If you've ever wanted to be in the shoes of Indiana Jones: collecting ancient artifacts around the world and fighting Nazis, gangsters and cultists, this is your chance. Fortune & Glory from Flying Frog Productions tries to bring the atmosphere of a classic action novel to the table with a try-your-luck mechanic, dice-based combat and, most importantly, a stylish soundtrack CD. A little about Flying Frog Productions: all of their games (whether zombies, aliens, or action-packed adventures) have a strong emphasis on atmosphere. The mechanics are hardly elegant: they consist of a lot of dice rolls and drawing a lot of cards with a lot of artistic text. However, their games are often boring.  Fortune & Glory is designed for 1-8 players aged 12+ (I suspect this is due to the setting). According to the box, a game takes 90-180 minutes, but its duration can vary greatly depending on the number of participants and the selected game mode: solo, competitive, team-competitive or cooperative. Yes, I played one solo game in 45 minutes, but I was probably just lucky. If you order the game directly from Flying Frog (or buy from them at one of their tabletop shows), you'll get an extra pair of promo cards. COMPONENTS I will not list all the components - there are a lot of them. The set comes with a hefty trifold box (one of the reasons the box is so huge), almost 50 plastic figures (heroes, villains, temples), piles of plastic coins (which you use to mark your wealth and fame) and dice, and hundreds of cards. And even bigger cardboard sheets of characters and villains and stacks of tokens, including those that are useless in themselves but can be useful in homemade or future scenarios. And, of course, Flying Frog's signature feature is a soundtrack CD.  All cardboard is of very high quality: dense, with a glossy finish. The cubes are ordinary: small hexagons. The miniatures look pretty nice, with a unique figure for each hero and villain, plus a pack of Nazi soldiers and thugs. However, some of the minkes in my box turned out to have bent barrels. The cards are illustrated with photos of actors in costume and themed scenes, as in most Flying Frog games. There is usually quite a lot of text, sometimes very small (especially artistic), but generally readable without problems. However, for some reason, all Flying Frog games use hard glossy cards that stick to each other and are difficult to shuffle. The upside is that they will last longer, but I would prefer regular cards. The CD has a 35-minute soundtrack with music by Mary Beth Magallanes. It's nice to turn on the music and start playing. However, during the party, the soundtrack will repeat itself several times, considering its duration. If you want something longer, I would recommend the music from the Indiana Jones movies. GAME PROCESS I want to warn you right away: Fortune & Glory has a lot of all kinds of rules. For the first few games, you'll have to regularly consult the 30-page rulebook. Just listing the main mechanics (which I'm going to do below) takes up an entire sheet of paper. If you are not interested in it, you can immediately go to the descriptions of additions and conclusions at the end of the review. The game has several modes to choose from. The default is competitive, in which you compete to be the first to collect 15 units of wealth (gold) and return to your hometown. You can also play competitive team: the same, only you cooperate with a friend. In cooperative mode, a rogue organization (Nazis or gangsters) appears with its own special rules, which opposes you. Well, the solo mode is just cooperative alone. Also, the rules are divided into basic and advanced: so that you can get used to the game faster, and additional features - such as a Nazi airship flying over the map, collecting gold and landing soldiers - can be introduced later. Each player receives their character sheet, which lists the starting location, special abilities and parameters: combat, agility, intelligence and knowledge, plus health and defense indicators. Available characters include ace pilot Jay Zane, daring photographer Sharon Hunter, renowned scientist Dr. Zhukov, nightclub singer Li Mei Chen, and others.  There are always 4 treasures on the field. Treasures consist of an artifact card and an adventure card; in this way, treasures of different value and difficulty of obtaining are randomly generated. Some adventure cards have special special rules. Where exactly the treasure will appear is determined by drawing a card from the location deck. The location of the treasures is marked by small multi-colored skulls. The essence of the gameplay consists in walking by rolling the dice and in the following adventures. If you end the movement in a different location with a treasure or an enemy, then you roll a die to find out what you get: an event card (usually they are positive), or a fight (trouble), or the journey passed quietly and peacefully. If you are in a city, you draw a card from the city location. You might get a hazard challenge, a new piece of gear, an ally, or even a secret mission. In cities, you can also sell the collected treasures and spend your hard-earned glory on equipment, allies and healing wounds. Of course, the main action begins when you get to the treasure. In this case, you will have to pass the danger test. The red shield icon on the adventure card shows how many dangers must be overcome to obtain the treasure, while the gold coin icon on the artifact card shows how much wealth the treasure will bring.  To survive the danger, you need to pass the check indicated on the card. Some hazards allow you to choose a skill to use (or, as an option, engage in a fight with the enemy), while others will force you to choose one of the options offered. On each check, it is indicated which number on the die is considered a success, and the number of X's - how many successes are required. For example, "dexterity 4+xxx" means that you need to roll 4 or higher on three dice to pass the check. The number of dice rolled depends on your skill. If there is at least one success after the rolls, you can reroll all the dice. After a successful check, you receive a danger token and you have a choice: move on or take a breather. After taking a breather, you heal all wounds and receive as much glory (blue coins) as is indicated by the dangers you survived during this run. If you move on, you will draw a new danger card. This will bring you closer to the treasure, but at the same time there is a risk of being left without glory. If the danger test fails, it turns over and becomes a "cliffhanger" - until the next turn. For example, during a car chase, you allowed yourself to be overtaken and there was a massive explosion. Will you survive? We will find out in the next turn. Tense moments usually force you to pass a new check or just inflict a few wounds. In any case, if you survive a tense moment, you will receive a danger token and again you can move on or rest. When a tense moment fails, you lose consciousness and find yourself at home in your hometown. At the same time, you can lose earned cards, money or artifacts.  If several characters go to the same treasure, they take turns encountering dangers. Each player tries to pass the check, then decides whether to rest or move on, after which their neighbor draws a card. That way, even if you choose not to stop, a competitor can take the treasure, but you'll still have to go through the danger test with nothing in return (well, except glory). However, just getting the treasure is not enough - you have to return to the city, experience the city adventure, and then sell it and get rich. To win, you need to collect 15 units of wealth, and then wait a turn in your hometown. I will not describe the battles in detail. I will only say that bad guys can meet you in different ways. Some are spread across the map, so you'll have to fight them if you end up in the same location. Others also go on adventures and can snatch the treasure from under your nose. And from time to time you will meet an unfriendly personality, and you will have to draw a card from the deck of enemies. Battles are also allowed by throwing dice. If you wish, you can run away from the battle. If you play in co-op or solo mode, you will be confronted by Nazis or gangsters. And then a deck of thieving events appears on the field. The villains themselves establish new secret bases/lairs and/or go on treasure hunts each round. Your goal is to collect enough gold before the villains get a certain number of points. The Nazis prefer brute force: they spread across the map and capture cities. They are not easy to fight, plus they have a zeppelin that flies around the map. Gangsters establish lairs that bring them extra income, collect artifacts faster, and have the ability to kill/kidnap your allies. CONCLUSIONS I first tried Fortune & Glory at PAX two years ago, and the game seemed pretty fan-made. But when I brought the box home, my cell didn't appreciate it. Only during the game did I realize how many rules I had overlooked. Perhaps the most important of these was the caveat that if you are playing with more than 5 players, you must play as a team. As a result, our party of eight took too long. The second playthrough the next day went much smoother, but most of my friends didn't really like the game after the first try, so it ended up gathering dust on the shelf. I got the impression that Fortune & Glory is not worth spending on the layout and rereading the rules of effort. But since I'm a fan of Flying Frog decks, I decided to give the game one more chance before writing it off for good. At PAX Prime that year, I played a few more games—this time more carefully, re-reading the rules—in competitive, co-op, and solo modes, as well as add-ons...

