My wife and I are always on the lookout for new one-off games in the crime, escape room, or detective genre; I've reviewed more than I can count. But after getting my hands on the first game in the Masters of Crime series—Masters of Crime: Vendetta—I was incredibly impressed with the system, the storytelling, the use of various websites to advance the plot, and the grading elements. Vendetta was great, so when I got the chance to pick up a few more games in the series, I immediately volunteered to get all four, which I hadn't tried yet. Today I'm going to be talking about Masters of Crime: Rapture. Oddly enough, it seems to be even better than Vendetta. Read on to find out my spoiler-free thoughts on why!   IT'S HARD TO BE A STAR Masters of Crime: Rapture is a one-time crime investigation game, meaning that once you've completed it, you can't replay it. However, the game is completely "restartable," so I'm already looking forward to giving it to my friends so they can experience it too. Although the box says it can be played with up to six people, in my experience it's more of a one- or two-player game. I also want to pay attention to the game's length - the box says 2-4 hours, and the instructions advise taking a break at the two-hour mark. We finished Rapture in two and a half hours, so a break may not be necessary. We took our time - we read all the cards out loud and carefully sorted the evidence, so your time may vary. In any case, the Masters of Crime games last longer than some other detective board games, but the amount of material in the box is truly impressive. In Rapture, players take on the role of a shady cartel boss who enjoys a life of luxury on the fictional island of Isla de Cubados, making a fortune from the lucrative drug trade. (These games are very reminiscent of the feeling of being the hero of Grand Theft Auto, which I personally like.) While relaxing at a beach bar on the island, you overhear a local cop talking about the disappearance of one of the world's most famous pop stars - a singer who has just arrived on the island to shoot a music video. And yes, this star, Diana, is originally from the same island. (By the way, the cop is on your payroll, so that's also to your advantage.)  Suddenly you realize you have a problem - your "white business" is making great profits, but the disappearance of a pop star could attract the attention of the police - both local and international. Despite being a criminal yourself, it becomes vital to figure out what happened to Diana before the real investigators arrive. I really liked this plot idea. Over the course of a few hours and with around 70 cards of evidence, photos, visual clues, and a series of suspects—each with their own dark motives—Rapture does a great job of confusing players, gradually drawing them into the investigation. There are half a dozen fake websites to scan, a dozen envelopes with additional evidence, and a logic puzzle to solve to gain access to new cards. “This is probably the neatest and most cleanly constructed detective game we’ve ever played,” my wife said as we neared the end of the investigation. And I had to agree. Experience helps, of course, but here everything seemed logical and understandable—we were just working through all the cards carefully. We even got a high five when we used deduction to guess part of the final solution. Despite the large number of false clues, we managed to piece together a complete picture by carefully following the “crumbs” of evidence scattered throughout the island. KOSMOS PUBLISHER NICHE By the time we got to the final clues, we had solved the crime correctly and achieved the second highest score in the game. Like Vendetta, Rapture gives players the chance to find out what happened to all the characters in the story, and it also goes a step further by letting you decide the fate of some particularly vile characters. (Even though you're a drug lord yourself, let's face it, they were a bit worse.) The level of detail in Rapture is simply amazing. And it's no wonder, since the publisher is KOSMOS, the company behind the Exit: The Game series, including the Exit: The Game Advent Calendars that our family plays through every year during the holidays. KOSMOS knows how to make games in this genre, and every installment of Masters of Crime is a real win. Knowing that we have three more games left - Shadows, Incognito, and the latest Mosquito - is a real treat; my wife can't wait to start the next one ahead of schedule. I, on the other hand, enjoy the anticipation. Like a good TV drama, Rapture offers a truly high-quality narrative - mature, deep, and tense, just the way I like it. It's a fairly expensive game for a single-player format (around $25), but it's totally worth the price. Be sure to check out Masters of Crime: Rapture if you like playdates!..

