"Arkham Horror" 2005 is a reimagining of ideas from the original "Arkham Horror" of 1987: different mechanics, better components and more RPG elements. The action of the game takes place in the 1920s. Players take on the roles of ordinary people, each of whom encountered the Lovecraftian mythos in one form or another, learned the terrible truth about the existence of the afterlife and came to the city of Arkham in Massachusetts to investigate. In the course of the investigation, self-proclaimed detectives come across a conspiracy of cultists who want to let one of the Ancients into this world - otherworldly entities of enormous power, who are often mistaken for gods. Portals to other dimensions are opening all over the city, from which strange and scary creatures are coming out. In addition, otherworldly influence is gradually driving the townspeople out of their minds. Players must work together to close the portals and prevent the Ancient One from entering our world, and if that doesn't work, then emerge victorious from the final battle with him.  In the plan, the "Arkham Horror" mechanic is a cross between an RPG and a regular board. While dice play a very important role, thinking ahead is just as important, aided by the ability to move sliders at the start of each turn, increasing one of your parameters at the cost of another. Should you sacrifice stealth to run around the field quickly? Should I increase Will to survive a monster's psychic attack, or Strength to deal more damage to it? These dilemmas, along with a variety of investigator abilities, encourage player planning and cooperation. Each turn, all investigators take certain actions: move around Arkham, engage in battle or hide from monsters roaming its streets, or draw a contact card corresponding to the location they are in and read what happened to them. Events consist of an artistic description of the investigator's adventures, and also require a certain skill to be tested or a choice to be made. The consequences can be both positive and negative. Well, then comes the phase of myths, in which global (usually unpleasant) events take place, and monsters move around the city.  Of course, winning in "Arkham Horror", to put it mildly, is not easy, as befits a game of Lovecraft. Many investigators will not make it to the end, as they become more and more difficult over time. By default, only 5-6 results on a six-sided die are considered successes in combat and when checking skills, so although the number of dice rolled depends on the corresponding parameter of the detective, at the start the schedule is clearly not in your favor. To successfully pass checks, you need to stock up on spells and equipment. However, rolling dice and passing checks are not always the most important part of the game.  Arkham Dread feels like the Dungeons & Dragons games I used to play in high school, only with a lower entry threshold and no gamemaster. It's easy to get players involved in Arkham Horror, but the feeling is pretty much the same: you have fun discussing around the table (over beer and snacks) what your group is going to do next. What I like the most is that each party has its own mini-stories. "Arkham Horror" adheres to the philosophy: "The main thing is not the goal, but the way to it." During the games, such interesting situations arose, which we then remembered for many months. For example: "Remember the time when a goog cornered us in a diner and wouldn't let us out, but we were saved by a nun on a motorcycle with a shotgun in her hands and a psychiatric assistant behind her?" Or: "Remember that fight to the death: the magician with two enchanted tommy guns against the Ancient One?" Or, “Remember that time we came up short from victory because our strongest detective failed a critical check and got lost in time and space trying to close the last portal? The whole table was intently following his every throw of the dice." Ask any Arkham Horror fan and they're sure to have some interesting stories to share with you from their games. But, most likely, he will not remember whether the detectives won that game, or lost, and how close they were to victory.  It is thanks to the generated adventures that the game became unique for its time and encouraged fans to create a lot of self-made content: more beautiful components, thematic scenarios and even whole add-ons. We can say that a whole game culture has formed around "Arkham Horror"; I don't remember this happening to even one other crowd. The only thing that can spoil the narrative is the lack of a logical connection between some events. Your character may be kicked off the antiquities bench indignantly during a contact, but greeted warmly and offered a discount during a new contact on the next turn. Although, given the physical limitations of board games, it is unrealistic to correct this shortcoming. One can attribute the illogicalities to the city's gradually encroaching madness.  Like most FFG products at the time, Arkham Horror received a ton of official additions, both small story-focused ones and large ones with new fields, detectives, and mechanics. They are all based on certain stories or characters from the Cthulhu mythos. Personally, I find small additions to be the most successful, especially in terms of shaping the narrative I mentioned above. My favorite is The King in Yellow, which weaves elements of the play and character of the same name into the horrors of Arkham. Large additions are also interesting in their own way, but our group decided that messing around with additional fields is boring; they are not worth it. Still, the big expansions make sense to buy for the sake of new detectives and mechanics — especially the injury and insanity cards from Dunwich, which we now default to every game. "Ancient Horror" is its spiritual or even direct descendant; he redesigned and licked the mechanics and changed the setting from Arkham to global adventures across the globe. Bound by dice rolls and manipulation, Mark of the Ancients provides a fairly similar feel (especially with additions that bring more story into the game), but requires less space and time. Arkham Asylum: The Card Game is an RPG with a campaign and a much more cohesive plot than the original Arkham Asylum. Plus Mansions of Madness 2nd edition: thanks to the program, they have become one of the most atmospheric gothic horror adventures to be found in the tabletop world. There are various scenarios for every taste — from meat grinders to solving mysteries. If Arkham Horror wasn't an established classic by now, and if The Ancient Horror hadn't replaced it as the flagship of FFG's horror line, I'd assume they'd be getting a remastered version soon. Here's to hoping that FFG will at least release a more user-friendly app for them. On iOS, there is now a helper application that allows you not to clutter the table with so many components, but in general it does not perform enough functions and looks archaic against the background of modern push-button applications from FFG. A full-fledged app could also fix the problems with the lack of logical connection between events, or even introduce a full-fledged plot to the game... or at least track the events, the relations of the detectives with the locals, etc. While Arkham Horror is far from perfect, it holds a special place in my collection, my memories, and my heart. I recommend this game to all fans of Lovecraftian mythos, gothic horror, and themed co-op who don't already have it on their shelves...