 Drako is a game about a young dragon trapped in a valley and trying to save his skin from money-hungry gnome mercenaries. Since he's chained (for now) it won't be easy to escape, but the dragon is still full of strength and can breathe fire. On the dwarves' side is a long-range crossbow and a fishing net. Who will win in this fight? ABOUT THE GAME  Drako is a duel in which one player takes on the role of a dragon and the other three dwarves. The dragon's goal is to survive (hold out until the gnome uses up all actions) or kill all the gnomes. The goal of the dwarves is to kill the dragon before it flies away.  Drako is an asymmetric game. Although the goals of the participants are similar, each has their own strengths and weaknesses and different play styles. The dwarves must act aggressively to injure the dragon as quickly as possible. They are strong in a group and well protected, but it is better not to face a lizard 1v1.  If the number of dwarves decreases, it will become much more difficult to fulfill the victory condition. The dragon is very strong, but in order to use all of its abilities (flight, mobility and fire breathing), it needs to actively move around the field and attack from a safe position. At the heart of Drako are card-based actions. When playing cards, the dragon and dwarves attack, move, or use special abilities COMPONENTS  A medium-sized box (roughly from Battle for the Galaxy) contains 2 mini-tablets for both players, 1 field, 1 dragon token, 3 dwarf tokens (all three different), some tokens, and two decks of 38 cards, one of each the player The components are quite high-quality, nicely illustrated, and the small ones look great - at the level of FFG ones. Let's take a closer look at the cards, since the mechanics are tied to them. Each card has one or two symbols. They reflect what action a player can take after playing that card. If there are two symbols, then choose one of the two.  The following actions are available to the dragon: move 1-3 hexes, fly away (move to any hex), breathe fire (a ranged attack that hits a line), or defend.  ‣ The following actions are available to gnomes: move 1-2 hexes with one gnome, 1 hex with two gnomes, attack with one gnome with strength 1-2, attack with two gnomes with strength 1, throw a net (the dragon is temporarily unable to move and fly) or defend . FLOW OF THE GAME Each turn, each player has two actions, for which you can (in any order): ‣ Draw 2 cards from the deck. ‣ Play 1 card.  Thus, you can draw 4 cards, or draw 2 and play 1, or play 2. The hand limit is 6 cards; all excess are immediately reset. It seems that everything is simple, but sometimes it forces you to make difficult decisions. For example, should you put all your resources into attacking? This leaves you with fewer cards in your hand and leaves you vulnerable to your opponent's counterattack during their turn. Maybe it's better to wait until the opponent's hand is empty, and then finish it off? Each dwarf has its own health track. If it's over, it's a cover. The dragon has 4 health tracks: the first is his own health, and the other three are his skills. If the track of one of the skills (for example, flight) is filled, then the dragon is deprived of this skill. Therefore, during the game it makes sense for dwarves to try to injure the dragon to make it less mobile and more vulnerable. If the dragon runs out of cards, then his strength is exhausted, and he has to wait for the dwarves to finish him off. However, if the dwarves do not have enough cards to finish, the dragon breaks out of the trap and wins. IMPRESSION  Each dwarf has its own health track. If it's over, it's a cover. The dragon has 4 health tracks: the first is health and the other three are his skills. If the track of one of the skills (for example, flight) fills, then the dragon is deprived of this skill. Therefore, during the game it makes sense for dwarves to try to injure the dragon to make it less mobile and more vulnerable. If the dragon runs out of cards, then its strength is exhausted, and it remains to wait for the dwarves to finish it off. However, if the dwarves do not have enough cards to finish, the dragon breaks out of the trap and wins.  Experienced players have a clear advantage over beginners, and that's a good thing: it shows that Drako doesn't depend on the random arrival of cards in the hand (plus, you can always bluff). If you have more cards, it gives you a double advantage: firstly, more flexibility, secondly, the opponent knows that you have more options for actions, and you are more likely to be able to defend effectively. With only 1-2 cards in your hand, you are vulnerable to attacks. Although it can also be a bluff (suddenly you have two shields up your sleeve). So strategy and tactics are important in Drako. You can't call it a particularly deep game, but it creates interesting situations on the field. Example: I play as a dragon. I'm surrounded by two dwarves plus a third aiming a crossbow. In the hand - 2 attacking cards plus a shield. What shall I do? Attack or flee by applying 2 cards (each of which moves 2 hexes), or risk it and draw new ones? I draw after gaining shield and flight. Now I have 5 cards in my hand. I decide to draw 2 more (fire breath plus attack). I drop the attack. Now comes the run of dwarves. They attack: double attack first. I take 1 damage and defend against the second. The dwarves then attack with power 2, but I still have 1 shield left. On my turn, I parry with flight and firebreath two dwarves with power 2. The enemy takes 1 shield, but the second dwarve takes 2 damage. Now he only has one card left in his hand, and the Dwarf Crossbowman is missing one hex to me. I'm safe...for now. I play as dwarves. A dragon always uses flight. So I wait until good cards come into my hand. First I apply the network, then I draw 2 cards. The dragon must spend two actions to break free from the net. This is my chance: double move, then double attack. The dragon doesn't defend itself (no shields?). I use the special ability "Rage" to do another action: attack his wings twice. He takes the damage and loses his ability to fly. Got it, friend. CONCLUSION  Drako is a great frivolous duel. Simple, but often makes you think carefully about the next action that can decide the outcome of the battle. There's room for bluffing, there's hand management, and a bit of randomness (after all, the game is tied to the cards). Will Drako suit everyone? Of course not (just like any other game). Drako is great for fillers — right in between long, difficult duel games — and parents playing with their sons. The games are fast (20 minutes), without downtime, full of fun. Although I prefer heavy Euros, I really liked the Drako. I recommend..