 I'm sure they've been around since before I noticed them, but 2025 is definitely the first year I've heard of semi-cooperative worker placement games. I've played two so far, and I'm sure we'll be able to squeeze in another one before the end of the year. The results are mixed so far. Kinfire Council is a much more interesting idea than the game itself, and the same seems to be true of Winter Rabbit. Designer William Thompson’s game first caught my eye when it was shortlisted for the 2021 Zenobia Award, which aims to raise the profile of underrepresented game designers. Zenobia is worth following not only for its noble cause, but also because the shortlisted games offer us new settings and themes—real themes, not decorative ones—that don’t usually make it to market. In the case of Winter Rabbit, we find ourselves in a world of Cherokee folklore, where Otter, Deer, Turtle, Bear, Wolf, and Possum prepare for winter.  The mechanics of placing workers here are not quite like anything I've seen before. The basis of the game is a simple resource conversion: you accumulate various resources, and then spend them on improvements and gaining victory points. The novelty lies in the method itself. Players draw workers from a common bag. You can draw your own worker, but more often it will be someone else's - or that annoying Rabbit. More about him later. After drawing a worker, place it face down on any free space on the board. Each of the six sectors of the playing field corresponds to one of the resources. When all the empty spaces in any sector are filled, this resource is produced. The discs are turned over, and if there is no Rabbit there, everyone receives one copy of this resource. The player (or players) whose discs are present receives an additional one resource for each disc. If the Rabbit disc is revealed, he rakes up all the resources for himself and drags them to his hole. Oh, this cunning rabbit!  The cooperative element of the game comes from the Tasks that players play from their hand at the start of each round. Each Task requires a certain amount of resources to complete and earns points for the player who completes it, but you can't complete your own Tasks. Someone else has to do the work for you. They get points, and you get a small bonus. Additionally, each completed Task helps the team prepare for winter. By the end of the fourth round, the team must complete seven Tasks in each of the three categories to survive the winter. If they do, the player with the most points wins. If they don't, you all lose together.  There are promising elements to the game. I really like the idea of pulling and placing workers from any player. I think it could make a great game, but Winter Rabbit isn't. As with Kinfire Council, the political interaction that the rule encourages never really comes into play. It's enjoyable, but rarely exciting. The production and artwork are excellent. I really like the art, especially the creature art, but it's rarely a good sign when the artwork itself is my favorite element of the game. Despite its promising setting and unusual dynamics, Winter Rabbit just can't seem to pull itself together. ..

EIGHT YEARS WITH YOU! Lelekan is celebrating its 8th birthday! This is a special date, because in eight years the team has come a long way, filled with new ideas, important projects and bright victories. Lelekan is not only a brand, but also a space of inspiration, creativity and joint achievements that unite friends, partners and everyone who shares our values. 8 years is proof that dreams become reality when there is faith, inspiration and support. We are sincerely grateful to everyone who has been there during these years, who trusts, inspires and helps us grow. Ahead are even more discoveries, new peaks and warm moments that we will definitely share together. GIFTS FOR FAVORITE CUSTOMERS In honor of this holiday, we are announcing a week of free games and discounts on our games for everyone! And also a raffle! Among everyone who comes to our game library this week and among our Instagram followers. All conditions can be found on our Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/lelekan.com.ua/Giveaway post https://www.instagram.com/p/DO1AFI0CIva/..

