Dominic Crapuchetts, one of the designers of Evolution, Evolution: Climate and one of the designers of Oceans adjacent to Evolution, had a laundry list of problems with the design of the successful series. Most of them, he found, could not be fixed. They were inherent in the system. The only solution was to start over. This is what he did. The result is Nature, a game that will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Evolution. This is clearly Evolution 2.0, an attempt to make the game simpler, meaner and more flexible. The core idea of the gameplay remains the same: create and evolve species that eat more than anyone else. First, you get a new look. Isn't that cute? They always start out both physically small and numerically insignificant: size 1 and a corresponding population. This is your blank canvas. You use cards in your hand to increase size, population, or add traits. Features are the heart of the game, but they're best explained after you've experienced the game, so I'll circle back.  When everyone decided how to develop their species, it was time for the test. Each player, in turn, activates one species. Each species forages by default by finding food in the supply of vegetation tokens in the middle of the table. Larger species eat more food at once, while species with larger populations can hold more food. The dream, of course, is to have a large size and high density, but this may not be what the ecosystem can sustain. The amount of vegetation available each round depends on the drop of one card at the top of the setup. If you spot a 1, which means each player will add one token at the start of each round, brace yourself for a bumpy ride. Malnourished populations die out, so humans are more likely to turn to predators. Predators work a little differently and will be a favorite for aggressive players in your party. Instead of eating tokens from the central supply, carnivores attack other species. Here the value of size changes to attack and defense. A predator can attack only an animal of the same or smaller girth. They kill one population and take a number of food tokens equal to the size of the prey. Any suitable species on the table can be chosen, and the Predator must hunt if it can. Later in the game, this may mean that one of your predators has to go after another of your species. Comedy gold. We love to see that.  The major change since evolution, probably the key change in how nature is experienced as an experience, concerns death. In Evolution, your hunted and hungry populations are destroyed forever. It is easy for a player with an early advantage to dominate throughout the game. In Nature, you bring back a lost population. They join the new species you get at the start of the next round. The stronger your round, the stronger your next species will be able to come out of the swing. It's possible that an avid player can come back from the edge of the abyss in Nature, which is much more difficult to say about his older brother. Let's return to those features. Some increase your defensive ability, making it harder for animals to hunt you. Others improve your ability to forage or give you access to alternative food sources. The features are the area where it is most obvious that Nature is an improvement on the previous design. There were 17 different possible cards in the Evolution deck. Nature has eight. As much as brevity is the soul of wit, it is also the heart of good game design. Where evolution sometimes felt chaotic and unwieldy, nature makes you a much more intentional god. Even within the relatively narrow parameters of only eight signs, the variability of Nature is impressive. This is an extremely reactive game. When everyone is playing well, one player making a different choice has consequences that cause everyone else to deviate from their chosen course. I've played probably half a dozen sessions of the base game and none of them felt the same. And that's before we factor in modules. MODES Nature is a modular system that gives players more control over the type of experience they have. Five modules - Rainforest, Arctic Tundra, Natural Disasters, Flight and Dinosaurs - are part of the initial release, and each one adds a unique twist to the process.  The rainforest is bountiful, providing explosive population growth and unlimited food resources—at least for those species that can climb. Natural disasters for those who hate planning and love a bit of drama. Each round a new rule or instant effect is introduced, causing a variety of potential disasters. The flight module is probably my favorite. It has my favorite set of traits and introduces migration to the game which brings some pretty subtle points. Dinosaurs seem to be a favorite and I can see why. It's fun to have all these big, aggressive dinosaurs stomping around. The final production version of Nature will use dials instead of stacks of wooden tokens—an aesthetic loss that also arguably improves quality of life—but having an 8-token tall stack of Predators is a hoot. Each of these five spices not only tastes good on its own, they can be mixed. When playing with modules, players can draw cards at the top of the round from any combination of decks. If I need two dino cards, a basic card, and two flight cards, I can do that. Even cooler, it gives the other players some idea of what shenanigans I might have planned and can influence what decisions they make. As I understand it, there are plans to release two new modules per year for the foreseeable future. This should ensure that nature will have plenty of variety to keep you entertained. NATURAL SELECTION I've played Nature several times over the past three years in various stages of development. It was obvious from the first play that this was something special, and it only got better as time went on. My review copy is an early one, and many small adjustments have been made since it was even printed. Map effects have been changed. Some components are changed to make the game more user-friendly. But every time I sat down to play, I was left with the feeling that nature is an exciting and wonderful system. The most reliable indicator of the quality of Nature that I have is the reaction of players to it. Time after time, group after group, with all the variety of gaming tastes, I have yet to see a group finish a game without wanting to immediately dive back in, or try the same setup again, or test the waters on a different module combination. Nature is a whimsical thing...

