12 novelties of Eurogames

 In this article, I want to talk about a dozen of the most interesting and rated novelties among Euro table games. These are mostly games released in English in 2022 and have high ratings on BGG.

BITOKU

 Score: 7.91. Difficulty: 3.7. Game time: 2 hours

 Hardcore euro on the theme of Japanese mythology. Exploits the most popular Euromechanic of recent times: a mixture of worker posting and card drawing. "Bitoku" has a good design and an interesting setting - the action takes place in the world of yokai (mythical Japanese creatures).

 When you first get acquainted with the game, you will be amazed by the huge field with many components. For the entire game, the player will have to play only 12 cards and display 12 worker cubes. At the same time, you can fight for lake treasures, collect income-generating crystals in crystal caves, travel along the winding path of mits and collect pairs from mits and dragonflies, move the spirit marker of the bitoku set, make pilgrimages on the path of enlightenment, cross the river and take the hills of Hikaru , get stone spirits - ivakur from the Garden of Stones, build buildings in the magical forest, play vision cards, etc. The number of move options is huge, so the game risks dragging on for several hours.

However, you soon realize that despite the many options, the game is not that difficult, since it is devoid of any tricky combinations and is a banal euro point salad.

BRAZIL: IMPERIAL

 Score: 7.75. Difficulty: 3.0. Game time: 1 hour 30 minutes

 Complex euro game. First of all, it is worth noting that the game is very encyclopedic: the great politicians, soldiers, scientists, figures of Brazil are mentioned on the cards and tokens, as well as phenomena related to this country.

 Like the history of the Brazilian Empire, we will go through the various stages of the country's formation. Initially, our task will be the construction of plantations, land research. Then the development of industrial production, the founding of new cities. At the end of the game, the rapid development of culture and science, and even war, begins. Perhaps the most difficult thing for the author was to squeeze all this diversity into the 1.5 hour game time, and he succeeded. Another thing is that due to transience, all actions are simplified - and it will not be possible to do much here.

 In terms of gameplay, the game is similar to "Sid Meyer's Civilization", and in general to computer turn-based strategies, because the basis of the game is the movement of units on the map, the exploration of tiles and the construction of houses around cities.

 The design of the game is excellent, except that it needs dual-layer tablets, I hope they come out someday.

 It is difficult to assess the game: on the one hand, it impresses the imagination with its thematics, on the other hand, there is no typical crowd of deep strategies and cunning combinations. This game is more of a country simulator than a euro, there is not even a single track. So some will like it, and some won't.

CARNEGIE

 Score: 8.05. Difficulty: 3.8. Game time: 1.5 hours.

 One of the main contenders for the title of the best game of the year, Carnegie. The game is named after the American oligarch Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). The player will hire employees of his company, produce goods, develop a transport network between US cities and engage in charity.

 The game is a complex euro with a strict, concise design and unique mechanics. The highlight of Carnegie is the first player's choice of timeline, which determines what actions players can choose. Sometimes it is more profitable to choose even a less good action for yourself, if the opponents will not be able to benefit from it.

 The peculiarity of the game is the complete absence of luck: there are no cards or dice, and all information is open and available from the beginning of the game. Some will like it, while others may find the game too dry and boring.

DISTILLED

 Rating: 8.13. Difficulty: 2.9. Game time: 1 hour.

 Card euro family difficulty level. And really, the whole family should like it, especially grandfather - a lover of moonshine. After all, in it, players will be engaged in the production of strong alcoholic beverages from all over the world! Gin, tequila, rum, baiju, setu, pisco, grappa and many other drinks that many have not even heard of. The game is quite encyclopedic, introducing inquisitive players to the features of these drinks and the people who invented them.

 The game mechanics are simple: buy ingredients (water, yeast, sugar), mix them into a drink deck, survive a couple of rounds and sell them, getting money and victory points. At the same time, the success factor is big for the euro: two cards are lost from the drink deck during the distillation process. They wanted elite rum - but only cheap moonshine will turn out! It's a shame...