 You have inherited an old distillery and are burning with the desire to restore the former glory of the family business.  Over the course of seven rounds, you'll learn spirits recipes, buy the right ingredients for them, create drinks, sell them and improve your distillery. All this in order to earn the most victory points and become the best master of his craft. At the beginning of the game, each player will receive two characters, of which he must keep one for himself. The choice of character depends on what ability you will have, what will be the size of the starting capital and what will be the starting ingredients.  In addition to this, each character has their own signature recipe, ingredient and affiliation to a certain region.  At the beginning of the game, each player will receive 3 cards of personal goals, for the achievement of which at the end of the game he will receive additional victory points. You need to keep only two of the three goal cards.  The game lasts 7 rounds, each of which is divided into 4 phases: MARKET PHASE During this phase, players make 1 buyer each and pass the move until everyone says "pass". Each drink necessarily consists of three ingredients: water, yeast and sugar.  1. In the regular market you can buy: yeast, water, one of three types of sugar and containers for storing the drink. When you buy yeast or water from the regular market, you get the bonus indicated on the card (1 coin or view a card from the deck of the elite market with the possibility of purchasing it).  In the normal market, you can only buy 2 cards in the entire market phase. The purchased ingredients go to the pantry, and the containers go to the utility room.  Depending on the type of drink being created, it will be possible to sell it immediately after creation, or send it to the warehouse so that it reaches the required age, and only then sell it. For storage in the warehouse and required containers.  2. In the elite market, you can buy elite versions of everything that is available in the regular market. Using elite ingredients in your drink earns you more victory points and more money for selling it.  In addition to this, in the elite market you can buy improved versions of barrels and bottles, which you will need to sell or age the drink. Using elite tanks will earn you victory points depending on the quality of the tank itself.  All available distillery upgrades are also sold in the elite market, and each of them has a unique property. Purchased improvements are placed on the tablet of your room, which has only 3 cells for improvements (but they can be replaced).  After buying any card in the elite market, all other cards of the purchased type are shifted to the right, and a new card is opened. And at the end of the phase, when everyone has said "pass", the rightmost card of each suit is sent to reset, all cards are shifted to the right, new ones are added. If any of the decks run out, the discard shuffles and forms a new deck. 3. Buying a recipe is necessary in order to learn how to make new types of drinks. You cannot create a potion without having the recipe to create it. Each player has the same list of available recipes. No recipe is needed to create the first two types of drink – vodka and moonshine. Other recipes are divided into 3 types: bronze, silver and gold.  When you buy a recipe, you mark any drink on your list that matches the color of the purchased recipe cube.  Each of the drinks belongs to the region, these designations are needed to fulfill some personal goals. The recipe for each of the drinks includes a unique set of conditions of ingredients that should be present and ingredients that should not be in it.  In addition to this, it indicates what capacity is required for this drink and the aging requirement.  The recipe for each drink shows how many victory points will be earned by selling that drink. If a drink recipe has a house icon instead of a region, then that drink is the same as your character's region. DISTILLATION PHASE All players simultaneously choose which ingredients to add to their fermentation vats.  For each added sugar, you need to add 1 card of alcohol.  All the cards in the tank must be placed face down, shuffled, and the top and bottom cards of the deck must be removed, returning them to their storage. This is an imitation of the distillation process, during which the so-called "heads" - concentrates of harmful impurities formed during distillation, and "tails" - poisonous substances that give an unpleasant smell and taste, are removed. The remaining deck needs to be opened. This will be the result of your distillation.  If this result fits the requirements of the recipe you have, then you have succeeded in creating a drink. Now all you have to do is add a storage container and get a label for your created drink. If your distillation result meets the requirements of several recipes at the same time, you choose what to create. The number of labels is limited and players receive them on a turn-by-turn basis. Someone may not get the label.  At the start of this phase, you may trade 1 card from your Vault for 1 card from the Regular Market of equal or lesser value. SALE PHASE In this phase, you need to sell the created drink, if it does not require aging. In addition to this, you can sell a drink that has reached the desired age in your storage. The sale takes place one drink at a time. To sell, you need to lay out the entire drink deck with its capacity and add the bottle card to it.  Get the amount of money shown on all cards in the drink deck + storage container card + bottle card + recipe money (vodka and moonshine only). Get victory points on all drink cards sold + recipe victory points + stamina bonus. The stronger the drink, the more victory points it will bring.  Place the label on one of the seven available bonus slots and claim it.  The starting container and bottle cards must be returned to the pantry. Elite bottle cards must be placed separately next to the tablet. For them, you will receive  additional victory points at the end of the game.  Normal cards used for a drink are returned to the normal market. Alcohol cards - in your stack. All elite cards are in their discard piles. Taste cards - for reset. HOLD PHASE In this phase, all potions in your storage receive a flavor map. The more flavor cards a drink gets, the more winning points and money its sale will bring.  1. If in the sell phase you did not sell your potion because it requires aging, place it in storage with all cards in use without the container face down. Only 2 drinks can be in storage at a time. If you want to put a third there, something will have to be sold. 2. Without looking, add 1 flavor card to the bottom of this deck. 3. Place a storage container card and label on top of this deck. If you already have a potion in your storage during this phase, without looking, add 1 flavor card to the bottom of this deck. If in the last round you create a potion that requires aging, you can't sell it, but you get victory points from all the cards in it + victory points for its recipe. After all players have sold and held their drinks, the round ends, the first player's token is passed around the circle.  Before starting a new round, it is necessary to check whether any of the players have reached the general objectives (these objectives are opened at the beginning of the game by the number of players +1). If there is such a player, he receives victory points for this, the overall goal token is flipped over, and it is unavailable. If there are several applicants for the same goal, they divide the award in half, rounding up. Branded recipe labels are not considered general purpose.  If you didn't sell your drink this turn, you can hold a tasting at your distillery: spend up to 4 winning points and get 1 coin for each point spent. At the end of the game, players receive victory points for: 1. drinks left in the storage room (without money and glasses for aging); 2. Collected collections of bottles; 3. improvement of the distillery (as indicated on the maps); 4. personal goals; 5. the money left in the reserve (6 to 1)...

 Did you ever imagine as a kid that you had your own amusement park? You thought you could ride all the rides, eat fast food in any quantity, stay up all night to watch endless fireworks. But now you will descend from heaven to earth. Actually, managing a theme park is a huge amount of hard work. You must build rides, hire staff, open entertainment venues, improve and upgrade equipment to outshine rival parks, and be prepared for any subterfuge, corporate schemes or espionage from other players. Who will have the grandest amusement park at the end of 8 rounds? Fingers crossed for luck! PREPARATION FOR THE GAME  To lay out the game, each player chooses one of the themed decks to include in the game. Then you take all the cards of the chosen theme, divide them by type (event, park, drawing, etc.) and shuffle everything together. Each player receives a center gate card, a loan card, 20 coins, and 5 cards from the top of the park deck. Once all players have received their cards, the first round can begin. GAME PROCESS The Unfair game consists of 8 rounds. In each round, starting with the first player, you will go through 4 phases. In phase 1, the event phase, each player plays an event card and then has the opportunity to play as many event cards from their hand as they wish. Phase 2 is the park phase where you will do your main actions. On your turn, you have several options: you can buy a card from your hand or from the market on the playing field to add to your park, or draw some more cards from your park deck, events, or blueprints, or demolish an attraction in your park, or "pick up a change" (this is the weakest action in my opinion, but it can give you a few more dollars instead of taking out a loan). After the action-packed Park phase, you get all the money from ticket sales in the Visitor phase. Finally comes the "Cleaning Up" phase, which involves preparing for the next round. I know what you're thinking. And that's all? The most interesting thing here is how everything is related to the subject. If you play cards from the vampire deck, you can hire a collaborator who can charm other players into giving you their abilities. With the cards from the pirate deck, many cards will be aimed at getting all the loot without making any trade-offs for your opponents! Your park can only hold 5 rides, so you also have to make sure you make the most of the limited space. At the end of the round you must discard up to 5 cards. You can carry over event cards you play from round to round, but they count against your hand limit. You will always try to weigh whether a particular card is worth taking up space in your hand. Unfair can be unfair, mean, mean, because your actions and event cards can interfere with other players' parks, but it's just a game; in principle, its meaning is hidden in the name of the game, so it should not be surprising. Depending on the theme you choose (the base game includes Vampires, Ninjas, Pirates, Gangsters, Robots, and Jungles), certain cards also allow you to redirect or defend against any attack or event that might cause damage to your park. COMPONENTS The box contains: 86 coins (denominations 1, 5, 25, 125), 6 themed sets, 57 cards each, a phase counter in the shape of a roller coaster cart, a playing field and a notebook for counting points with a pencil. The components of this game are great in my opinion. The playing field is of good quality, the chips are thick and the cards are of good quality. Artists David Forrest and Lina Cossett have to be applauded, as everything from the cover to the field and maps look like some of the most brilliant work I've ever seen in a board game. The cards are really beautiful with unique artwork that just permeates the theme. CONCLUSIONS I love Unfair, it's approachable and easy to understand. I feel like a kid every time we open the box. It's a very themed game that doesn't stress me out at all, it's just fun to play and it's very strategic. Mixing different themes forces you to adjust your strategy every game, so I'm always amazed at how my park looks at the end of the game. The game works well for any number of players, but can be a bit slow at 5. If I had to find a fault, it would be that when the final round starts, I feel like I've already done everything I wanted to. We will always play with a game changer that shortens the game to 6 rounds. It speeds up the game and builds tension because you know you won't be able to get everything done in time. I would rate Unfair 5 out of 5. — This is exactly what I want from a board game. I will never give up the party and want to play it regularly. It is hard to imagine that I will ever get rid of this game...

