywhere. Everyone was talking about it and like a phoenix from the ashes this game was reborn and was (yes I’m going to make this joke now to get it out of the way) becoming everyone’s new obsession. I’m still not sure what kicked the hype train into gear…..but the real question is, does it live up to it? By the designers own admission this is a theme first type of game. Mechanisms are of course important but if they’re not serving the theme then, like the riff raff that your particular houses would turf out, they won’t be welcome here. I think that’s the perfect way to describe each mechanism here. Every one fits so well thematically, so well in fact that it really lets the theme shine and you can’t help but be drawn in by it. Within the first couple of rounds in our first multiplayer game we found ourselves loudly announcing, in our best Victorian voices, that “house Ponsonby would be hosting bowles on the lawn and in attendance would be (insert typical Victorian gentry name here)” Now all of this isn’t necessary for you to enjoy the game of course, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t add to the experience for me. The whole game delivers on its thematic promise. If you have any interest in this era of history or anything based on it either books or TV then this will instantly be in your wheelhouse theme wise. It’s a different type of theme that we’re used to as well and I think that’s one of the things that initially drew me to it. I’ve never really been into this era of media except a few episodes of Doctor Who, but I think it’s just a fun world to play in for a couple of hours whether you're into it or not. Everything about it is instantly recognisable and you know exactly how to play into this world should you want to. “Do anything rather than marry without affection” The mechanics aren’t just thrown together for mechanics sake though. Everything works together so well. It’ll soon have you questioning if you should build that music room, have people round to see your riding stable and most importantly, should you actually invite James Hereford esq. round for tea in the morning because he is the absolute worst. Obsession gives you loads to think about, so much so that this could turn into an AP nightmare if you let it. Of course you’ll want to host the biggest and highly reputable events as soon as you can, they get you the most stuff after all, but you really shouldn’t ignore those smaller events either because they could be worth negative points at the end if you do. The whole game is a balancing act and just because you can hold a big event that lets you invite 7 gentry, doesn’t mean you should. Have you ever hosted a party with loads of friends and family? Do you remember how spent you were the next day? Yeah, well that’s exactly what will happen there with your staff and your guests if you do. I’m not saying don’t do that, but sometimes a nice game of Whist in the drawing room is what’s needed instead. I love that puzzle of trying to ration out your staff so you can do, at the very least, good turns rather than those turns where you’ve backed yourself into a corner and you can only use the family cards that you started with and a basic event. I love the mini engines you can build in this game and it’s so satisfying to get them running. With the right combination of tiles, cards and staff you can host an event that will surely be the talk of the county and net you a whole cavalcade of money, reputation and guests to add to your roster. If played well then you’ll find that you’ll be taking very few full refresh turns in a usual game, but with big combos like that you may be tempted to take one or two more just so you can experience those big turns more often. Aside from the big mechanics, there are a few other things that Obsession does that are really welcome ideas. At two particular points in the game the tile market will change. In one, all of the service tiles will now start to be put in their own section of the board rather than in the market and they can be bought at a set cost (taking into account any discounts on the tiles). At another point this will happen to the level one tiles. It’s a lovely idea that means the market isn’t getting bogged down with tiles that people are less likely to take because you’ve grown above those sort of petty events in your now flourishing house. Throughout the game you’ll be drawing and discarding objective cards. This is another thing that I think more games should be doing. Making a choice of objective cards when you know which will work and what won’t just makes sense. You can still work towards each objective but if one isn’t going your way, bin it. I’m starting to feel a little tired of games that ask you to choose objectives at the start of the game before you even know how you’re going to approach the game. My last little thing is in the way you can spend reputation to give you a boost. On your turn you can spend some reputation to gain some money, refresh a worker or refresh the tile market (this last one is only once per round). It may not sound like much but these little things could be the difference of an “ok” turn to a “great” turn. “We must always travel in hope” There are a few negative cards in the deck which could easily put you on the back foot, especially if you're unlucky enough to get a few