 Distilled already has an app that doesn't change the game, but adds new drinks — this time spirits from Africa and the Middle East.

EARTH

 Score: 7.91. Difficulty: 2.9. Game time: 1 hour.

 Card euro of family difficulty level, dedicated to the development of life on Earth. Players improve the ecosystem of our planet by working with maps of plants, animals, territories in view of climate change and other events. The game is similar to "Wings": its rules are simple, it lasts about an hour, and the basis of the mechanics is the playing of cards. And the most important thing - as in Wingspan, the game pleases with many unique cards (in total, there are more than 300 of them in the game). At the same time, as in "Wings", the bonuses of these cards are often repeated.

 The game is currently leading BGG's "hot" games, but this is primarily due to the theme of the game. Games about animals and ecology usually receive a lot of attention from players, it is enough to mention the good, but obviously overpriced places of such games as Ark Nova, Cascadia, Wings. As for Earth, the game mechanics are quite primitive, there is little interaction between players, and the game is also criticized for a lot of fiddling: at the end of the round, you have to calculate the growth of all plant cards, get fertilizers and perform other necessary actions.

 In general, Earth is a complicated version of the game "Wings", only with plants instead of birds.

ENDLESS WINTER

 Score: 7.89. Difficulty: 3.2. Game time: 1.5 hours.

 A Eurogame based on the 2 most popular mechanics of recent years: posting workers and log building. During his turn, a player puts a meeples on a cell and performs an action, strengthening it by drawing cards. Action cells are not blocked here, but whoever performed the action in the round will be the first to receive the bonus. Cards can be saved until the end of the round, then they will give a good reward.

 There are only 4 actions. For example, the action of hunting will allow you to take cards of animals, it is most profitable to collect animals of the same species. And the resettlement action allows you to move the tents on the map and build communities, whoever has more of them will receive a reward from the hex. "Endless Winter" will not surprise an experienced tabletop player with unusual solutions, but it is a solid strategy with quality components, good balance, simple rules and pleasant gameplay.

 Recently, there have been many games with similar mechanics: "Dune: Imperium" with dense interaction and frequent battles, "Ruins of Arnaku" with colorful, diverse maps and cunning combinations for exchanging resources, "Bitoku" with a huge colorful field and lots of action.

 How will "Endless Winter" answer them? For example, modularity - the presence of large and small add-ons that can be turned on and off to diversify the game. Yes, "Ancestors" offers alternative maps of fellow tribesmen and animals with more diverse actions. And "Rock paintings" allow you to draw erasable animals with markers on the tablet, receiving bonuses for this. It doesn't change the game much, but it looks unusual. Another plus is high-quality components, three-dimensional tablets. The accompanying minus is the high price of the game. And due to the many components, the game requires a large table even when playing together.

 Summary: The game is good and interesting, but falls somewhat short of the above competitors.

LACRIMOSA

Score: 7.85. Difficulty: 3.1. Game time: 1.5 hours.

 This Eurogame is primarily interesting for its theme and bright cover, dedicated to Mozart's musical work. However, the game itself is simple and does not shine with any unique game mechanics.

 The main action is to draw cards in one of two ways, by placing them above and below the tablet. The cards above the tablet allow you to perform these actions, while the cards below the tablet bring you resources at the end of the round. One of the main actions is to travel the map of Europe, which allows you to get rewards in different cities. These reward tiles are randomly placed on the field, making each game unique.

 There is also an area-majority mechanic in the game, when players lay out their markers in the form of notes on fragments of the Requiem. At the end of the game, the players who contributed the most to each part of the Requiem are awarded victory points. Of course, this part is especially effective when playing with 3-4 players, in duel mode the fight for fragments is less intense.

MARRAKESH

 Score: 8.19. Difficulty: 3.3. Game time: 2 hours.

 Since 2022, Stefan Feld has been involved in the development of a large-scale series of Eurogames called City Collection. For example, the game "Hamburg" became a redesign of "Bruges", "Amsterdam" will continue the game "Macao", "Cuzco" - a re-release of "Bora Bora" and so on. But the highest-rated game, which has already received many awards, is Marrakech - perhaps precisely because it is a unique game in the series.