 Uprising: Curse of the last Emperor - cooperative 4 for 2-4 participants. Players must defeat both the legions of the Empire and the hordes of Chaos to win freedom for their peoples. FILLING THE BOX  The quality of Uprising's components is impressive. All the illustrations are great. The plastic stands look great, as does the playing field. It is very large and divided into hexes. The game laid out on the table looks impressive. The playing field simultaneously serves as a very convenient landmark, where a rather complex structure of the move is written in detail, and in two directions; no matter where you sit, it will be easy to reach the attraction. In addition to the main playing field, there are also two tablets: one for quests and items, the other for the bad ones. A pleasant, but completely optional supplement. If they are not placed on your table, you can simply not use them. As for the players' tablets, they are also good quality and thick and also clutter the field. The cards are made of high-quality material, although they tend to stick together, which makes it difficult to shuffle them. Protectors are highly desirable. I liked that garrisons are marked with plastic tokens that are placed on top of each other, as well as walls and towers that you can surround your shelters with. There's a lot of stuff on the playing field, and it's nice that three garrisons take up as much space as one garrison. Thank God, the game has a built-in organizer, and a very good one at that. It is far from ideal: cubes do not fit in there, and there is no compartment for some items. But in general, it is quite convenient and speeds up the layout of the game. I also really liked the rule book: small, square format, spring-bound - just the thing to lay open during the game. It looks bright, there are a lot of examples, everything is clear, except for a few points that would not hurt to describe in more detail. There is also a table of contents and an index, thanks to which it is easiest to find the necessary rule. I really appreciate that the authors clearly worked on the rulebook, unlike many other companies. 4X IN CUT DOWN VIEW  In Uprising 2–4, the tribes decide to take advantage of the conflict between Chaos and the Empire to regain their independence. Players will have to explore new lands (eXploration), collect resources (eXploitation), build units and new shelters (eXpansion), and, if everything goes well, destroy the forces of the Empire and Chaos (eXtermination - whoever destroys whom is a big question). Players score joint victory if they have more victory points than the Empire and Chaos by the end of the game. At the start, players have almost nothing: only one shelter (village) in the corner of the map, some resources, a few starting specialties and a hero. Most of the land is unexplored, so the hexes lie shirt-side up — except for the imperial capital in the center of the map and its surrounding garrisons. The party is divided into 4 chapters. Although the turn structure is quite complex, the basics are clear from the turn: in the event phase, enemies are placed on the map, in the construction phase, players build armies and fortify shelters, in the action phase, players act by spending their 8 action points, in the nemesis phase, enemies move, and in the set of points, everyone gets their software. At first glance, everything looks standard: at the beginning of the game, your hero explores several new lands, revealing the hexes and enemies placed on them. Your armies go out to fight them (and win if you're lucky). You build a new shelter in new territories, which will bring you resources to build new armies, etc. However, Uprising has a number of significant differences from the classic formula. The mechanics are closely interconnected, the difficulty is very high, and you need to cooperate so that you have at least a chance to win.  The process of exploring the surrounding area is dangerous: there is an enemy on each opened hex (and if it is empty, then one of the enemies in the game receives reinforcements). And these enemies will help the goblins if you don't exterminate them right away: Imperial Garrisons bring Imperial OP, and Chaos Skeletons... Well, they are quite passive on their own, but if you have to place three Skeletons on one hex, then a Chaos Horde will appear, and the appearance of the horde is very bad news. You get nowhere without research, but at the same time, research makes your opponents stronger. You have your own army to fight the garrisons and skeletons. Initially, only basic units are available to you, but later you will have access to advanced units. Each unit rolls one die. The color of the cube depends on its chances of throwing a hit, shield (which cancels enemy hits) or lightning (allows you to activate special abilities); different units have different dice. Additionally, archers roll their dice before combat, potentially giving them a chance to shoot an opponent on approach. Although enemies can also have archers... The main problem is that you can't have more than 5 units in one hex, and therefore in one skirmish. The world of Uprising is a cold wasteland that simply does not have the resources to feed a large army. Therefore, you will always have to carefully plan in advance with whom and when to enter into battle. A couple of skeletons or level 1 garrisons are usually easy pickings, but more serious opponents present problems. Both garrisons and skeletons are mere flowers compared to... LEGIONS OF DEATH  Your main opponents are the legions of the Empire and the hordes of Chaos. Although each of them is represented by one stand, in fact there is a whole cluster of unpleasant units. Horde/Legion characteristics and the dice they roll are listed on a separate card, with their hazard level (basically HP difference) ranging from 1 to 7. And they roll lots and lots of dice. Moreover, they are not only big and scary, but they will make you dirty in every way: they make you dirty when they are displayed on the field, they make you dirty every time they throw lightning. They will teleport you to unpleasant locations, steal one of your 8 actions until their death, steal one of your actions forever, destroy your units before the battle begins. Legions will literally chase you. Each legion has its own objective token, which is awarded to the player with the fewest troops. The Legion will move towards that player until it destroys their shelter. Then it will move to the next shelter of that player... In short, you get a personal nemesis.  Hordes of Chaos are not so dangerous at first glance, but only at first. They don't have a specific goal, although they will definitely prioritize the player's shelter if it comes their way. The main thing is that they curse the lands they pass through. Cursed lands are of no benefit to the players, and even worse, bring OP to Chaos. This creates an interesting dichotomy: The Empire is trying to intercept and destroy you, so you have to play defensively. Chaos is not as focused, but you will have to intercept his hordes yourself - otherwise Chaos will easily win. Battles with hordes and legions are the most epic part of the game. These are formidable opponents, and you have a maximum of 5 units in one battle. So an undamaged horde/legion cannot be defeated in one battle; will have to attack multiple times, often by multiple players. In Uprising, your armies will be decimated repeatedly (but you'll rebuild them just as often if you're lucky). PLAYER OPPORTUNITIES  However, the players are far from defenseless. Actually, they have so many different tools at their disposal that it is easy to forget about any possibility. To begin with, each hero has their own special ability deck (and each faction has two heroes to choose from), and you'll get a new one in each chapter. Some are useful in combat (effects vary from rolling dice to all kinds of bonuses), others allow you to manipulate the map, others provide mobility, etc. Most combat special abilities work only if there is a hero on that hex. If you attack yourself, it is not difficult to plan everything. If you are attacked by several enemies, it becomes much more difficult. There is also a market in the game where you can buy useful items. And druid cards, which are revealed in each chapter and give bonuses when discarding monsters. And quests are cards that give useful buns if you roll a certain result on the dice (by the way, this is the only way to remove the curse). And varied terrain that can help or hinder. In short, there are a lot of all kinds of factors here. It's a good idea to read the rules carefully before matches to know what can affect the outcome of the fight if you want to have a chance of winning. But the main tool in your arsenal is the conflict between Chaos and the Empire. They treat each other no more kindly than they treat you. When Horde and Legion converge on the same hex, they engage in battle. Such moments are especially gratifying. Moreover, these are random clashes; The placement and movement mechanics of the hordes/legions are well known, so with some effort you can manipulate them by pitting them against each other. This is an important component of the game that is critical to success. FLEXIBILITY The parties in Uprising are difficult, especially for beginners. While players aren't permanently out of the game—if a player gets rid of all shelters, they place new ones for free in the next chapter—they can find themselves in a very unenviable position. But after a while you will gain experience, start winning and probably want more challenges. Fortunately, Uprising is a flexible game. The duration of the games is adjustable: you can play in 3 sections, you can also play in 2. I do not recommend the latter (the layout takes too much..