 About two years ago, I was staring at a copy of Maracaibo (2019, Capstone Games) sitting on my shelf. The game looked back at me. "You keep looking at me like you love me, but we used to spend a lot more time together." "You're right," I said. “The problem isn't entirely yours, and I don't think the problem is mine either. The problem is, as much as I love you, you take time to set up, you take time to teach, and every time I have to explain how combat is fought and where the dice go on the map and how it all affects the ending - scoring mechanics in the game, I move on to another game. Besides, the whole thing usually takes two or three hours to play... I just think it's better to find another home for you.'' So I gave Maracaibo to a guy in my company. I got the Maracaibo app (which unfortunately still doesn't support playing against AI opponents outside of solo) and then basically stopped playing the game until it hit Board Game Arena a few months ago. Toward the end of my time at Gen Con 2024, I stopped by the Capstone booth to talk to the team about the show, and they offered up a copy of Pirates of Maracaibo, the standalone version of the game that won rave reviews at SPIEL last year. I was curious, so I accepted a copy and a few weeks later had it in front of my other junkie friends from Maracaibo. 15 minutes into the first game I breathed a sigh of relief. I'm back in Maracaibo like never before...because Pirates of Maracaibo is Maracaibo with all the card games I love in a package that plays in about an hour even with three players. Because it's so easy to set up and take down, Pirates of Maracaibo has a much higher chance of making it to the table than its big brother. They are a match made in heaven. If you liked the base game, buy Pirates of Maracaibo. And even if you didn't like Maracaibo the first time around, I think Pirates of Maracaibo is still worth checking out. THE SEA IS A CARD OCEAN Pirates of Maracaibo is a stand-alone exploration and treasure hunt game for 1-4 players, with many of the same table-building mechanics featured in the Maracaibo base game. You don't need a copy of Maracaibo to play Pirates of Maracaibo, but it's certainly easier to learn if you already know how to play the original. Although Maracaibo had quest mechanics and combat, I always thought of it as a card game. I liked choosing which cards to buy, I liked buying cards that allowed me to do special things in certain places, and I liked card tagging that allowed me to burn cards to leave items in certain places on the map. I've always been concerned about the structure of the base game, how players can speed up the end of rounds by running around the map and triggering the scoring at the end of the round, but at four rounds I always felt like I had a good chance of getting enough points to win. Pirates of Maracaibo seems to know exactly what I wanted most from the base game, and then deliver it in such a quick fashion. Pirates of Maracaibo is even more of a card game than the base game, thanks to the removal of the standardized game board and replacing it with… you guessed it, more cards. The Pirates of Maracaibo game contains a deck of cards divided into nine columns, 2-4 cards per column. Starting at the west end of this table, players control their pirate ship by moving 1-3 spaces (cards) east to perform actions. These cards range from Location cards, where players can improve the side of their ship and carry out raids or research activities, to Enhancement cards, which provide one-time actions or red flags that permanently improve abilities. As in the base game, upgrade cards cost doubloons, and this cost can be reduced by powering up other cards or upgrading your ship. Residence cards, just like in the base game, are also featured in Pirates of Maracaibo, now arranged as locations on the map that can be visited and replenished with player tokens to be claimed at the end of the game.  The maps are still great in Pirates of Maracaibo and it's very interesting to see how the map changes. This is because when a player buys an Enhancement, it moves to the new owner's personal table and is then replaced by a card from a better deck, so there's always a series of cards available for purchase, but the ways the options change add a nice decision-making dynamic. Location cards contain a variety of options, including the explorer mechanic from the base game. In the base game, I always felt like the Pathfinder mechanic took a focused effort to make it work, and I rarely saw the player who performed the best win the game. In Pirates of Maracaibo, the Explorer process is incorporated into the core gameplay in a way that is meaningful but doesn't require the player to direct most of their energy in that direction. The new game features a small Exploration board that looks the same as the original game, but now the loop is a circle where players move their Explorer meeples across rivers to get bonuses similar to those in the base game (points , coins, treasure, etc.). Some Location and Enhancement cards allow you to move multiple locations at once, thanks to enhancements obtained from other cards or aboard a ship. Pirates of Maracaibo has three areas that have received a major update: combat, quest cards, and ship upgrades. All three add to the action in Pirates of Maracaibo by streamlining processes that were difficult work in the original game, and all three areas proved to be meta improvements that dictated play in the base game, particularly aboard the ship. BURIED TREASURE Let's talk about the new shipboard for a moment. Remember the personal ship board from the base game? Players seemed to do the same upgrades in pretty much the same order every time they played: five coins, then one that increased the hand size from four cards to six, then maybe one that gave you three points so you could unlock the one that gives you six more points. And it always took two deliveries before you could get each update. The Pirates of Maracaibo know you don't like to wait. So there are two major changes aboard the ship. The first is that all location cards allow the player to upgrade their ship and get something immediately. Want three doubloons? Here you go. Another quest card? Here you go. The second change is that the ship upgrades are closed like in the first game, but the gates are lower. So, after your first two upgrades, you gain access to the juicier upgrade options in the second of three ship upgrade levels. One of my favorite options is to drop a quest card for eight doubloons. Another awards the player two points if they choose to move less than they could on the research map. Another update allows the player to buy the upper part of their ship. Major items new to Pirates of Maracaibo give players the choice of a slight asymmetry as they receive one-time or permanent powers that change the way the game is played. The shipboard in Pirates of Maracaibo blows the old version of the game out of the water. I'm not sure I can even play basic Maracaibo now that I've seen this new version. This is doping and it is not discussed. So the shipboard is the first and probably the best upgrade to the base game outside of general playtime.  