of them. There are ways to mitigate this of course. Everyone starts with a card with the ability to get rid of those negative cards and some other cards will have this as well. There are also cards that let you take a number of cards and choose between the ones you’ve drawn. How well the mitigation works depends on if you can get your hands on those items and how many negative cards you need to rid yourself of. I know this sort of thing bothers some people but the randomness isn’t really something that bothers me personally, (heck one of my favourite games is Ark Nova if you want to talk about random draws) If you like, see it as hosting one of those parties where your friend asks if they can bring a friend from work with them. That person could end up being someone you hang out with in the future, or they could be the worst…..like James Hereford esq. Another admission by designer Dan Hallagan is that the rulebook is “dense” so if you’re an avid rulebook only learner then be prepared for some reading. I personally used Meeple University's excellent rules video. The game is pretty intuitive once you’ve got the rules. The only questions I tend to get after a teach are about smaller things and not really about the main flow of the game. So the question I asked earlier was, is it worth the hype? In this case! Yes. I’m always sceptical when a game gets this much hype. In a lot of cases you see those games everywhere on social media and then just as quick as they appeared they’re gone and never spoken of again. Obsession though will be one of those games that sticks around. Even after the initial social media burst I still see this one being played and posted about and I still see the love for it and deservedly so. One of the many reasons is that this game is a clear labour of love, that’s not to say that other games aren’t of course. But being the designer, artist and publisher of the game, Dan Hallagan goes all out to make this game the best experience he can for people. A great example of this is a thread on board game geek (here) that is full of ways and tips to get people playing the game with ease while giving them the best possible experience right out of the gate. Obsession delivers a fun, thematic experience and at the same time has you deliberating harder over events and guests lists than you have done since your own wedding when you had to make sure that auntie Carol and uncle Roger weren’t on the same table because…well, you know. Come for the theme, stay for the brilliant puzzle and remember to not overwork your staff. I’m off to dive into some expansion goodness which includes the most important staff member of all, the cook!

By Steve Godfrey Welcome to my top ten game of 2023. As with last year this is my top ten games that I played for the first time this year and aren’t necessarily games that were released this year…….in fact, only two were actually released this year! Check me out keeping up with the new hotness! So, last year was a pretty great one for me in terms of new games with a whopping four of my top ten actually making it into my top ten games of all time at one time (three are still there). This year my top two games have that honour, so far. If I’ve already reviewed an entry I’ll add a link to it at the bottom if you want to read more of me waffling on about them. If I’ve not reviewed them, keep checking back because there may be reviews coming for them in the future. 10. Twilight Inscription Twilight Imperium is one of my favourite games so when this was announced in the year of the games 25th anniversary it was met with……scepticism to say the least. It’s an ambitious task making a flip/roll and write out of one of the biggest games out there but I really think designer James Kniffen has largely managed to pull it off. It does a good job at getting all the TI elements in and while it misses out on the high interaction factor of its bigger brother, it certainly delivers on the scale of the original and is a fun combo-tastic entry into the verb and write family. Oh and those orange chalk pens are really cool. 9. Cantaloop Book 3: Against All Odds Part one of this fun “point and click” style puzzle game series made last year's list with ease. There was a bit of a dip in quality with the second part. It was still fun, but a bit of a let down. But with the final part in this trilogy they’ve managed to bring it home in style with some fun, clever puzzles, and a genuinely emotional end to the story. If the second part knocked your confidence in the series then this is a fantastic return to form and well worth your time. 8. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion It's a small box Gloomhaven (well small by Gloomhaven standards anyway) but it certainly doesn’t seem to skimp on that experience. Utilising a book instead of tiles for a map and using a genius five scenario tutorial system to ease you into the game. It’s full of a branching story, side quests, city missions and you can level up your character and get cool new abilities. The story so far is pretty fun and we've lovingly named the villain Roland Rat (there’s my obscure TV. reference for the list.) Even though it’s a smaller version it still packs a big punch of a game that we keep wanting to come back to. 7. Obsession A last minute(ish) addition to the list this one. There was a point a couple of years ago, and it’s largely true still, that you couldn’t scroll through your Instagram feed without seeing at least two posts about Obsession. Having now played it I can see why it gets the love that it does. It’s a great thematic game and it gives you lots of fun decisions to make as you try and juggle renovating a house while still trying to throw an epic party. It also serves as a good lesson in staff management if any future employers are interested. Full review here 6. Mille Fiore The box doesn’t exactly draw you in and scream “this is a fun game” but, if you can get people sat down for a game It won’t be long before they’ve also got hearts of glass. Come for those lovely “glass” tokens, stay for the fun tactical gameplay. It’s a great flip and write / point salad cross with loads of interactivity. Above all else the board looks fantastic as those beautiful coloured glass tokens start to fill it up. Full review here 5. Undaunted: Battle of Britain This is Undaunted Series first foray into a different theatre and for me it’s a massive success. They’ve managed to modify the system to capture the mechanics of planes in flight and still kept the undaunted systems' beautiful simplicity and tactical gameplay. It’s another triumphant entry into the system and it makes me excited to see what other theatres they’re going to explore in the future. Speaking of the future I can’t wait to see how they handle the future in Undaunted 2200: Callisto. Full Review here 4. Bantam West You just know a game is great when after one play you’re already considering selling its closest counterpart. I’ll also admit now that I think if I’d had played this a couple more times before I made this list then this could have been my number two Back in February 2022 I reviewed Western Legends, a fun sandbox game that lets you run round the old west Robbing banks, digging for gold and being an outlaw….or a Marshall, depending on how boring your feeling. I still stand by everything I said in that review and it’s still a great game……….however. The folks over at Bantam Planet must have decided that it wasn't quite sand boxy enough and set about making a game that took Western Legends and turned it up to eleven. It’s got so many things you can do that it could easily have been overwhelming, yet, it never felt that way. In fact they were just more things that you were excited to try and on the plus side were also helpful to your game. I love how balanced it felt. All four of us chose different strategies and there were only a couple of points in the final scores. One player had very little money throughout the game and hadn’t upgraded his movement, which could easily serve as a detriment in most games but here it was barely an issue. I’ve only played this once at the time of writing but if this one game is anything to go by then I may have to consider selling my copy of Western Legends. 3. Cubirds I’ve only played this twice physically but I’ve played it countless times on BGA and man is this addictive! Just as I finish one game I immediately want to rack it up and go again. Is it perfect?, no, and when I get round to reviewing it I’ll even point out some of those flaws. Regardless of those, I still love this game even after all my plays. I love how the race element ramps up as the game goes on, the tension as you hope no one else takes your cards and those almost sweat-inducing moments as two people are close to victory and nervously wait on a wing and a prayer for those cards you need. 2. Nidavellir “Nobody tosses a dwarf!” Unless of course you’re tossing him into the number two spot of a top ten. A relatively simple game of bidding, drafting and set collection but it’s so endlessly replayable. The coin upgrade system is such a fun way to change up what could easily have been a simple bidding system since you're now choosing between getting the cards you want and upgrading your coins to give you more choices later in the game. It’s not the most thematic of games but the sheer number of ways to build your dwarf army to obtain victory will have you wanting to try different strategies and combinations every time and that’s what makes this ridiculously addictive. Full review here 1.Undaunted Stalingrad So this may technically be cheating because I first played this game at the end of last year, but it was after the cut off for last year's list so I’m still counting it. Not ones to rest on their laurels, designers David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin took a simple, fun game system and turned it into a legacy game which kept everything great about the previous instalments and gave us this rich, strategic experience that I just kept wanting to jump back into. At the time of writing I’m almost through my second run through and I'm still just as excited to get back to it as I was the first time. I’m loving how things are evolving differently from my first play through and I can’t wait to see how it’s going to end. I called this as being my number one game right at the beginning of the year and honestly it would have taken a lot to beat it. It’s by far my favourite of the Undaunted games and has rightfully shot up into my top ten games of all time. Full review here