 Since its inception, the World of Warcraft universe has steadily expanded, introducing new characters, lands, and enemies. But to this day, one of the most popular plots remains the fall of the hero Arthas and his subsequent ascension to the throne of the Lich King. This board game is for those who would like to return to Northrend and storm the Icecrown Citadel once again.  World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - A Pandemic System Board Game is based on the application of the same name to the computer game. It's a co-op tabletop for 1-5 players that brings many features from the popular MMO to the table. There are well-known heroes, special abilities, battles with the Scourge, completing quests - and all this is based on the mechanics of the popular "Pandemic" series. But Wrath of the Lich King is more than just a reskin, as the mechanics have been significantly reworked to fit the feel of Blizzard's popular universe. COMPONENTS  From the moment you open the box, it's clear that the deck's creators have put a lot of thought into WoW lore. The playing field, measuring approximately 50 x 75 cm, features dozens of familiar locations from Azeroth - Naxramas, Dalaran, Ulduar and many others. Also in the box are seven famous characters from Azeroth: Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windwing, Varian Wrynn, Tyrion Fordring, Muradin Bronzebeard and Lady Liadrin. Each of them is represented by a detailed miniature. There is also a specially designed miniature of the Lich King himself, as well as minions of his horde of henchmen: three abominations and dozens of small werewolves. These figures have a lot of very sharp points that are easy to puncture, so be careful with them.  Each character has its own letter with unique special abilities, a health indicator and its short description on the back. Like other cards, they are illustrated with luxurious pictures. Yes, the deck of 63 cards of heroic actions is also illustrated. Moreover, almost all the drawings are original, and not taken from Hearthstone, thanks to which there is a feeling of a completely new adventure, and not just a reskin.  Also included in the box are 10 quest sheets, 30 Scourge cards, reference cards, assorted tokens, buildable cardboard fortresses, and a hefty cardboard ice crown citadel. Components are stored in bags between batches. It's just surprising (as with many other games in the Pandemic series) how tightly packed the box is. GAME PROCESS The goal in Wrath of the Lich King is simple - complete three quests, receive unique rewards for each quest, and then storm Icecrown Citadel, ending the reign of the Lich King. However, in the meantime, his Scourge is spreading across Northrend, so you'll have to act fast. Each player chooses one of the characters. All have their own abilities and health parameter that are useful for the team. Heroes will travel the map and fight with the dead.  The moves are quite similar to the usual "Pandemic": each hero has 4 actions, which can be spent on moving around the field, attacking enemies, completing quests and healing. But here players don't just cure diseases by removing cubes from the field; Wrath of the Lich King is more atmospheric and diverse. Also, during the game, heroes receive battle cards (help in attack or defense), treatment cards (restore health) and travel cards (quick movement around the field). During the course of the game, several citadel cards can be added to the deck, which allow you to place a citadel on the field, which is needed for accelerated movement of you and your comrades. As the Lich King's undead army spreads across the map, the heroes can spend an action on their turn to attack Scourge minions. They roll 2 dice and depending on the results can deal damage, block counter attacks, and can play battle cards for more effectiveness. characters standing on the same cage can help each other in combat, which is atmospheric: it feels like you're hacking your way through enemy hordes together.  In addition to battles, heroes can also go on quests. Since the completion of quests is mandatory for victory, you should not forget to pay attention to them. The field is divided into three regions, which differ in the color of the locations. In each region there is a quest sheet (one of three possible - there are nine of them in the game), which the team must complete with joint efforts. They take several hero turns, require successful dice rolls, card draws, and help from friends. Cooperation is indispensable here. Also, each quest sheet has a unique boss enemy that damages the character performing the quest and also damages with some special rule; For example, it reduces the number of dice you roll, prohibits healing, etc. As soon as the heroes complete the quest, they receive a unique reward - powerful one-time cards that can turn the tide of the game in your favor. Although the mechanics of the quests work quite well, I would like to see them worked out more deeply. Essentially, it all boils down to moving the token along the scale; much less interesting than the fights. It's a pity that the well-known raid bosses depicted in the quests practically do not interact with the heroes. The same goes for the final battle with the Lich King: it's essentially a particularly long quest. There is no tension, there is no feeling that the stakes are high.  