 I'm a fan of small box games. In Alpina by HELVETIQ, players collaboratively build a board game set in the Swiss Alps and earn points as they go. Let me tell you about Alpina! ALPINA GAME REVIEW Alpina is a game for 2-4 players. Over several rounds, players place a landscape map in a 5 x 5 grid. The only rule is that you must place your map directly next to an existing map. Players can then choose to place one of their wooden tourist tokens on their map or a map directly next to their map. Repeat until the 5 x 5 grid is filled, then tally the score.  “Wow,” you might say, “that’s easy.” And you would be right if that were all there was to the game. Because I haven’t explained why you choose one of your cards over another, and why you decide to place it in a certain place. SCORING When you look at each card, the first thing you'll notice is that it looks like a Polaroid, with a bird, frog, or goat at the top. Each "photo" also shows an icon in the lower left corner that indicates the type of landscape (mountain, lake, or forest). Finally, you'll notice that there are a series of icons at the bottom of the card, each representing a scoring opportunity. Some of these are simple: 1 point for each tourist token of any color on a forest card, 2 points for each lake card directly adjacent to the scoring card. Others are more complex and require more planning: 2 points for each type of landscape to the left of the card (on the same row), or 1 point for each bird orthogonally connected to that card.  And remember… you don’t have to put the tourist on the ground right away once you’ve placed your card. You can bait a specific area, hoping the other player will peck. And then, once they’ve placed their tourist, you can close the trap and place the next card with the tourist to get the scoring condition. Alpina is smart about this. CONCLUSIONS There's not much to Alpina: 56 landscape cards, 32 player tokens (a scoring token and tourists), and a board that also serves as a scoreboard along the outer edge. And the moves are quick: placing one card and potentially placing a tourist. But the game is tricky and requires players to pay close attention to the development of the playing field. The game starts with one card already laid out on the table, which may or may not be in the middle, depending on the placement of the cards. This means that in a two-player game, each player will lay out 12 cards with 8 traveler pawns. But in a four-player game, only 6 cards with 4 traveler pawns are laid out. The board closes quickly, and if you don't keep an eye on the game, you may miss the opportunity to not only lay out the right card, but also to place a traveler on the table to secure points for the end of the game. Alpina is also fast, with games lasting an average of around 15-20 minutes. So it's the perfect way to whet your appetite for longer, more strategic games, or to end a gaming evening and unwind after a game of White Castle or Clans of Caledonia. So, if you're looking for a game in a small box that offers strategy and visual style, then Alpina would like to talk to you...

 Even old Scrooge – or Scrooge – would be hard-pressed to find fault with the latest project from Humble Bard Games. Charles Dickens’ popular story “A Christmas Carol,” about a stingy old moneylender in industrial-era London, has inspired at least half a dozen board games. Among them are Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” (which featured Mickey Mouse as Scrooge testing the audience’s trust quite a bit) and “The Haunting of Christmas.” ABOUT THE GAME Designer John S. Bailey is a teacher in the field of everyday life and has a special connection to "A Christmas Carol." In his words: "The themes and morals of this story are rich and deep. Everyone will likely take something from it that challenges them. For me, I can relate to Scrooge as a person in many ways… my connection to Scrooge has nothing to do with money. His character, the way he sees the world, the kinds of disappointments he's experienced, and how quickly he forgets the wonderful things from his past that could have changed his life for the better if he'd let them." The game fully reflects these sentiments. DESCRIPTION Spirits of Christmas is a medium-easy cooperative/solo strategy game where players use a turn table and card-based actions to guide Ebenezer Scrooge on his journey from miser to saint in Victorian London. Fans of solo and multiplayer card games from developers like Button Shy and Solo Game of the Month's Gabe Barrett will recognize a lot of familiarity in Spirits. But what sets it apart is: six levels of difficulty that gradually make the game more difficult; seven "communication modes" for multiplayer; three plot options. This gives you ten different ways to play, both solo and co-op. It takes about five minutes to unpack and familiarize yourself with the rules before your first game. The variety of strategies means that replayability is very high. COMPONENTS The game components are high-quality and extremely themed. The spirits that visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve are instantly recognizable – no matter which film adaptation you prefer, from Albert Finney (the designer’s favorite) to The Muppets (my personal favorite).  Wooden tokens, linen card covers, black-core cards, and thick cardboard coins add depth to the atmosphere. And this is important: while many see Scrooge as nothing more than a symbol of brutal capitalism, Dickens wasn't writing about economic systems - he wanted to show the Scrooge in each of us. The game's beautiful illustrations were created by the designer's daughter, capturing not only the family's joy at the source material, but also Scrooge's gradual transformation. GAME PROCESS Players start with “spirit cards” that pay for actions and complete scenes in each “chapter” of the story. The size of the hand depends on the number of players: in a solo game – 5 cards, and with 5–6 players – only 2.  "Scene cards" can be laid out randomly (the basic option) or in order - in the complex "Story Option". Each section corresponds to one of the three spirits of Christmas – past, present and future. A unique spirit token is placed on the roundel. Players move it by spending coins, which quickly run out, so choice and risk are critical here. Coins also affect the scoring. It's a clever mechanic: no one wants to be a miser like Scrooge, but the game makes you feel at least a little bit like him. Actions on the rondel allow you to: move Scrooge to another scene, to exchange or play cards, get 3 cards. Completing a scene requires the right combination of spirit traits (joy, compassion, mercy). The balance of these traits changes with each chapter, making the game dynamic and unpredictable. ADDITIONAL MECHANICS To complete a chapter, you need to complete all or just the "shaded" scenes (marked with a bow). The only problem is that they are difficult to distinguish in low light. "Torch of Prosperity" gives bonuses if activated on the rondel in time. “Gift cards” provide starting advantages, adding variability. END The section ends when: players are running out of money, all the "shadow" scenes have been played out, All scenes of the chapter have been completed. After three chapters (or sooner if resources are exhausted), the game ends. If players complete all three chapters without going bankrupt, they win. The level of victory is determined by the points table. On the lowest difficulty, victory seems easy, but as the difficulty increases, the game becomes a serious challenge. RESULT  Spirits of Christmas is a solid board game from the developer of Holdout, Song of the Seas, and Roll-With-It. It will appeal to both card game fans and those who appreciate a strong theme.  The atmosphere of industrial London, combined with the emotional light of Christmas, makes the game a great option for a cozy evening party by the fireplace on the eve of the holidays. Thanks to its compactness, simple rules and deep strategies, it can take you from “Deception!” to “Joy of the World” in a matter of minutes. And yes, Little Tim (spoiler alert) – survived.  Spirits of Christmas is a crowdfunded game now available from Humble Bard Games. It’s not yet rated on Board Game Geek, but it’s sure to become a favorite that will stay on your table well after the holidays...

SIGNAL GAME REVIEW  Signal is a quiet, cooperative brainteaser, a meditation on communication that is nowhere near as valuable as the phrase “meditation on communication” might suggest. Players work together to communicate with an alien, represented by a vivid black-and-white illustration on a card and embodied by a lone, silent player. The Terrans send signals: black-and-white rods, cubes, circles, and triangles arranged on a cloth board. Much of the game time is spent arranging these signals. When the signal is ready, the alien responds by changing it. Maybe he/she/they move some pieces or remove some. They might create a stack or swap pieces. It could be, and often is, some combination of things. The hope is that the alien will send back exactly the signal that is shown on the front of his card. Nothing more, nothing less. Whatever the alien does, he follows the rules written on the back of his card. For example, “Place a black rod on a black disk” or “Remove two rods and place another piece between them.” If the first round of communication is successful within ten attempts, everyone moves on to the second round. The goal remains the same, but an additional set of rules is added, which are followed after the first set of rules. A third round awaits you on the other side of the second, if you solve it.  Trying to crack an alien's code is incredibly fun, especially when your efforts are barely reaching the goal. The rules themselves are never fancy. Instead, they're designed to interact in clever ways. The second-round rule forces you to take a step back and think differently about the first-round rule. I don't really like playing games that involve blind, failed guesses, and I enjoyed my first time giving up the role of an alien in Signal. I miss a future where I won't be able to do that anymore, since you can't play against the same alien more than once, and you can never do that with the alien you've embodied. There's always the fear in games like this that being the oddball is going to be thankless. You sit there in silence while everyone else talks, then perform a transformation algorithm while they watch. It sounds uninteresting. Fortunately, while the role of the oddball won't appeal to everyone, Signal avoids that problem. The instructions leave room for creativity, for stubbornly insisting that you can do it. There's also room for thinking hard. If your teammates are stuck on a certain step in the instructions, if they keep making the same mistake, you can try to do it in a way that might make a difference. There is something anthropological about being an outsider. I observe people with joy and fascination. Because the game allows for real exploration, you learn something about people as individuals and people in general through the way they play. Some people do it without hesitation. One friend made his first guess by gathering a few figures, shaking them in his hand, and then laying them out on a cloth, ready to read the dice. Another friend was absolutely certain every time that this rule had something to do with symmetry. Groups and individuals became fixated on ephemeral things, interpreting noise as a signal. Sometimes following the noise really works. “It only removes the parts it sees from above,” when the real reason is both unrelated and mutually exclusive. This relative lack of precision—I promise, aliens are pretty picky—may irritate puzzle fans, but it speaks to the larger point of this wonderful exercise. The goal of Signal isn’t to spell out the rules or fully understand why what you’re doing works. The goal is to communicate successfully. Communication is imperfect. You can’t always say exactly what you want or mean. That doesn’t mean you can’t get along...