Blood Rage WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Rising Sun, Ankh Published by: Cool Mini Or Not Designed by: Eric M. Lang By Steve Godfrey This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here As a note, I’ve painted my minis. I’ve also upgraded a couple of things as well. So the tiles I’ve used to denote destroyed provinces are ones that I found on board game geek (here) and laminated. As much as I love this game, even I have to admit that the title sounds like the name of a death metal band I would have come up with in school and then doodled on every surface I could get a pen to. How to survive Ragnarok. Each player takes a clan, clan board and sets their rage marker to 6. Then shuffle the province tiles and reveal and block off a number depending on your player count. Then, of the unused ones, place one on each of the ages on the round board face down, then reveal the first one and place the ragnarok token in that area. Then take the age one cards and deal out 8 to each player. In the first “Gods gifts” phase players will be drafting cards to make up their hand to be used in the next phase. Players will draft one card and pass the rest on. This will go on with each player drafting one card until everyone has seven cards in their hand. The last card you’re passed will be discarded unseen. Next you’ll go into the action phase. This phase will go on until either everyone is out of rage, has passed or when all of the open areas have been pillaged. On your turn you can take one of five possible actions. To invade, you place one of your clan onto an empty village on the map. Each figure has a strength number on them and when you place them on the map you need to pay that cost in rage. To march you pay one rage to move any number of your figures from one province to another on the map. You can upgrade your clan by playing an upgrade card in the appropriate space on your clan sheet and paying the cost in rage. If it’s a monster, ship, warrior or leader upgrade then you can immediately invade with them for free. Clan upgrades will give you permanent, unique and fun abilities that help flesh out your clan. Questing is a free action and here you'll place a green quest card face down. These will score you points at the end of the age as long as you achieve it. Finally pillaging is where you get into fisticuffs. Call a pillage in the province your in. If there are villages free in that province then anyone with figures in adjacent provinces can come and join the fight. Provided there are other players units to challenge you, each player counts up their total strength in the fight. Then everyone secretly chooses a battle card. These cards will add to your strength and will sometimes have other abilities on them. Players will reveal their cards, trigger any abilities then total their strength. The losers will have their units sent to Valhalla and the winner will gain glory points. If the winner was the player who called the pillage then they’ll win the clan stat upgrade that was in that province. The stats you can upgrade on your clan sheets will be, Rage, which will determine how much rage you start each round with. Glory will be how much glory you get from winning a fight and Horns will determine how many units you can have on the map at any one time. At the start of the game there is a four figure limit. For us this one tends to be the most forgotten rule of the game. As you reach the end of the tracks, these upgrades will be worth points as well. At the end of the round players discard down to one card, score quest cards, then ragnarok. The province marked with the Doom token is destroyed and any units in there along with it, however you do get points for everyone killed during it so it may be an idea to stick around. Especially in later rounds where the points for this increase each round. Ages two and three will play out the same as age one and after the end of age three the player with the most glory wins. Drafting, just like the Vikings used to. Blood Rage is my favourite drafting game. It’s a weird statement to make right? A game with all those big monster minis and I’m here talking about drafting. It’s easy to think that the drafting phase is just a fun, quirky way to choose your cards each round. But it’s actually just as integral to your entire game as what goes on during the action phase. It’s the backbone of your entire round and your opportunity to plan out what course it’s going to take. Sure, it’s drafting so not every card that comes your way is going to be gold, but just having that level of control is, for me, essential. It’s such a tactical part of the game. Not only in how you build your hand of cards in preparation, but also what you don’t let your opponents have access to. Now this does have a twinge of hate drafting to it. But usually you’ll be denying players those cards because they’re really great cards that are gonna help your game just as much as theirs. This will come into play more and more as you play the game more and with the same people and as you start to learn their preferences. It really rewards those multiple plays which you may only get a small taste for in your first couple of plays. The drafting brings with it this wonderful feeling of tension. As cards get passed round you’ll find yourself having to agonise over passing round some really good cards which you know will come back to bite you on your Asgard later in the game. The tense part is waiting to see who plays them and when. It’s the constant living in fear that some will play a Troll (who destroys other players' soldiers in an area when played) and literally wipe out all of your best laid plans. This usually evokes a “argh I forgot that card was out there” At first, drafting and a “dudes on a map” game about Vikings feels as weird a combination to me as a deck builder and a war game. But it really works. So well in fact that I couldn’t see the game working any other way. It’s such an important part for me that there is a rule that I begrudge using. It says that if you have new players then you should just give everyone eight cards and just use what you’ve been given. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it’s there to give people the chance to familiarise themselves with things before throwing them into drafting. But I also think it takes away their agency and chance to plan their own game and in a three round game that’s a lot. I personally tend to give people the option if I’m teaching but I do appreciate that it’s probably more useful if you’ve got the majority of new players. Gods of War. The action phase is quite aptly where all the action is. This is where you get to put your cunning plan into action and march your Viking hordes and monsters around the board. It’s also here that you get to see what your opponents have been concocting with their drafts. But with your cleverly planned out draft nothing can go wrong…right? This is board games and, let’s be honest with each other, if we knew our plans were always going to work out every time things would start to get boring. Well there's no fear of that happening here. Having that plan in your head and your hand is all well and good. But it’s the executing it that’s going to present the real challenge, because for some reason your opponents don’t want you pillaging and scoring points. Much like the drafting phase, the action phase is as much about reacting as it is putting your own plan into action. For example, you may not want to get into a fight in that neighbouring province, but it might just be worth it to stop someone shooting up those upgrade tracks. Of course the best thing about that scenario is that it could all be a bluff! Considering that some cards reward you for losing fights this could all have been a clever ploy and that’s what I love about this game. Because of the variety of cards and how differently they all play, you can’t really be sure of people’s motivation and it's brilliant. A Variety of Vikings Whenever I show Blood Rage to new players I always tell them that it doesn’t matter which clan they take because they’re all the same, and yes there's that little look of disappointment on their face. But as the game goes on and people play upgrades and clan stats start to rise, you start to see just how asymmetric this game can be and the vast amounts of combinations you can use to shape your clan. More than anything it’s a lot of fun watching your clan evolve throughout the game. Just as you think how great you’ve made your clan, you can’t help but look over at your opponents clans and think how much cooler they are and how maybe you should have kept a particular card. Thor, Loki and all your favourites. Each god will give a different type of upgrade. Loki's upgrades for example are all about losing battles and getting points for being in Valhalla. As logical it would seem to try and get all of one god's upgrades (in fact a Loki heavy strategy is considered quite powerful) they all do mix pretty well together and again this is all about trying to craft a good combination together. In fact the Loki cards and a few other quest cards are one of the reasons I think this game works so well, even if you don’t usually take to this style of game. I’m not actually that great at this type of game, but the fact that I can employ a strategy that essentially rewards me for not doing well is something I kinda love. So many games will reward multiple plays and often a new player will lose purely due to lack of experience. But the idea that you can take advantage of losing can really go a ways to balancing things out. That being said you do have to get those cards to be able to do that. Having said all that about a potential balance, I do think this game has a learning curve. Not the actual rule set, but more in terms of learning the strategy to do well. I know that’s the case in most games, Blood Rages' combination of drafting and area control game has seemed to present some difficulties with some of the new players I’ve played with in the past. The coriolaton of the two mechanisms seems to throw people and it’s not until at least the second round that people really see how the two work together and can make a properly informed choice when drafting next. Which in most other games would not be too much of a problem. But this only being a three round game means that you're already a third of the way through before it all starts to make sense and in a game where you really need to start scoring as soon as possible, it can be a disadvantage. I’ve seen this happen with quite a few new players, myself included when I first played it and normally it probably wouldn’t be something I’d mention, buuut I do think it’s come to colour a few peoples experiences with the game. Because of that