The second update is combat. In Pirates of Maracaibo, the tiles that tell players how much additional combat power they have against each of the three factions (Spain, France, England) are gone. Now fighting is "raiding" and raiding is cake. Three cubes of three different colors fall out. Dice represent both grains of power that can be used to perform unique combat actions, and the scent of treasure that can be captured with enough power. Yellow cube - gold, green - emeralds, white - pearls. Roll the dice, then roll any number of those dice again if desired. Your combat strength is the number of points on one die plus any bonuses you've unlocked through cards and ship upgrades. The treasure corresponding to the selected cube (if the combat strength is at least five) is taken from the treasure island and placed on the player's "hidden board". A cute nod to every pirate story ever written: newly found treasure is placed on the beach of each treasure type column, but can later be "buried" in places below the beach line for extra endgame points. . (Being the nerd that I am, I made the players make a shovel sound every time they did the Bury the Treasures action.) Raiding is fun. Moreover, raiding is easy and very fast. The single roll option is ideal, and after that Pirates of Maracaibo has plenty of dice softening options for players who want to invest in this area. The treasure market is run by all players and shows the current value of each treasure, so scoring each type at the end of the game is pretty easy. The third update to the base game is the quest cards. Frankly, I hated the Maracaibo quest mechanic simply because it seemed like every time I wanted to stop at a quest location, the current quest would have two tags that I didn't have in hand. Worse, every now and then the quests would change and the opponent would hijack my ability to stop somewhere and use the tags I had in hand. It was hard to count on quests to succeed, and sometimes my career card choices would lead me into a game full of trying to make quests work. Mech Pirates of Maracaibo fixes this by allowing players to build a quest map from two of their choice during setup, and then very easily get more of them during gameplay. The quests are simple and, like the main game, multi-step, so the player can get three points for burying two pearl treasures, or more points for burying three. Great, I can go there right now. There are always two cards available in the quest card market, and players can always add more quests to the top deck if they don't like the offering. There is even a bonus of 10 points waiting..

 The Weirdwood Manor game begins with a narrative that explains the situation. Lady Weirdwood rules a magical mansion that is the link between the mortal realm and the fairy lands. It's her job (along with her overseers, which can be players) to keep the forces of evil at bay. However, something went wrong, and some evil from the Fairy Kingdom broke into the estate and came to wreak havoc. Cooking is quite interesting. Everything about the game, from how the manor works, to the interesting abilities of the different characters you can play as, to how the side characters (called companions) act… everything serves this theme perfectly. Next, we'll take a look at how the game is set up and played. If you want to skip it, skip to my thoughts below. Otherwise, click on the link and check out how the game works! PREPARATION Setup is relatively easy, although there are a lot of steps involved. First, setting up the main tablet: Collect the two halves of the estate. Place the rooms of the outer ring in your ring in random order. Collect and place the Day Corridor and place it inside the outer ring rooms with Day 1 at the top of the board. Place the middle ring rooms in your ring in random order. Place the corridor of time inside the rooms of the middle ring with the first morning location at the top of the board. Place the inner ring rooms in your ring in random order. Place six scarab tokens in the innermost room (Throne Hall). Place one scarab token in each room of the inner ring. Place three scarab tokens in random rooms of the manor (no room can have more than one scarab at this time).  Shuffle the companion deck and place four companions face up as the current market. Shuffle the Overseer Tactics deck and place it near the board.  Place tokens (scarab, min, knowledge, and power), dice, and dice near the board.  Then the preparation of the player: Each player chooses an overseer and takes the player board associated with the selected overseer. Then they… …place the blue cube on the battle cube track. …place a red die in the 3-space of their health track. …place a pink cube at the start of their Power experience track. …place the red cube at the beginning of the combat experience track. …place the orange cube at the beginning of the tactical lane. …put whatever resources/power tokens the warden starts with into their supply. Players take appropriate positions. They are located in the hallway at the top of the board. Players take their personal deck of action cards, discard the Shadow Steps card (this card is always in the player's starting hand), shuffle the remaining cards, and deal two additional cards to form their starting hand.  