CIRCLE THE WAGONS GAME REVIEW Circle the Wagons is a quick and easy, down-and-dirty Boomtown card game for two players. Collect cards from the central display to make your city unique. Earn points for the largest groups of territories in your city, take a chance on three bonus cards, and hope you don't lose. Get the most points and win Circle the Wagons!  Circle the Wagons is a light-hearted two-player wallet card game from Button Shy Games. Known for its line of 18-card limited wallet card games, Buttonshy has released games like Turbo Drift, Pentaquark, Ahead in the Clouds, and Cunning Folk. PREPARING FOR THE GAME Setting up Circle the Wagons is simple. Shuffle all 18 cards together, territorial side up. Separate the top three cards and place them in the middle of the table with the bonus text facing up. These are the bonus cards used in this game. The other 15 cards are placed territorial side up in a circle around the bonus cards, as you can see in the following image.  Choose the first player and you're ready to start the game. But first, a little trick: the first player gets the first choice of cards, but the second player can tell the first player where to start. This can have a significant impact on the game, as you'll see in a moment. GAME PROCESS  In Circle the Wagons, two players take turns selecting territory cards from the central display in a clockwise direction. After the first player selects and allows the second player to indicate the starting card, the game begins. CARD SELECTION The active player has two options: 1. Choose the first card in order and place it in its Boom City. 2. Skip any number of cards to select another card and place it in their Boom City. Any skipped cards will be passed to the other player to place in their Boom City. In the following example, the first player chooses card #1 and puts it in their Boomtown. The second player will choose card #3, which means that player 1 will receive card #2 and must add it to their Boomtown. MAP PLACEMENT There are only a few rules when placing a map in your Boomtown. 1. Cards can only be placed right side up or upside down. Cards can never be placed sideways. 2. The newly placed map must touch or overlap the existing map of the area. 3. New cards can overlap old cards in any way, including completely covering another card. New cards can never be slid under a previous card.  Play continues clockwise, with each player choosing a card and placing it in their Boomtown. When the last card is placed, the game ends and scoring begins. SCORING At the end of the game, your city might look something like this.  At the end of the game, players will score 1 point for each territory in their largest area of ​​each of the six terrain types: desert, forest, mountains, plains, snow, and water. If two territories are the same size, players choose which one to score. In the example above, the player will receive the following points: 5 points for the mountain region in the upper left corner 3 points for the desert region in the upper left corner 6 points for the snow region in the center, ignoring the two smaller snow regions on the bottom right 3 points for the water region on the right, ignoring the water region above 1 point for a forest region, both of which are one cell 1 point for a flat region, both of which are one cell BONUS CARDS Let's take a quick look at some of the bonus cards for Circle the Wagons. Most maps, such as Cold Water, encourage players to plan ahead, choose the most advantageous cards, and place them in their Boomtown.  Other cards, such as "Bootleggers," can cause a player to lose points if the card is placed incorrectly.  Some cards even pit players against each other, such as "Small Town Ruffian" and may even encourage a player to have the smallest Boomtown: WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE GAME Wallet games can be a hit or miss for me. I like the idea of ​​portability and pared-down gameplay, but they've been a bit of a letdown in the past. Circle the Wagons is one of the first wallet games I've played that felt like a full-fledged board game. Sure, it's lacking in components, but it makes up for it with its quality. The use of double-sided cards is a great idea here. Button Shy have done this in the past with Ahead in the Clouds and Turbo Drift, and they continue to use it to great effect in Circle the Wagons. Designers Danny Devine, Stephen Aramini, and Paul Kluka have tightly integrated the scoring mechanics and gameplay without making the game too long or too difficult.  