 "The Thing" is an excellent game: exciting, with tension that builds as the game progresses, just like in the movie. The weight category is medium. The replayability is very decent. COMPONENTS  I bought the kickstarter Super Deluxe. The components in it are gorgeous. Excellent miniatures, and the characters are recognizable (which cannot be said about Western Legends, for example). Thick, pleasant to the touch plastic tokens. The cards are also thick. My only gripe is that the text on the tokens used in the contact phase is white on white. It's a little hard to read. Also, when playing alien-human interactions, dog tokens are used, which was a little confusing to us until we realized that this was for economy: to not produce an extra set of tokens for humans. In general, this is a trifle. BOOK OF RULES The rulebook doesn't miss a beat, but it does feel confusing in places, especially when it comes to the layout process. Technically everything is correct, but to understand, you have to read the whole section carefully. There is a lot of commotion with decks, bags, etc. depending on the number of players. An example of a confused description is the instructions for mixing location maps in the dogs section. In general, it's a good idea to read the rules sections carefully before doing anything. GAME PROCESS  The game is good in many ways because it borrows a lot of mechanics from other games: we found references to Avalon, "Dead of Winter", Ultimate Werewolf Extreme and even "Secret Hitler". However, the mechanics did not stupidly copy, but modified. Almost all changes benefited the game. In essence, this is a game about the secret placement of workers (each character can go to one location per turn), in which there are interesting, difficult solutions. Here is one of our "favorite" points: when repairing the base (which is a critical part of the game), if 2 characters are in the same location, then you get great bonuses. For example, if 1 character repairs a radio station, you will repair one token, if 2, you will repair three tokens, and if 3, then as many as six. So there is a good reason to go around the locations not alone.  However, when two or more characters appear in the same location, contact occurs. If one of the participants participating in the contact is an alien (at the start, one of the players becomes an alien, that is, a bad guy), then with a 50% chance he will infect others, and they will also become aliens. Thus, for the sake of bonuses, you have to take risks every time. And this is just one of many situations where a difficult decision must be made.  Another interesting aspect of the worker placement mechanic is that on your turn you place your character in the chosen location and place the action card face down. Available actions are activation, repair and sabotage; the effect of each differs depending on the selected location. When everyone goes, the leader shuffles the deck, turns the card over and chooses which character to assign it to. Then, if desired, he can reveal the next card from the stack, and so on, until each character gets one. It reminds me a lot of the mechanics of Avalon, only with new interesting nuances. There are many different victory conditions for both humans and aliens, and with the addition of Norwegian Station (based on the 2011 film), there are even more. I will not go into further details of the rules. I will only say that all the mechanics of the game are designed to generate tension, annoyance and force you to make difficult decisions. CONS OF THE GAME Personally, there are almost no flaws in "The Thing". The only complaint is that the characters have asymmetric abilities, most of which boil down to "Your character gets a bonus at location X." The problem is that because of this, players often go to the same location every turn to get a bonus. Maybe it's not that bad, since the leader shuffles the deck anyway, and deciding which card to put in the stack is just as important as deciding where to go.  Another drawback is the rules. If you read the rules cover to cover before the start, it will be difficult to digest them. Before the first game, it is better to familiarize yourself with how the phases of the game are arranged, and then make the first move, explaining the rules of the current phase as you go. Rarely applicable rules (such as dissecting an alien) can be explained as follows: “If an alien is revealed, it receives powerful buns. On your turn, you can open into Phase X if you're an alien, and then we'll run through the rules." True, hardcore fans who prefer to know all the rules in advance will have a hard time. I also want to emphasize an interesting point: when people are infected, only the infected player will know about it; even the alien who infected has no idea if he succeeded. In our party, when about half way through the party, EVERYONE became aliens, but we didn't know it. When the game ended (with the aliens winning, unsurprisingly) and we revealed the cards, we spent 20 minutes trying to trace who infected whom.  The Thing will definitely remain in my collection and I'll be putting the game down regularly. Especially in winter...

REVIEW I've read a lot of reviews on ATO, and often they start with the disclaimer that "I have played / not played Kingdom Death: Monster". Not sure how helpful this will be, but I thought I'd write my ATO review as someone who is very familiar with KDM. I've gone through so many KDM campaigns (both successful and not so successful) that I've lost count of them. I have all the expansions from the first kickstarter and went all-in on the second kickstarter. KDM is still my favorite game and I'm looking forward to the Gambler's Chest and everything else (it's just a shame I have to wait so long).  As for ATO, I initially invested in it to keep me occupied while waiting for the second KDM kickstarter to arrive, as I already knew Poots would be developing KDM for a long time (although I had no idea it would be that long). I ordered just the base, thinking it would just be a KDM in an ancient Greek setting; practically a reskin. I'm now 30 days into the ATO campaign and I'm happy to report that I was wrong.  The key difference lies in the names of the games themselves. Kingdom Death: Monster focuses on monsters. Every year you choose which of the available monsters to fight, prepare for the battle with all your might and then fight. After the battle (if you won, of course), you process the carcass, take the resources obtained by sweat and blood back to the settlement, and next year everything is repeated. The plot here is gloomy, dark, scattered with crumbs throughout the campaign. The story consists of events and situations that you remember; For example, how one survivor died a terrible death and the other survived against all odds. You yourself shape the plot during the game, create the history of your settlement and your survivors. Rando Calrissian was sent to the company of 3 other newcomers to certain death as cannon fodder, but he acquired acid palms and tore monster after monster to pieces with his bare hands and teeth. Athena Topless refused to wear the breastplate, but still endured blow after blow, year after year. Of all the games I know of, Kingdom Death is the best at generating stories like this.  And Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is a long, painstakingly crafted journey with a great story and plenty of adventure. There's a complete story waiting for you and as much art as you can find in almost any interpreter, including even other games with long campaigns. While there are elements of choose-your-own-adventure to the story, overall the narrative is fixed. Yes, you'll be fighting Primal monsters on a regular basis, but the fights are just a means to an end, and they mostly happen at intervals. They are needed to test your readiness for the troubles ahead and to provide you with resources for ship and equipment upgrades. In general, everything is focused on the plot. We spent about 60% of our time exploring the world around us and doing storybook adventures.  Of course, ATO's mechanics are heavily inspired by KDM - especially the AI decks and Primordial body parts - but these mechanics are applied in a very different way than in KDM. All the KDM mechanics help you prepare for the next battle with the monster, and all the ATO mechanics (at least the ones I've seen so far) help the plot. So these two games do not compete with each other, but occupy different niches in my collection. ATO is clearly inspired by KDM, but it's a different game at the same time. However, in terms of difficulty of mastering and amount of fiddling, ATO even surpasses KDM. For me, this is not a minus, just a statement of fact. Overall, KDM is a game that encourages you to create your own stories and memorable moments, while ATO is an adventure that awaits you (and a great adventure, in my opinion). In KDM, you're fascinated by crafting new gear, settlement development, and stories from the lives (and deaths) of your people. In ATO, you are fascinated by adventure, exploration of the surrounding world, and story progression. It can be said that in KDM the plot unfolds mainly on a micro level, while in ATO it is mainly on a macro level: an epic narrative that tells a ready-made story (however, during the campaign you will have to make decisions, so that your story will differ from that of other players).  If you haven't played either and are thinking of getting one, I hope you found my review helpful. The decision should be made based on what kind of plot you are interested in, but you can also choose based on the attractiveness of the setting; both games are great and deserve places in the collection.  I will not consider what I would choose if I could only choose one thing; KDM is still my favorite game of all time, but I'm so glad I owned ATO and was wrong to assume it was going to be a KDM clone. My only disappointment with ATO so far is that I didn't order cycles 4 and 5 during the kickstarter campaign and now I have to spend more on them...