And finally, there's the fairy monster setup. This is different for each of the three monsters. GAME PROCESS Weirdwood Manor is a cooperative game. A player's turn consists of playing an action card from their hand (required) and taking any additional actions (see below) they wish to take. If a player has an Overseer Tactic card in their hand, they can play it to improve the action card. When they play an action card, it will be played into one of the positions at the top of the player board. The selected position must not contain an action card. These positions are related to the time of day: morning, afternoon, evening or night. After the game, before anything happens, the time-of-day corridor advances (i.e. rotates counter-clockwise) at least one cell; it must stop so that one of the three time slots that coincided with the time of day where the action card was played is at the highest point. The player decides which of the three to use. If the day corridor changes so that the highest space moves from night back to morning, then the day corridor also advances to the next day. This can result in a game over (see below). The movement of these two corridors is vital! When they alternate, the rooms in the manor can become isolated. This can result in the players (or the fae monster) being trapped in the room until the corridor turns again. That is why it is important to carefully choose which of the three places to use for this time of day. STANDARD ACTIONS There are several standard actions that can be obtained with the selected action card: these include: Move: With this action, the warden can move to any room in the estate, as long as he can trace corridors and rooms that are not blocked. A move cannot pass through a room with an opponent; if a supervisor enters such a room, the turn ends. If they have another turn, they can leave that room and continue to another. Portal: This action allows the warden to teleport from their current room to any other room in this way. An unblocked path is not required. Attack: This action allows the Warden to initiate combat. If there are scarabs in the room, that's what attacks; if a fae monster is in the room and there are no scarabs, the warden can attack the fae monster. The attacks are described in more detail below. Get Resources: These actions give the warden more resources. If a warden moves to or fights in a room where there are no opponents (either because they weren't there to begin with or because they were defeated), they can perform the actions provided by the room. Rooms have the ability to provide resources, receive warden tactic cards, recruit companions, create combat dice, and more. Actions granted by rooms (and special abilities, etc.) include: Forging Battle Dice: This action allows the warden to gain more dice to use in battle. There are three types of dice that can be forged: red dice that focus on offense, black dice that focus on defense, and blue dice that are a balance of both. The attacks are described in more detail below. Recruit Champions: With this action, the warden can recruit a companion. Companies have a resource cost (which increases with each additional partner). Sidekicks give the warden two things: an optional action they can use, and additional spaces they can play action cards on. OPTIONAL ACTIONS As mentioned above, players can also take optional actions in addition to their actions from action cards and rooms. Additional abilities can be used before or after an action card is played. There are three additional actions: Character Abilities: Each Warden has three special abilities that must be activated. Each power can be activated once per turn. Companion Abilities: Companions have special abilities that usually require them to be exhausted (reversed). An exhausted ability cannot be used again until the companion is upgraded. EXPERIENCE At the bottom of the player board are three experience tracks. Many things (mostly combat) will result in the player gaining experience. Each experience point gained moves any of the experience track markers along its track. When the token reaches certain thresholds, the warden will receive things like power tokens, resources, healing, or even swords (extra damage) and shields (damage protection) in all future battles. Winning this game is all about controlling your experience as well as controlling your opponents on the board. END OF THE MOVE When a player has completed all the actions they are going to take, their turn ends. This means: Monster Phase: A fairy monster takes an action. This action comes from their special deck of cards and will involve advancing the time-of-day corridor by multiple slots, moving, attacking, or gathering strength. As the game progresses, the power of these actions increases. Scarab Phase: Remember when I said that action cards should be placed in the time of day position above the player field? Remember I said that satellites add positions that can be used for additional action cards? Well, this is important because if all positions are filled, then a special scarab phase occurs at the end of a player's turn. In this phase, more scarabs appear, the ones that were already there are moved, all the action cards you have in play are reset, and your companions are updated. The appearance and movement of scarabs is the dangerous part here: if two or more scarabs occupy the same room (except for the Throne Room), that room becomes invulnerable. Damaged rooms are flipped over and cannot be used until the infestation is removed. To remove the disease, the scarabs must be dealt with, and then the warden in that room must pay the price specific to that room. Action Card Phase: When the fae monster completes its action and the scarab phase ends (assuming it did), then the player adjusts their hand to have a number of cards equal to their current health (1 to 6). If they have too many cards, they fold; if they don't have enough cards, they take. FIGHTS Combat is a big part of what will happen in the game. Overseers can initiate combat with an attack; a fairy monster can start combat during the monster phase. The fight boils down to the following: The Warden tallies up the total number of swords and shields they have as bonuses on cards in play, as well as bonuses on their experience tracks. They then add the result of rolling all the combat dice they have. After receiving these amounts, opponents roll combat dice. Compare the number of swords the warden has with the number of shields the opponent has. Each sword that exceeds the shields deals one damage to the opponent. Each scarab can take one point of damage; each fae monster is unique in how it deals damage. Compare the number of swords of the opponent with the number of shields of the overseer. Each sword that exceeds the shields deals one damage to the warden. Damage can be taken as health, combat dice, or power tokens. Any excessive damage is ignored. Blue combat dice have a special icon on one side. The effect of this icon is specific to each guardian and fairy monster. As..