 As in other Feld games, the game is a set of simple, but intricately interwoven actions - at the same time, absolutely abstract and little related to the theme of the game. The highlight of the game is throwing multi-colored meeples into the tower (dice-tower) and drafting the little men that fell out of it between the players. The rating and reviews for this game are very good, with many stating that it is one of Feld's top three games along with Castles of Burgundy and Trajan.

NORTHGARD: UNCHARTED LANDS

 Score: 7.86. Difficulty: 2.7. Game time: 1 hour.

 A simple area control game that can be recommended for beginners. Players control viking clans. In the game you can mine resources, build buildings and discover new lands. Opening new territories is done by taking a new tile from the pile and placing it on your land at the edge of the field, while it is important to place the territory on the side that is more advantageous to the player. In this, the game somewhat resembles the famous Carcassonne.

 Each territory can have units of only one player, if an opponent moves there, a battle takes place. The battle is allowed by a banal roll of the dice, which makes its outcome unpredictable and brings its excitement to the game. The module included in the basic part of the game allows you to add monsters with which you can fight and receive victory points for defeating them.

 The game seems too simple and therefore needs to be supplemented. Two of them have already been released: one adds clan tablets with asymmetric capabilities, the other - unique monsters and terrain tiles with special properties.

REVIVE

 Score: 8.23. Difficulty: 3.4. Game time: 1.5 hours.

 A large, complex and rather complex Eurogame from Norwegian authors ("Santa Maria", "Toukana Trails", "Grand Show", etc.). According to the setting, we play for one of the tribes reviving civilization after a global catastrophe.

 There are quite a lot of different chips here: drawing cards in several ways, unusual pumping of the tablet, and asymmetric properties of each tribe. An important part of the game is the construction of the territory map with buildings, while it is important to place the building in the most "bread" place in order to get more resources from the adjacent cells. Since there are not enough such places, the interaction between players increases. The advantage of the game is good combinability: bonuses obtained from actions allow you to invent complex strategies. The game has a very good score of 8.24 on BGG and claims to be in the top 100 best games (which is the highest score of any game on this list, by the way).

TILETUM

 Score: 8.04. Difficulty: 3.4. Game time: 1 hour.

 "Classic" euro, respectively, with a classic simple design and a boring setting about the Middle Ages.

 The main mechanic is draft cubes. When choosing a cube, the player receives resources and performs an action related to it. The higher the value of the cube, the more resources the player will get, but the weaker the action will be, and vice versa. In addition, the type of resource depends on the color of the cube (some players criticize the game for the fact that the colors of the cubes are not easily visible). It must be quite hard to puzzle over which option to choose.

 But there are only 5 actions, and they are quite simple, which reduces the complexity of the rules of the game. But all of them are strongly connected with each other. For example, to build a cathedral, you need not only to have enough stones, but also to move the architect there and get a column by fulfilling any contract (and for this you need to take a contract and fulfill it).

 The game received a high rating of 8.0 points, and since you can't attribute it to the theme, the game has a really interesting gameplay. I think it can rank with other popular games by these authors: "Zolkin", "Hotel "Austria", "Travels of Marco Polo", "Teotihuacan" and other works of Italians.

WOODCRAFT

 Score: 7.83. Difficulty: 3.8. Game time: 1.5 hours.

 An unusual hardcore Euro movie about forest elves who decided to open a woodworking factory.

 The central element of the game is the action wheel, familiar from the game "Prague" and made in the form of a circular saw. By performing the actions of the dice placed there, the player also receives bonuses from the wheel, which can be more valuable than the actions themselves.

 An even more important element is multi-colored cubes - the raw material for our blanks. Moreover, players will saw them, glue them, splice them with cuttings and even grow them in pots! But the most important thing is that you will not have to throw them away.

 Despite the fun setting, the game is a complex dry euro that requires the player to carefully plan their plans. However, unlike other heavy Eurogames, the game can be fit into an hour, which allows you to play this game quite often.