 Note: Review is based on 8 games with a friend. We decided to play co-op because the rules are not that easy to get used to and because my friend doesn't like to compete. We won twice (and jokingly noted that we had just watched "Alien" and "Alien 2", because in the first game the aliens appeared only at the end, when we were already in the cryocapsules, and in the second game, after waking up, we immediately started shooting the aliens by the end my soldier had 5 frags, maybe more), three times we lost in a tight fight by a hair of victory (due to a bunch of bad rolls), and three times the game crushed us without a chance (with some coincidence the ship can explode at the end of the first turn, also, with a certain coincidence of circumstances, the character can die at the end of the first turn, both of which happened to us). In general, I love "Nemesis" because the game is very thematic and because it will not be possible to plan ahead and optimize all actions, unlike many other decks; all that remains is to do as the circumstances suggest and enjoy the unfolding story. 2 players is clearly not an optimal lineup for Nemesis, so in the future we plan to use 2 characters each, because when there are only 2 characters in the game, you just don't have enough time for a lot of interesting things. The size of the map does not change, and the actions to explore it are much less. If you're unlucky with the layout of the rooms, 2 characters barely have enough time to complete the objectives and reach the escape pods before the timer runs out, provided they're not interrupted (in our winning and near-winning games, the timer was 1 - 2 moves). In conditions of acute lack of actions, it is impossible to be distracted by something extra.  The co-op mode is generally not bad, but the game was clearly not designed to be co-op; some cards and items are completely useless in this mode. If we had more players, I would definitely prefer standard mode. It's officially called semi-co-op, but in practice it can go from "co-op just called something else" to "I'd rather burn the ship to the ground than let anyone but me win" depending on your group and is much more interesting. It also seems more difficult, but on the other hand, it is enough for one player to win. Co-op is generally easier, but everyone has to win. In my opinion, standard mode should be played with 4 or more players, so that there is as much chaos as possible on the field.  Here's my ranking of the characters for the two-player co-op mode by fandom. 1. SOLDIER  This brute has exactly one goal in life - to kill aliens. I am very happy when I get a soldier in the draft. It's durable enough to roam the corridors alone - just don't expect it to be effective at anything other than grinding aliens. However, his ability to effectively dispose of aliens with ammo is invaluable in a game where other characters can barely kill even one adult alien. Oddly enough, I consider a soldier to be a supporter. He supports you by covering your ass and killing everything that gets in the way of an important goal. And if it doesn't kill, then at least it will give you an opportunity to escape. A very fan character with great weapons and decent quest items. You might think that the support role makes him less valuable in a two-player game, since he has almost no one to go with in a team, but he also shows himself well as a scout, opening the map and leaving behind corpses of aliens. He copes well with this role, he is very much a fan. 2. SCOUT An interesting character; the complete opposite of a soldier. If the soldier covers the others, the scout tries to be as far away from the other characters as possible. Her action deck is generally very impressive, but the ability to move without making noise is priceless. The weapon is not great, but there are a lot of cartridges, and it is not bad for suppressing fire with subsequent escape; it is not necessary to kill the alien that got out. I think it's best for the scouts to explore the key rooms as soon as possible and let the rest know where to go. Moreover, the game rewards for this, since one of its quest items is given in the cabin, where you should go anyway. Both of her quest items are very good. The security key allows you to manipulate the door, helping your friends (or hindering them in standard mode) from anywhere on the map, and the motion scanner is even nicer. Probably the most pumped item in the game. You can lose quickly due to random events if you're very unlucky, but a misplaced noise is much more likely to ruin your game, creating a sort of time spiral, with noise dropping much more often. The ability to roll noise cubes allows you to be cheeky and get out of the water dry. 3. MECHANIC  In general, I like him more than anyone, but he has a bad habit of wandering around alone, unable to stand up for himself. Despite all his utility, he is extremely vulnerable and unable to recover from a series of failures, so he is not as fun to play as the characters listed above. His quest items and weapons are mediocre, but that doesn't really matter because he has an extremely powerful action deck. He has two simple ways to repair rooms, the ability to use room actions for free, and the only available default way to get rid of fires without a fire extinguisher, which is just cool: fire is a very dangerous thing (he's also the only character who can easily start a fire, which in co-op is much less useful, but won us a game once when we set fire to a nest full of eggs and went on to another objective). And the map of movement along the technical corridor makes him apparently a mobile character in the game. The mechanic's role is to get to the engines, repair them, then fix broken rooms or put out fires. Unfortunately, my mechanic often went to certain death in the last third of the game in order for the escape pods to unlock. This character lives brightly, but not for long. 4-5. PILOT/SCIENTIST  I only played with the scientist once, but with the pilot quite a lot. In my opinion, these are equal characters. Maybe we were just unlucky, but both didn't seem very helpful. They are not good at standing up for themselves, just like a mechanic, but the actions available to them are not as powerful as a mechanic. Both appear to be background characters whose job it is to stay in the safe zone and activate room actions or unlock tiles, speeding up the exploration process. Unfortunately, none of this is very useful in a two-player game, as you have few actions and are running headlong around the map. Both characters have a lot of interesting things, but there was no time to implement them.  It is worth noting that the pilot can extract the key to the escape pod, and the scientist can start the self-destruct mechanism of the ship from any point. Both of them open access to escape pods, which allows you to quickly escape from the ship after completing the objectives, but the mechanic can do the same by killing himself, and bringing much more benefit (in co-op, you need to complete all the objectives, but one character is enough to survive ). 6. CAPTAIN  The pilot and the scientist can be useful and fan characters in a large team, but I'm not sure about the captain. In any case, not in the cooperative for sure. I'm even considering removing his card from the draft. He doesn't look like a ship's captain at all; it is the pilot who knows the ship like the back of his hand and can control it as he wishes. "Captain" is more like an official who happened to be on board. He is a pure support and only useful in a party, but the effect of his support is very questionable, and only works on the same room as him, which makes party cooperation with him a nightmare, given the order of the round (unless he gets a quest item , which allows you to command those who are in certain rooms... provided you're lucky and someone is there). The captain wants to be your partner, just like a soldier, but unlike a soldier, he is completely independent and there is little point in him even as a partner. His second quest item allows you to look at another player's objective card, which is useless in co-op, since objectives are public information. But in standard mode, the captain is most likely one of the best characters, because he is the best at scheming. Find out who you can trust by looking at their objective card, go in their company and help out when needed... and when they're no longer useful, use the action cards, which are great for saving by feeding your rivals to the aliens. In general, not a captain, but a real politician...