 This will be a short review, as befits a short game. But please don't take this to mean that Seaside is a bad game. The game is actually good, but it's short and sweet, and you can play it on a picnic table, on a beach towel, or even standing at a bar table. The story goes that when Brian Burgoyne designed Seaside, he specifically wanted a game that could be played on the beach. This meant a game that was portable, durable, and most importantly, waterproof. This is how Seaside was born, a game in a small canvas bag with thick double-sided painted wooden discs. GAME PROCESS The gameplay is extremely simple, in fact the only thing to set up is to get the instructions out of the bag - you don't even need to read them, if you already know how to play, you just put it down. During the game, each player reaches into the bag and pulls out one disc, determines which of the two sides they want to "play", and then does what the disc indicates (either places the disc in the middle of the playing area or in front of them - more on this at moment). Sometimes a player may be allowed to draw a second or third disc in a row, but eventually the bag goes to the next player who completes the same sequence. When the bag is empty, players will add up all the discs in front of them and determine who has the highest stack, and that player is the winner. Seaside is one of those games that you can literally learn on the fly. WHAT DISKS MEAN Of course, there's a bit more to the game, but it's always nice when the game mechanics are simple. But to collect disks, you need to know what each of them does. There are generally two types of disc faces: white bottom (which allows the player to hold the disc in front of them) and blue bottom (which requires the player to place the disc "sea", also known as the middle of the playing area). Discs with a blue bottom will also have a "play again" symbol, indicating that you can draw another tile from the bag, as you will throw it into the ocean. White bottom discs are available in one of 4 options: Sandpipers, Crab habitats, Beach and Waves. Waders allow you to collect all the isopod discs from the center of the table and stack them. But for the rest of the game, you can only collect Wader stacks of the same height. When you have two crab habitats, you can collect all crab discs from the center of the table, as well as one from each of your opponents who has a crab. Beach Discs allow you to collect shells from the center of the table, one for each beach in front of you. Finally, the player with the most Wave Discs at the end of the game can collect all remaining discs from the ocean, a powerful late-game option. EXPERIENCE FROM THE GAME Seaside is the perfect way to start or end a game night, or teach someone who doesn't really like board games, or play with younger family members, or if you just want something that won't tax your brain. There's something magical about reaching into a bag without knowing what you're going to get. Maybe there are 4 crabs in the middle of the table, you already have 1 crab habitat, and you're hoping to get a second one. Or maybe there are lots of isopods and you're just hoping for a wader. Or maybe it's almost game over and Shelley has more Wave discs than you and you're hoping to even the odds. Since you never know what you're going to get, you can help Miranda by pulling the exact tile she needs. Or maybe you get exactly what you want, but then the next player gets what they want too. So if you're looking for a casual game to pass the time, give Seaside a try. You can even pretend you're at the beach...

 If there is one truth in the world of modern board games, it is this: the powerful constantly organize ridiculous competitions. Whether it's to see who can become the greatest mage to determine who can outdo everyone else or, in the case of the 5 Towers, to see which architect can build the tallest towers in the city, it's clear that the powers that be have way too much time on their hands (and seemingly endless funds) at their fingertips. GAME PROCESS Basically, 5 Towers is a betting game. During each round, five cards will be turned face up from the deck for all to see. The first player calls the number. This number indicates how many cards the player is willing to take from the board to add to the set they are about to create in their personal area. Each player has a chance to increase the bet. The tricky part is that if you win the bet, you MUST claim the number of cards you bid from the display and you MUST add them to your table. Any unclaimed cards are added to the public discard pile.  Sounds simple enough, right? Not so fast. There are five card suits (tower types) and sixteen cards per suit, numbered from zero to fifteen (4-5 player games have a few extra cards). Each card can only be placed on a tower of the same type, and each card placed must be less than the value of the last card placed on the tower. The only exceptions to this rule are the numbers eight, nine and zero. Any number can be placed on top of an eight, and a nine can be placed on top of any number. Zeros at the top of the tower. Once a tower is zeroed, that tower cannot be manipulated in any way until the end of the game. After the player who won the bet has taken his cards, he has the opportunity to perform one "demolish" action. A break involves removing the top card from any tower in your tableau (if the card is not zero) and placing it in your personal discard pile. This is useful for creating better cards and abilities. For example, if you're stuck with a seven sitting on top of a fifteen, breaking the seven to replace it with an eleven gives you more opportunities to add that tower in future rounds. At the beginning of the game, you will choose a starting player. At the end of the round, after the winner places their cards on their tableau, the person standing to the left of the starting player becomes the starting player for the next round. Once you've passed a deck, the public discard pile is shuffled to create a new deck. Once this new deck is passed, the game ends and the scores are tallied. COUNT Each of your towers scores points equal to the number of cards in that tower. If there is a zero on top of a tower, the score for that tower is doubled. Then score one point for each card in your highest tower. After you count this positive result, you will lose points for the cards in your stack. The first card is worth -1. The second card costs -2. The third card costs -3 and so on.  The player with the most points wins. IMPRESSION Over the past few years, I've grown to love little games that I can stick in my pocket and play during meals or lunch breaks. It's not that my love for big Euros is gone. It's that my time playing them has almost completely evaporated. Between work, marriage, and raising a five-year-old, my time is much more limited than it was in the past. My gaming life exists in those moments between things. 5 Towers is ideal for this new installation. It fits in my pocket. The rules are simple. The gameplay is challenging, but not so challenging that you can play forever. From opening the box to packing it, I only spent 20 minutes of my time. And what a great 20 minutes it is. From the very first draft, 5 Towers cards face several difficult decisions. The whole premise is that you build towers to score points. The bigger these towers are, the more points you earn. But what if you're just starting out and all the face-down cards are small numbers? Should you pass and let your opponents hit them? Or should you bet on at least one, knowing you can always demolish it later? I mean, after all, to score points, you have to at least build something. In the case of low numbers at the beginning of the game, it is quite easy to make the right decision. But what if there are a bunch of average numbers? what then And that doesn't even take into account what other players might need for their towers. If one of your opponents can draw three cards, can you also bet three? If you have to rip a card to do it, how many points are you willing to spend to deny your opponent those cards? One broken card at the end of the game isn't too bad. But three or four? Now you are talking about some serious cons. If you're sitting on top of a huge pile of points, you can probably handle losing six or more. But if you struggle to collect something, is it worth the risk?  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the gorgeous design on these cards. Each card is a treasure trove of subculture references. On one card you will face the Genie from Aladdin. On another, you'll come across Johnny Depp's take on Willy Wonka. And you'll find these cards that look like they're referring to something, but you don't know what. Table conversations are sure to arise as you and your colleagues try to unravel them. Trying to decipher all these Easter eggs is almost as much fun as playing the game itself. From the short time to the gameplay and design, 5 Towers hits all the right notes and I can't find anything negative to say about it. This game is a lot of fun and I'm glad to have it in my collection...