Since players only use 3 of the 18 bonus cards, each game will be different. According to the BoardGameGeek page for Circle the Wagons, there are “nearly five thousand unique ways to score points.” I’ve played nearly a dozen games, and each one has been different. In some games, you simply collect the maximum number of badges, and you also place them for the largest regions. In other games, you try to avoid collecting resources. And in other games, you literally try to make your city as small as possible. In many cases, the bonus cards contradict each other: you get points for bottles on one card, while another card penalizes you if you have the most bottles. Beth Sobel's art is understated and subtle, yet gorgeous. The detailed illustrations of the icons blend and contrast beautifully with the rough and unevenly painted backgrounds, creating a set of artwork I would happily hang on my wall (goal tip Jason). WHAT DID YOU NOT LIKE? The only real downside to this game is the environment. While stacking cards into piles makes for some really interesting choices, the physical task of doing so is a bit frustrating. The extremely subtle curvature of the cards means they'll always be shifting around. This can make it difficult to keep your city in order. It's possible that a production copy of the game will be better, so take this with a grain of salt. It would also be great to have a few more cards or a small token to mark the starting card… but then it wouldn’t be a wallet game, would it? FINAL CONCLUSIONS Combining Patchwork, Isle of Skye and Kingdom Builder, Circle the Wagons is the quintessential big game in a small format. Rugged, beautiful, streamlined and genuinely fun. I predict Circle the Wagons will be Button Shy's flagship game, and rightfully so. Back Circle the Wagons on Kickstarter while you can, you won't regret it! What do you think of Circle the Wagons? Share your thoughts on what you like and/or dislike about the game in the comments below!..

QUARRIORS GAME REVIEW Developed by Mike Elliott and Eric Lang and published in the US by WizKids Games, Quarriors is a great dice-rolling game. A 2011 Golden Geek nominee and 2013 Origins Award winner, this game will make you want to travel back in time and play the game again like the first time.  In Quarriors 2-4 players will arm themselves with powerful magical spells and summon legions of hex-shaped creatures to battle their opponents. Boldly cover yourself with Glory by defending your creatures from opponents, or choose wisely to challenge increasingly powerful creatures to conquer your enemies. HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE GAME? Quarriors is a dice game based on the same principle as the original Dominion deck-building game released in 2008. A central field consisting of 3 base cards, 7 creature cards, and 3 spell cards is located in the middle of the game board called the "Wildlands". The 7 creature cards and 3 spell cards are drawn (and shuffled as needed) randomly until each stack is unique. Place the corresponding dice on each card within reach of each player.  Finally, all players are given 8 quadity dice and 4 helper dice (creatures with low power), and the game can begin. GAME PROCESS On their turn, the player draws a certain number of dice from their bag and rolls them. The faces of the dice with the mystical teardrop symbol, symbolizing quadrature, can be used to provide energy to existing creatures or to attract more powerful creatures and spells from the Wild.  The non-square dice faces are usually either creatures that can be summoned into battle or special abilities (spell dice). Players who choose to send their creatures into battle must have enough square available to pay the creature level cost located in the upper left corner of the die. Most dice in the game will have at least one square face and several other faces, all of which are displayed at the bottom of the power card for that die.  After the quid value for any creature has been paid, the player sends their creatures into battle. The attacking player adds up the values ​​of all of their attacking creatures (located in the upper right corner of each creature die). Then, in clockwise order, each player offers a defender, which may or may not be able to defeat the attack amount presented. If a creature is defeated (either the attacker or the defender), it goes into that player's discard pile. In the example below, the bottom player (with an attack value of 4) attacks the top player.  Attacks continue until all of the attacking player's creatures are defeated, or until any remaining creatures have traveled around the table. These creatures will now act as defenders for that player while the other players take their turns. Any creatures remaining in front of the player at the start of their next turn will gain Glory points equal to the number in the upper right corner of that creature's Power card.  