On the other hand, discussing strategy with comrades every turn, fending off spawning Scourges, and completing quests create the tense atmosphere typical of the Pandemic series. You have to think about every action, because the situation can quickly get out of control and a few mistakes will lead you to defeat. In my opinion, Wrath of the Lich King is slightly harder than the original Pandemic even on the easiest difficulty - and that's with five of us playing. There's a little more thought to your moves, as you're not only trying to control the situation on the playing field, but also keep an eye on your hero's dwindling health. It will probably get easier with experience. And for those who want hardcore, there are three increased difficulty levels that make the whip more dangerous and reduce the number of available citadels. There is even a solo mode — quite interesting, in my opinion. But still, the main fan here is discussion and joint decision-making. Thanks to 7 heroes, very different from each other, and 9 quests, replayability is quite high; you can play a few dozen games before the game gets boring. With co-op, dice battles, and quests, it feels like a very simplified WoW that can be played in just an hour. CONCLUSIONS World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King stands out from the "Pandemic" series with its novelty: there are famous heroes of Azeroth with unique special abilities, battles, quests and the final boss - the Lich King himself. Due to the four levels of difficulty, replayability is very high. I recommend checking out this tabletop corner of Azeroth...

ABOUT THE GAME In the not-so-distant future, something is found on the dark side of the Moon that provokes the awakening of Sheol, which envelops the Moon in impenetrable darkness. This darkness eventually reaches the Earth and gradually covers it. A new ice age begins, and creepy shadow monsters appear in the dark. Humanity's last frontier is the Citadel: a gigantic tower that houses not only the survivors, but also the remnants of lost technology from the time before the catastrophe. Here, people create the Shining: the only thing that can resist the shadows. You are a scout, one of the few who are ready to go into the darkness and defeat the monsters that live there before they reach the Citadel and destroy it.  Each game you choose a mission that you will go through. Each mission has a set of mission cards. On them are indicated various tasks that you must complete. In addition, you will often encounter optional side tasks - also branched. Sometimes it is enough to get to a certain square on the field for execution, sometimes you need to pass a test (trying to roll a certain combination on the dice). The plot is revealed as through mission cards; each of the areas you reach has its own story, as well as often a personal set of events and a choice of several options, which helps to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the setting.  Basically, the gameplay consists of a journey from the Citadel to the shadow lands and battles with the monsters you encounter. However, for this it is necessary to create a light source with Radiance; without it, it is impossible to travel in the dark. But the reserves of Radiance that you spend to create light are not infinite, and they are also your HP - so you will have to spend them carefully. Each character has their own unique set of cards that give different abilities or discounts on other actions. After all, Radiance is spent not only on creating light, but also on battles. And to highlight the shadow enemies waiting for you in the dark.  As mentioned, the shadows seek the Citadel to destroy it. Each turn, new shadows will fill the field and start walking towards the Citadel. But you don't know exactly who is approaching you until you shine a light on them. Without light, they just look like signals. Signals that can kill you and destroy the tower. They are not invulnerable, but hitting an enemy hiding in the dark is much more difficult. But if you highlight him, you will not only understand who is in front of you and what his abilities are, but you will also get to him with a 100 percent probability. So you will have to make a difficult choice.  Between missions, you manage the Citadel tablet. Due to the trophies brought from the mission, you can pump various areas of the city, which gives bonuses for future scenarios or new abilities. But that's not all; you don't just manage the city as a whole, but also the three city factions. The more you are respected by one of the factions, the more upgrades you have to choose from and items in the store. IMPRESSION I invested in the kickstarter All-In: the complete set except for the mat and music tracks.  