 Almost two years ago, I praised 7 Wonders: Architects as a worthy game in the 7 Wonders line, alongside its more mature counterparts, 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders: Duel. I talked about speed and charm like it was supposed to be a quintessential family game. I still believe in all of this. In fact, 7 Wonders: Architects remains a constant game in our family and is one of the most popular games overall. Younger kids still adore her and teenagers still join us for the experience. After weeks of post-release patience, we grabbed a copy of the first expansion, 7 Wonders: Architects – Medals, and brought it to the table on vacation. It was a great decision. MY SURPRISES Medals bring two new wonders - the Roman Colosseum and the ancient city of Ur. The Colosseum twice allows you to steal one card from another player—as a tribute—only to then provide a free card from the center as a benevolent compensation. Ur brings the beloved Kitty along with a free card. These mid-game triggers fit the game perfectly without feeling contrived. More importantly, the title medals are a bunch of stick-on plastic targets for players to chase. One four-point medal sits next to each deck of cards, prompting players to the left and right of it to join in the chase: first player gets three blue cards, first player gets seven cards, first player gets two Miracles plus Kitty sections. . These mini races are fantastic. The "advanced" module rightly recommends adding two medals to the center of the table as common bait. Throw in a few more progress tokens, including a third copy of the cherished 4PO/12PO token to bring the realm of science to life, and this slim box becomes a smooth performance of "more of what I love." If I were to make a complaint about this additional offering, it would be that there is currently no solution to combine the bits into one box without giving up the game's greatest convenience: those player storage trays. If you are not against a box lift, you can combine the new with the old; but Medals have low prestige if you can't stand that thought. If Medals changes the base game, then it opens the door to victory that doesn't require winning a race to complete a Miracle. The wonder can't be ignored, but there are sixteen potential points in the medals, as well as some progress tokens that enhance the scoreboard in other interesting ways. All in all, the new side paths are fruitful and also encourage players to play all kinds of games. For example, if you're a player who usually ignores the war game, you'll want to add some variety to the war medal to your right and the collect-all-five-type medal to your left. Better yet, a progress token that lets you hold on to your horned shield cards after a conflict can turn a fighter into a lover. Extensions are best when they enhance and encourage without rewriting the script. All in all, Medals gently and convincingly sticks its grubby paws into every crevice of 7 Wonders: Architects. The result is a more complex experience—not complex like Vinhos, but complex like a good cup of coffee. The flavor profile is a bit richer, offering an extra note to the player who wants to talk it up a bit more. If you love 7 Wonders: Architects, you won't regret adding medals to the table right away...

 As a rule, reviews of game reissues follow a predictable pattern. The author recalls his experience with the original edition or claims that it was a forgotten masterpiece. It's a bit of a cliché, and it works for the most part. However, in this case I can't follow suit as I never got the chance to play the original Yokohama version. As shallow as it sounds, the only reason I never played the old edition was because of the graphic design. The original box cover felt claustrophobic, and the look was like being thrown into a strangely shaped well. When I saw her at the board game meetups, it didn't give me much confidence. Cards were lying all over the table, and there were simply too many leftover wooden cubes. After playing the newer version a few times for this review, I have to confess and say what I missed. This is a great game that easily matches up to fantastic games like Concordia and Puerto Rico. This is the next step after you were spoiled by the starting trio of Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride and Catan. Like any game, it's not perfect, but it does a lot more right than wrong. PREPARATION With that confession out of the way, let's get into what makes this game successful. At its core, Yokohama is a pickup and delivery game about fulfilling orders, capturing equipment, and gathering resources. It is the beginning of the Meiji era, and the city of Yokohama is at the forefront of foreign trade. You are a trader in this boom period and want to outdo your friends. To help you on this journey, you have a small militia of helpers, a president, some shops, and two starting order cards. At the beginning of your turn, you have two options for placing your helpers: you can spread out three of them in three separate zones of your choice, or you can concentrate two in one zone. If you want to place an assistant in the same place as another player's president, you need to pay one yen to the other player. After the assistants are placed, your president takes over. The president's movement is limited to the areas where you have placed assistants, and if you move through any other player's president, you must also pay that player one yen. Wherever the destination is, this zone is activated. The number of pieces you have there, i.e. your assistants and the president, determines the "power" that affects your zone power. Simply put, the more power you have, the more stuff you get. NAVIGATION IN THE HARBOR It sounds simple enough, and that's because it is, but there are some complexities in these innocent rules. When you activate a location with at least four powers, you open up the option to create either a shop or a trading house in that area. These structures offer more than just immediate benefits; they also give you an extra power point when you use that area for the rest of the game. Trading houses prove to be particularly valuable, as they reward you with one yen each time another player uses that location. That's pretty much it in terms of turn flow, but there are some additional areas to worry about. There is a customs field and a church field where you need to donate resources to permanently place a helper in those fields. Similar to Shops and Trading Houses, they give an immediate bonus, but possibly end-game bonuses if you have a majority of helpers in those two spaces. There are also technology cards that break the rules, from a tram that makes movement trivial to a winery that gives bonus points every time you send a helper to the Church. There is even a form of collecting sets to score points at the end of the game. Each order and technology card has a country icon. You get a decent amount of points if you have unique sets