After attacks are resolved, players can use any remaining quidity to capture new creatures from the Wildlands. Players pay the quidity cost found in the upper left corner of the power card they wish to purchase. Players then place all rolled dice in their discard pile along with any captured creatures, and active status passes to the next player. Play continues in this manner until one player reaches the Glory Goal, depending on the number of players. WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE GAME Of course, the first thing to mention is the cubes. They are awesome. Not full-size, but a little smaller. They come in all colors and styles. Some are solid, some are frosted crystal, some have specks of glitter, they are just really cool. The illustrations in the game are really nice, with just a little bit of cartoonishness to keep it from looking too serious. The gameplay is easy to explain and only takes a few minutes to get going. WHAT DID YOU NOT LIKE? While the dice are cool, the printing on some of them is blurry. It's not a huge problem, but it can make them difficult to read. The game is fun, but maybe not suitable for many repeat playthroughs (if that's what you're looking for). CONCLUSIONS Quarriors is essentially a simple game: you roll dice, attack other players (if you want to), and capture new creatures (if you want to). The base game includes 130 dice and 53 creature and spell cards, which gives Quarriors a lot of variety. Each set of dice is represented by multiple power cards, and each power card has different options. This means that from game to game, each set of dice can perform completely different actions depending on the settings. Quarriors doesn't offer much strategy, but smart purchases early in the game can make a big difference towards the end...

GARDEN RUSH GAME REVIEW  Garden Rush (designed by Kee Mansell) is a lightning-fast two-player game that requires you to stack tiles and build a board in which you plant and harvest vegetables to score points. The game comes in an open box with a magnetically held flip-top lid. This flip-top lid opens to reveal a play area. The box also doubles as a storage mechanism and, when flipped, as a game board that holds the players’ gnome figures.  Players sit at opposite ends of a playing field, which is divided into two identical gardens with a hedge between them. During setup, vegetable tiles are drawn from a bag and placed on each hedge square with the vegetable side facing up. Each garden is arranged in a 5×5 grid with the corners cut off, forming an inner square. In the corners of this square are four icons representing special actions that players can perform when these icons are covered by tiles. These actions allow you to take an additional tile from the ruler, harvest (i.e. score points) from a bed in your garden, move a tile from one spot to another, or flip any vegetable in either player's garden to the opposite side. Each hedge cell lines up in a column of cells in your garden. On your turn, you have two options: take the tile or harvest (i.e., score points). If you take a tile, you can place it with the double side with the vegetables facing up in the column corresponding to the location of the hedge cell you took, or you can place it with the single side with the vegetables facing up in any other column. Once a hedge cell is empty, the remaining vegetables are moved to fill the empty space, a new vegetable is placed at the end of the row, and the new vegetable takes its place on the trampoline.  Yes, you read that right. Trampoline. In Garden Rush, anthropomorphic vegetables not only smile at you, but they also seem so eager to be cut and eaten that they literally jump at the chance. WHAT IS ALL THIS FOR? In Garden Rush, each type of vegetable has several patterns in which it can be planted. Once you plant it in one of the patterns, it can be harvested for points equal to the number of plants that made up the pattern. Once harvested, double vegetable tiles are flipped to their single vegetable sides, and single vegetable tiles are removed from the board. If that sounds a little strange, think about carrots. Carrots can be harvested when you plant two or four carrots diagonally across from each other. If you harvest two carrots, you get two points. If you harvest four, you get four points. Nothing else special.  