BRIEF OVERVIEW  Rating - 7.5/10.  Buy DD if: You liked the PC version OR if you are a fan of dark fantasy like Lovecraft. You want a rectilinear cube metal dungeon crawler. You like nice miniatures and/or you like to paint them. You have nothing against games that are not very difficult or tactically deep. You have a lot of money (for replayability, it is recommended to have at least 1 add-on; currently only Crimson Court can be bought). Do not buy DD if: You would rather buy 3-4 good board games for the same price, even if they have fewer miniatures in total. You are not interested in a dungeon crawler. You don't care about thumbnails. You prefer complex decks with tactical depth. You don't like randomness (there are dice rolls when attacking, random dungeon exploration in corridors, random tile layout). You do not like the idea that you can lose due to randomness. You don't want to play the campaign (you can't play outside the campaign mode in DD). You don't have much free space on your desk. DETAILED REVIEW  Darkest Dungeon: The Board Game is a dungeon crawler based on the computer game of the same name. Four heroes (always four - i.e. designed for 1-4 players) go into dungeons, fight monsters, gain experience and gold, and also often die or receive terrible injuries and disorders (both in battle and while wandering around long) corridors connecting rooms filled with monsters). The campaign consists of 4 acts. Acts 1–3 each have three dungeons; in the first two you gain gold and experience, and in the third you fight the boss. After completing 3 bosses (that is, 9 dungeons), you are presented with the final creepy act with the most terrifying part of the Dark Dungeon. I will not spoil; let me just say that this is definitely my favorite act. After each trip to the dungeon, heroes can heal, recover and upgrade skills in the town of Hamlet. Each character also has their own unique skill that can be used in Hamlet. Some treat, others give supplements. supplies or some bonuses for the next campaign. Completing each dungeon takes 60-120 minutes, and each visit to Hamlet takes 10-30 minutes. If everyone in your group understands quickly, then the passage may take even less time (and vice versa), but since the options for each individual player, as a rule, are few, analysis paralysis is unlikely.  It is based on 11 characters, each with its own parameters and characteristics. Many have the same skills, and some have the same roles, but they all feel different and quite close to the computer originals. There are no traditional roles (tank, healer and damager), but there are combat positions that are well known to those who played computer DD: aggressive, defensive, long-range and support. Most characters are optimal in a certain position, but some are equally good in several positions. Obviously, some characters tank better or heal better than others, but the effect of combat stances is more important. Most of the skills of heroes and monsters only work in certain positions, so their position is very important. Moreover, there can be only one monster and one hero in each rack. There are also 4 bosses in the base (except act 4), a bunch of different monsters and a lot of all kinds of content (temperament traits, items, diseases, rooms, etc. ed.). Taken together, all this provides good regrabability. GAME PROCESS  You spend most of the game in combat. You activate heroes (previously monsters, if you're lucky - the initiative (i.e., turn order) is determined randomly) and decide which skills to use. What's better: healing an ally or stabbing a monster? Or maybe stun him so he misses a move? Is it just a matter of buffing an ally to increase the critical hit chance? In combat, the player has two actions that can be spent moving, interacting with loot, changing positions, or using skills. The first and fourth are most often used. The tactic in battle is primarily to move correctly so that you can use 2 skills at once on the next turn (at least that's how I played). In complex battles, there is not enough action, so you may not even have enough time to open the desired loot chest. But you usually have time to discover them during combat. After the fight, they disappear perfectly. When applying experience, you roll a D10 to hit. If you roll a low enough value, you can land a critical hit. Monsters also use D10, so both sides have chances to smear and critical hits. Depending on the level of the character, players have a choice of 3-5 skills in battle (there are 7 skills in total, you can take 3-5 per battle), which is quite a lot. However, sometimes there will be only one or two optimal options. Some characters have clearly useful and useless skills, so if you want to always have a lot of options to choose from, choose your character and skills wisely. Which skills are available for use depends both on the position of the character and on the range of the skill: some can be used only against the enemy in the same position as the character, others - in the adjacent position, the third - in 2 positions from him. Fortunately, there are also relatively flexible skills. Battles take up most of the game time. Between battles, there is an exploration phase: the heroes wander through the corridors of the dungeon, roll dice and get some effects. Periodically as you explore, you'll come across rooms full of monsters, and that's when the battle begins. The dungeon is represented by a separate field on which room tiles are randomly laid out (depending on the current mission), and exploration is simply moving a group token/miniature from one room to another. Usually you have a choice in which order you go through the dungeons, but sometimes you just go straight ahead. Dungeon exploration is very atmospheric in my opinion. This is a fairly quick process, especially considering the mechanics of intelligence, which in 90% of cases are mandatory to use. During exploration, each player gets a stress unit (more on that below), then you reveal all the nearby rooms. Also, you'll only roll 1 research die on your next research instead of 2. Since (depending on the current act) you almost always get at least 1 stress and some damage on the die roll, scouting is simply necessary. And it's boring. Not all rooms have monsters, but in the ones without monsters, negative effects await you, so it makes sense to spend most of your time fighting.  Now about stress. In addition to health, you also have a stress score. It's basically a second HP strip. Stress accumulates during exploration, from some monster abilities, when receiving a critical hit due to the features of some dungeon rooms, and even from some hero abilities. If you accumulate 10 stress points, you must make a resolve check by rolling a D10. If you somehow avoid it or throw out 1-2, you get a serious buff, if you throw out 3+, you get psychosis - a serious debuff. If you accumulate 20 stress points, you die of a heart attack. It should be noted that the stress counters are made simply terribly. They should not be considered properly, but the level of stress is marked with an ordinary token, which can easily be accidentally moved to the wrong position. I recommend marking your stress level with a separate die or tokens from some other board (the brain-shaped tokens from Arkham Horror are the same). In addition to death from a heart attack, characters can also die after receiving the fourth negative character trait (most often in the process of research) or when health reaches zero. However, what is unusual, at zero health the character does not die instantly, but reaches the so-called the threshold of death. As a reward/penalty, you get an extra die to roll every time you take damage. When the skull is thrown, the character finally dies. It is possible to acquire a new character in Hamlet after the party returns from the dungeon, if of course there are adventurers in town willing to join the party. If you can't get 4 characters, you lose the campaign and have to start over.  You will also lose the campaign if all 4 characters die in the dungeon, which is unlikely, but possible with extreme bad luck. I won't go into much detail about Hamlet's phase. It takes only 10-15 minutes. Players spend the gold they find in the dungeon to heal stress and damage, as well as all kinds of bonuses for the next dungeon trip. Even in Hamlet, you can improve skills and level up characters. By the way, there is an important bug in the game: the location "Guild" allows you to increase the level of a character or skill by 1, and not to increase a skill or character of level 1 to level 2 (otherwise you would not be able to level above level 2). EXPERIENCE FROM THE GAME APPEARANCE AND QUALITY OF COMPONENTS + Gorgeous thumbnails. If you like to paint them, then it's even ++ for you. - Unfortunately, the game does not have the red enemy miniatures promised at the start of the Kickstarter campaign. It's a pity that it didn't work out. I would be happy to paint them. + The quality of other components ranges from decent to excellent. - Cards in protectors do not fit into boxes. Sad, but expected. You will have to make your organizer from cardboard and electrical tape, as usual. PRINTS AND RULES - The game has a lot of typographical errors, including on the cards and on the playing field. - There is no description of many possible situations in the rule book, which forces people to ask "stupid" questions in Discord and Facebook. Not that dumb actually, as the rulebook only explains the basics of gameplay. FAN + The game is fan-made. Destroying monsters is especially nice. Players cringe when critically hit, and cheer loudly when critically hit. + It is interesting to choose skills, as well as to think of skill combinations of different characters. LEVEL-UPS AND LOOT + Playing RPG-like games, including dungeon..