of cards, but if you have a pair of country cards, you get a foreign agent. These foreign agents are limited and activating one is similar to activating your President, essentially giving you an extra turn. FOREIGN INFLUENCE If that sounds like a game of point salad, I'm not going to argue, because that's exactly what's going on here. My usual reaction to such a design was a roll of the eyes, a loud sigh, and then a slap on the forehead. I can't do that here because while there are many ways to earn points, they are quite interconnected and using them often helps you in other ways. If anything, this is Yokohama's biggest advantage in the field of conventional pickup and delivery. While many games in this genre tend to confine players to a single, rigid path with little room to deviate from the main objective, Yokohama takes a more loose approach. This encourages players to explore different paths beyond the obvious. Instead of immediately focusing on fulfilling orders, you can create a network of stores and trading houses to increase your production capabilities. In addition, you can start with a large army of assistants and gradually expand your influence in all directions. With this freedom, players can experiment in each session and get a dopamine fix. Like a true entrepreneur, you are always looking for opportunities to take advantage of. Even idle time doesn't live up to the title, as you're constantly calculating the various options you have at the start of your turn. Some players may get lost because of the open nature of the game, but I welcome it. The game embodies the essence of a timeless European-style board game, keeping it fresh and attractive even to a fault. TROUBLED WATERS Since there are not many dynamic variables in the game, hyper-analytical players will easily eat up everyone's time. While there's a randomized setup with zone tiles at the start of the game, it's more of a formality than something that's truly game-changing thanks to the absolute autonomy you have placing your minions anywhere combined with unlimited movement. Tech cards try their best to create the illusion of game-changing abilities, but most of them are just extra incentives to do all the standard actions. The setting of the game doesn't play a big role either, as it could be any city and no one would notice. Despite its imperfections, Yokohama has an undeniable appeal that deserves recognition. For a game heavily inspired by European game design philosophies, there's a remarkably high level of player engagement. Other players are constantly hampering you by taking shelter in your designated areas, and your only response will be a few curses. Racing for certain technology cards or placing those vital buildings before other players will become a regular challenge for you. With the right players, the tempo of the game reaches New York minutes. While some may be turned off by the puzzle, this game is not a hard puzzle with one solution. Instead, Yokohama is challenging itself with plenty of options to participate.  Yokohama appears as an elegant gem in the European-style gaming treasure trove, and it's a big room. It has minor flaws like any other game, such as potential analysis paralysis and a somewhat superficial theme. I also can't deny that it does a lot of great things to create an inviting atmosphere. There are multiple ways to win, the rules aren't that complicated, and players are kept engaged from start to finish. Yokohama successfully bridges the gap between simpler gateway games and more complex offerings. This new edition proves that sometimes a second chance at discovery can lead to a truly rewarding gaming experience...

 Spectral is a competitive deductive game, and an unusual one at that. The haunted house you and your companions explore is represented by a 4 x 4 grid of semi-randomized face-down cards, full of gems and curses. You want gems! But beware of curses. You find out where they are by placing any number of explorers between any two rooms and then exploring the contents of one of them. "Content" is somewhat misleading. The rooms in this house don't tell you what's inside. They tell you about the contents of other rooms. On the face of each card is either a curse or, more likely, a gem and one of four symbols. The symbols indicate where the displayed item is located. This card, for example, says that the gem is on the opposite side of the grid:  This card tells me that the curse is in a room that is within two spaces, diagonally:  You spend most of the game placing pieces on a grid and gathering information, all the while taking notes in the notebooks provided. Information is not the only purpose of these components. At the end of the game, when all rooms are revealed and all gems and curses are placed on the field, the gems are distributed among the players using the pieces surrounding that room. Each gem, conveniently enough, is worth 12 points and easily splits into two, three, or four, regardless of the circumstances.  Curses, on the other hand, banish nearby players before the final count. In many cases it is better to find out the location of curses than gems. Precious stones that you can risk, or curses that will not bring any good! There is an element of betting around the placement of pieces. You can give other players an advantage from a position that seems particularly profitable by placing twice as many pieces in the same position. You can even substitute your own pieces, which represents aspects of bluffing that I adore. If I realize I've put one piece next to a curse, who's to say I can't convince someone else I'm on to something good by replacing it with two or three? One of the biggest challenges of puzzle games is to make them interactive, and Spectral has found just about the best way to do it that I've seen. Unused pieces also score points at the end of the game, and depending on the number of players, they score quite a bit. You always have the option of giving away your move if you feel it is better to hold your pieces than risk a bad return. You will never have time to explore every room. By the end of the game, you're making tough choices based on opportunities and hunches.  I have nothing but good things to say about Spectral. Designer Ryan Courtney, of Pipeline fame, managed to combine the trade-offs of territory control and auction games with an engaging puzzle game, all in about thirty minutes. Spectral is smart, interactive, easy to learn and fun. Also, the final reveal of all the rooms provides a nice dramatic moment. Spectral is one of the first two releases in a new series from publisher Bitewing Games, Deep Clean. The idea behind the series is to combine complex game states and inherent gameplay with simplified rulesets. They speak my language. That's all I want. Spectral is a very good start. Oh, and to top it all off, the game comes in a pretty small box. You know, maybe 4.5/5 is too little. We may have finally done it. Maybe this is the perfect game...