These points are important for two reasons. First, there are certain breakpoints on the score track that, if you manage to end your turn with your gnome on top of them, allow you to perform a bonus action (potentially a chain of bonuses if you're clever enough). Second, and most importantly, Garden Rush isn't just about scoring points. It's about getting to 40 points, and that means getting those points before your opponent can do the same. Once a player reaches 40 points, the round ends and whoever is further up the score track wins. Otherwise, the game ends when the bag runs out of tiles, and whoever has the most points up to that point wins. WONDERFUL RAGU There's a lot to like about Garden Rush. The rules are easy to teach and learn. You'll be playing without any problems in a matter of minutes. The game is short, and experienced players only need 20-30 minutes to throw it in a backpack and play with a colleague during their lunch break. The design, while absurd, is bold and fun. The quality of the components is top-notch. The gameplay is also pretty simple. Garden Rush is a game about balancing long-term goals with short-term gains. Do you intentionally score less points to avoid hitting a checkpoint on the scoring scale, or do you forgo extra actions to score more points? And when it comes to picking vegetables from the hedgerow, figuring out how to arrange the vegetables so they fit with other types of vegetables can be quite a challenge. This aspect of the game always reminds me of Tiny Towns in that you have to arrange different objects in a limited space to take advantage of scoring opportunities when they appear. The pace of the game is almost perfect. It starts off slow. With a mostly empty garden, it's easy to relax and just enjoy yourself. But as your garden starts to fill up, things get more lively. The tension builds as your little gnome-point figures battle for position on the scoreboard. The energy is palpable. Garden Rush is, in a word, exhilarating. However, this minor annoyance doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the game at all. Garden Rush ticks many of my boxes, and it's become a game that's practically always in my backpack, ready to be pulled out and set up at a moment's notice. If you're looking for a two-player game that's easy to set up and take down, quick and easy to play, but still offers some challenge, Garden Rush might be just what you're looking for...

BULLET BOARD GAME REVIEW When a friend expressed interest in playing Bullet, I found myself in the unusual position of having to tell him to read the rules. This almost never happens, but the circumstances were exceptional. When I returned fifteen minutes later, I asked him if he knew how to play. And indeed, during that time he had managed to learn everything in detail. STAR EXPRESS  Bullet is essentially a mobile app. 1-4 players race — it’s a real-time game — using cards and abilities to remove colored balls from their game boards. These balls are randomly drawn from each player’s personal bag and added to their personal game board. The balls have numbers that indicate the number of empty cells they cross before stopping. If a ball accidentally reaches the bottom of the game board, it takes away some of your health.  Balls are removed by playing cards from your hand that depict something like a tetromino. Certain cells must contain a ball, some must be empty. Once the ball tokens are lined up properly, which almost never happens without using one or two special powers to move them, they can be discarded.  The incentive to move quickly in Bullet has two aspects. First, any balls left in your bag after the time runs out must be added to your board in full, without any mitigation. The more balls on your board, the more likely it is that the next one will fall to the bottom. This deluge of penalty periods can be devastating. Second, any bullets you manage to remove will be passed to the player to your left in the next round. The more bullets your opponents have, the harder their job will be, and the better for you. Bullet Star is a knock-out game. There is no winner, just the one who can last long enough to see the bodies of their enemies float by. BARGAIN? I think mobile apps provide a kind of mindless dopamine rush. The closest I've come to that in my desktop experience is probably the crazy pinball mania of Ganz Schon Clever!. Bullet and its big sister are a little too cognitively intensive to evoke the bliss of a mobile app gaming experience, but they still feel like video puzzle games come to life. You definitely get good value for money. The set includes eight characters, each with a unique deck of cards and asymmetrical abilities. Bullet Star also includes rules for various modes, including boss mode, co-op mode, team mode, and solo mode.  The experience is insane. You have to sweat. There's a strong feeling that you could figure it out if you could just see the one thing you're missing. My only complaint is that you could play alone, as you won't really notice the other players at the table. The only time you think about other people is when one of them throws you a fresh batch of balls that you've taken out so you can add them to your bag for the next round. It requires such intense concentration that you don't even start swearing madly. And where's the fun in that?..