 I have been waiting for King of Monster Island for a long time. This is a co-op dice-rolling game in the Lord of Tokyo setting. My box arrived about a week ago. I played solo and co-op. BOOK OF RULES  The authors of the game have a sense of humor. It's funny how the rulebook starts with the heading "Breaking News" and it looks ridiculously silly.  Overall, the rulebook is very nice: gorgeous illustrations and titles. It is written quite clearly. First, there is a list of components with a brief description of each.  The layout is described in detail with a huge illustration on two pages. The rest is fine. Sometimes I did not immediately find the right rule in the book (there is no alphabetical index or glossary), but in general everything is simple and clear. It's a shame, though, that there isn't anything useful in the back of the rulebook. And it is quite wide. You can't put it on a chair - only on the table. COMPONENTS  The King of Monster Island box is somewhat strange, of non-standard dimensions. For clarity, a comparison with a can of cola.  There are quite a few tokens here: minions (left), crystals (top right), support tiles (bottom right).  The field looks luxurious. Also in the box is a prefab volcano that is a tower for the boss action dice. You collect it and put it in the center of the field; looks great  There are also health and glory counters — for both the good guys and the bad guys — as well as ability cards and a volcano.  Black dice belong to players, and red dice belong to the boss.  Energy cards are player ability cards that are purchased for energy. In the same deck are event cards that add an element of surprise.  There are also maps of allies and bosses in the game. All the components are of excellent quality and the game looks great. GAME PROCESS Basically, King of Monster Island is Yahtzee (dice poker). You roll a handful of dice, keep the results you like, then reroll the others, after which you can reroll them one last time. Just like Lord of Tokyo, Yahtzee and many other dice games. And the most interesting thing is actions on cubes. 1. Heart: Gain 1 health. 2. Star: get 1 glory (spent on buying allies). 3. Tool: 3-4 tools can buy support tiles. 4. Leg: Move yourself, move an ally in the same zone as you, or deal 1 damage to a minion. 5. Paw: Deal 2 damage to a minion or boss. 6. Energy: Get 1 cube of energy (spent on buying capabilities). As you can see, the game already looks significantly more difficult than Lord of Tokyo.  Players choose their monsters. Interestingly, the monsters themselves do not have any special features. The difference between the two is which ally you choose. X+1 cards of allies are offered to choose from, where X is the number of players.  In the solo game, I randomly chose monkeys and medbots. Once you accumulate 1 glory, you can use your ally's first attribute, and as the game progresses, you will activate their other attributes.  To win, players need to defeat the boss together.  As you can see, with the growth of fame, the boss has new abilities. The players have 10 black dice for everyone (you usually roll 6, but sometimes some of the dice are blocked for a while), and the boss has his own red dice. They throw themselves into the mouth of the volcano and scatter over the island. And activate kapos effects: summon minions, bring glory to the boss, build crystals. As with most co-op, the gameplay consists of phases of bad (the effects of minions and boss dice) and good (the effects of player dice, ability cards and support tokens) events. There is also the concept of movement in the game: as a rule, players can only affect objects in the same zone as them.  The order of moves is boss-player-boss-player. And so for now the monsters will not defeat the boss together. If the boss defeats one of the monsters, if he builds 3 pylons or if there are no minions left in the bag, then you lose. SOLO MODE  Not entirely sure why, but it wasn't until the third game that I managed to play by the rules. The first time I soloed, I thought all the minions activated on the boss's turn (actually only the minions in the same area as the boss activated) and I lost without a chance. The second time I thought that after activating the dice in the boss zone, you reroll them at the beginning of the next turn (they are actually removed from the field). Finally got it right on the third try, even though I've played a bunch of co-op before. I guess I was just expecting to see a much simpler game, no more than a co-op version of Lord of Tokyo.  In general, I liked the game: it is fan-made, with a lot of interesting solutions. However, situations when the wrong dice fall out every time are very annoying. I liked playing solo and I don't mind playing it again. Compared to other cube metal co-ops, King of Monster Island is easier than, for example, Reckoners, but not by much. COMPARISON WITH KING OF TOKYO  From the components, design and characters, it is immediately clear that the action of King of Monster Island takes place in the same setting as "Lord of Tokyo". However, these games are not compatible. I'm one of the few who didn't like Lord of Tokyo. It's just a lightweight cube shooter where you hit each other, flip the dice... and that's it. For me, there is too much randomness and downtime in it - these impressions were formed after a game for six. One player was quickly out of the game and had to wait for the rest to play, and I had to wait for the other 4-5 people to come. In addition, you have no idea what will fall on the dice; the gameplay boils down to "roll the dice and manage the results better." There is almost no strategy.  However, I liked King of Monster Island. A little because it's co-op, a little because there's a lot more strategy here than in Lord of Tokyo. However, the difficulty has also increased significantly. So if you prefer simple mindless dice throwing, I must warn you that this game is much more complex. This is not just a co-op Lord of Tokyo, but a middleweight co-op in a Lord of Tokyo setting. Despite the appearance, King of Monster Island has a lot more mechanics and actions: block dice, grow crystals, buy support tiles, ability cards, cube tower, bad dice activation, minion activation, boss moves, boss abilities and upgrades, moves and upgrades monsters, pulling minions out of a bag, tracking abilities, etc. CONCLUSIONS  Both my friends and I liked King of Monster Island. We rate it 7/10. The components are excellent, the gameplay is quite fan-made and slick. The optimal composition is 1-3 players. However, Reckoners is, in my opinion, a much more refined co-op cube shooter. It has much more player cooperation (since you roll the dice and plan moves together) and less randomness (since you can always do something useful with the results that have fallen or help your friends), and the players choose their own turn order. In King of Monster Island, you sometimes have to wait a long time for your turn, which makes the game much worse with 4-5 players. I think King of Monster Island might well appeal to newcomers unfamiliar with co-op; although it has less co-op than Reckoners, each player is more independent. It is colorful, fun and with excellent components. If you like the setting of "Lord of Tokyo", King of Monster Island may well be for you. Just keep in mind that this is not just a co-op Lord of Tokyo, but a much more complex game...