 “How different can a card game be?” you might ask yourself. But then you play Faraway and get your answer. Faraway requires you to think in forward and reverse, at the same time, which means that at the end of eight rounds you’re never quite sure whether you made the right moves or not. Let’s find out more. Faraway Overview In Faraway plays will take a journey across the land of Alula “a mysterious continent where a harmonious nature reigns” (Pandasaurus is leaning in pretty heavy on the mythos here). Over the course of eight rounds, players will draft Region cards from a central display, placing them left to right into a personal tableau, and hopefully also acquiring critically useful Sanctuary cards. At the end of the eighth round, players flip all of their region cards face down, and one by one reveal them—starting with the rightmost card. But I’m getting ahead of myself…in Faraway the goal is to earn the most points, which are acquired via end game scoring on both Region and Sanctuary cards. In some cases, points are simply given (this card is worth 5 points), in other cases points are collected from icons or colors on other cards (1 point for every map icon, 2 points for every red or yellow card), and in the remainder of the cards the points are gated behind requirements (2 points for every night card, as long as you have 2 thistle icons). Now, let’s get back to the gameplay. As you reveal the cards from right to left, you score them based solely on the cards which are already revealed. “Oh, you’ve got a card which awards 10 points if you have 3 antler icons? Bummer for you…seems like you didn’t plan ahead.” This is the reason why Sanctuary cards are so important, as they don’t get flipped over at the end of the game. You can earn them for always playing Region cards which are a higher number than the one immediately to your left. If you placed a 7 last turn, and place a 16 this turn, you get to draw a Sanctuary card—and you get to draw additional Sanctuary cards for each map icon you’ve previously played. Sadly you only get to keep one, but these Sanctuary cards generally make the difference between winning and losing. After revealing and scoring all your Region cards, you make one last pass to score any points found on Sanctuary cards, then tally up the points.Faraway or Far Out?  Let’s just lay it out there…everyone I’ve played Faraway with has been tripped up in the first game or two. Even though I always double down on calling out the “forwards then backwards” scoring approach, it still takes them off guard. It usually takes 2 or 3 games to really catch on to how you must shift your thinking. Faraway rewards strategic thinking, but because it’s a card game, you also have to be able to respond to shifting situations. Faraway is also a game which requires making sacrifices. If you draw a card near the beginning of the game that intends to give you 16 points, you better play it for the points. But if you draw that same card in round 7, it might never even hit the table—unless you play it for the icons. Even though Faraway isn’t a multi-use card game in the traditional sense, I think it belongs in that group in spirit. Cards can be both points and resources, or they can just be resources if you can think far enough ahead.  Even though the others members of my game group ultimately felt that Faraway was a bit too thinky for the “small game” time slot we had placed it in, that didn’t prevent us from playing the game a number of times, in an effort to develop an understanding of the game and the strategy it requires. Faraway is definitely a game that rewards multiple plays. What about you, will you give Faraway a shot at your table? In my opinion, it’s a journey worth taking...

PRODUCT UPDATE  Hello everyone, we are happy to inform you about our super big product update. Meet the fresh arrival and novelties of our store :) Hurry up, the games are great and for all tastes, be the first to buy :)7 Wonders 7 Wonders: Duel King of Tokyo King of Tokyo: Lutoborshch Hive: Pocket ImagineDixitDixit 3 : JourneyDixit 4: OriginsDixit DisneyDixit OdysseyCartographers: A Roll Player TaleBoopKing of Tokyo. National Monster 2. ThunderhoundKing of Tokyo: Even More Wicked!EverdellEverdel: BelfaireWings: Fan Art PackCriminal ChroniclesCthulhu: Death May DieCity of HappinessHell TramSalem 1692Cynical StoriesPandemic SaboteurPROMOTIONAL ITEMS  We suggest you familiarize yourself with the promotional items that will pleasantly surprise your wallet)  Intention Intention: Age of Thirst (Intention)  Wings (Wingspan) (Ukrainian)  Endless Winter: Paleoamericans (Ukrainian)  Level 10 (Ukrainian)  5 Seconds (Ukrainian)  5 Seconds Junior (5 Seconds Junior) (Ukrainian)  Marsolovs..