struggle with grasping it and because of the high potential for those huge point differences, I think a lot of people have been put off from trying the game again which for me is a big shame. Now I’m not going to force anyone to play a game again if they didn’t enjoy it but it took me a couple of games before it really started to shine. Even Sam Healey, formerly of the Dice Tower gave it a review that, while still good, didn’t reflect a score for what would eventually go on to become his favourite game! Having said all that, it’s not going to be that way for everyone. In fact the last time I played a new player absolutely wiped the floor with us which I’d like to put down to my expert teaching skills but I don’t think anyone would believe that. I’ve not played the game with two players, but it’s not well renowned for playing well at that count though. I wouldn’t normally mention something like this if I’d not tried it myself but this seems to be one of those game that is famously not great at two (much like 7 Wonders not working at two players) that I thought I’d mention it just in case you largely play at two. It’s at least something to be aware of and look into before spending your money. If you have played at two and enjoyed it then let me know. Glorious Purpose! It took me a couple of games to get into it but when Blood Rage finally clicked with me it clicked hard. The wonderful tactical combination of drafting and area control is one that I never knew would work as well as it does and now that I do I need more of it. Couple that with the joy of playing a fire giant and then seeing the worried look on your friends faces as you hover it over the board just before you slam it down and ruin one of their days is glorious fun.

Square Bird Card Game Preview - This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. Square Birds is being brought to life by Lydia Wallace at Happy Hen Games. This is a first-time design from a UK-based independent designer. I am always excited to try games from new designers, especially one like Square Birds that has clearly been given so much love and care. How To Play Square Birds The game works very simply. There are 18 tiles in the deck, double-sided. The face-down side shows the scoring side, while the other shows the main playing side. Shuffle the tiles and deal one tile face down to each player. This is each player's scoring tile, which will show two birds. The birds are all different shapes and colors. Each tile is unique and will represent the birds you will score with in this game. Then deal each player two face-up tiles. These will be your hand. Players then take turns placing tiles into a shared 4x4 grid, one tile at a time. The goal is to create clearings with the most amount of your scoring birds. The clearings are created by the lines on the tiles. Each time you place a tile, draw a tile to add to your hand. Continue this in turn until the draw pile is empty, and both players have placed all tiles in their hand. At the end of the game, when all 16 tiles have been placed, you can choose one clearing and score all birds from your scoring card in this area—one point per bird. The player with the most points wins. Playing Square Birds is a wonderfully calming experience. You will feel competitive, sure. You will want to win. But games take 5 minutes. If you lose, it's okay. Just rack 'em up and go again. This will make you feel that you don't need to take the competitive side too seriously and simply have fun, which is the perfect headspace to be in when you play this game. As the clearings begin to form, your mind will fill with all the possibilities of your scoring options. New clearings will be created. Old clearings will be expanded. Clearings you hoped to develop will be shut off. A surprisingly large number of things will happen simply by laying one tile. The feeling of creating, adapting, and trying to manipulate this puzzle in your favour, all the while your opponent is doing the same, creates a very interesting dynamic. Sometimes, you will be inadvertently helping each other. Other times, you will be blocking off large scoring areas or placing scoring boards of your opponents into areas they cannot access. How much attention you pay to what your opponent needs or does not, versus building your own clearing, is up to you. There are obviously more than one way to play this game. The game has a tiny footprint, both in terms of its size and the area needed to play. I would love for the final version to be made with high-quality stock cards with a bit of weight and a waterproof finish so that the game could be taken and played anywhere—outside in the wind, in the pub on any wet table. No worries, Square Birds can handle it! With only 18 tiles to make, the costs would be minimal, so I hope this can be achieved. It would be a huge selling point for me. The art style on the cards is simplistic but gorgeous. Even though all the branches simply form from the centre line, it still amazes me how well and neatly they all meet when you join the tiles up. There is something so calming about playing this game. The art definitely helps with that, as do the simple rules and flow. I will be very interested to see what Lydia does with this game. I feel she has created something that deserves a lot of love and attention. I sincerely hope this happens.