In our opinion, SHEOL in general does not justify the time spent on it. Let's start with the fact that during the game you will have to deal with a lot of all kinds of components and tokens. In total, it took me about 10 hours to unpack the game, organize the storage of all tokens and cards, familiarize myself with the rules (I read the rule book cover to cover, watched 3-4 hours of videos with an overview of the rules and gameplay) and laying out the game on the table. The latter is a very slow process. The Kickstarter page claims that the layout takes 5 minutes, but this is an outright lie. It took me 20 minutes to lay out the first mission. It also takes 20 minutes to assemble. There are no bags in the set, and the built-in organizer does not allow you to sort the cards by character, which lengthens the layout of the next mission: you have to refer to the photo of the final state of the previous scenario, taken from the phone, to remember which cards you bought, and collect the character deck again. Because of all this, the first batch did not leave a very positive impression on my wife and son.  I swear we love Amerithrash. SHEOL has enough thematics; it is felt in the gameplay, in the illustrations, etc. We also love rolling the dice, but I do not like how many different types of dice there are in SHEOL for each sneeze. They all have very different symbols and you have to remember them all. There is a die for enemy attacks, there is a die for moving enemies, there are two dice for breaking and repairing your weapon (but you usually only need one of them), there are two different dice for spawning enemies (an alarm die and a threat die). After I learned the rules, it took about an hour to explain to the company how to play (as well as read the introduction). The rules have a lot of all kinds of nuances and "if ... then" situations (for example, there are tokens for barriers, there are tokens for a light source, there are rules for the movement of players in the dark with and without a light source, there are rules for the movement of monsters in source area) of light, etc.).  Movement is a key element of gameplay. Moreover, it is very difficult to move wherever you want. First, you need light source tokens to move. To get these tokens (if you don't have any left over from your previous turn), you need to perform a "planning" action by spending an action and a Glow. Then you need to perform the "illuminate" action, which also requires spending an action and Radiance. And then actually move, spending movement points. If you want to move a greater distance, you will have to spend more radiance (which is also your HP). As a result, it takes forever to move to the desired point. Moreover, there is no sequence of moves here, so all this commotion happens in the general move of the players, who have to decide who should move next. When you finally finish moving, you may encounter an enemy or new areas where you can perform a certain action. As for the events, they feel sewn to the game with white threads. When your character miniature lands on event tokens, you draw one of 12 cards from the deck and receive a faction reputation token, a small bonus, or a penalty. Not impressive. Enemies are basically divided into three tiers: three types of shadows, heralds, and outer lords. For defeating shadows and heralds you get a reward (umbra - the in-game currency), but for outer lords you don't, even though they are the most difficult opponents in the game. I don't see the logic here, especially considering the rules instruct you to avoid fighting shadows and focus on completing mission tasks, as the shadows are there to distract you and overwhelm you with numbers if you focus too much on fighting them.  The illustrations and design of the field and components are very cool, but do not make up for the feeling at the end of the mission that the game was not worth the trouble. You don't feel the satisfaction of victory. As for the miniatures, these are some of the best I've seen in cascades: very detailed and high quality. Only the key component of the playing field - the Citadel - is difficult to assemble: it is divided into several parts, which you will have to gradually collect. Unlike the two-dimensional version, which simply consists of two pieces of cardboard. Given how leisurely SHEOL's gameplay is, by the time you lay out the basic components on the table, the desire to pull tons of miniatures out of the box disappears. Yes, regarding the rule book: it suffers from errors, references to other rules without indicating the right page, and simply not very clearly described points. Not the worst rulebook in the world, but along with SHEOL's other issues, it discourages me from continuing to play. I recently got Oathsworn, so I'll likely switch to her and give SHEOL another shot at a later date. But it is unlikely that anything will come of it, unless the plot of the next missions suddenly becomes very exciting...

 A few years ago I managed to get hold of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, which I really enjoyed. Most of the games in the Warhammer Quest series are huge coffins with lots of tiles and sprues. Before starting the game, you will have to spend many hours collecting miniatures. This element of modeling does not appeal to everyone, but the gameplay was fan-friendly. I really enjoyed Space Marine Adventures: Doomsday Countdown. The main complaint about the game is the lack of a campaign. Lost Relics has a campaign - and it's also a Warhammer Quest. Both are pluses for me. GAME PROCESS Each game of Lost Relics features all four heroes (Stormcast Eternal) from the box. There are many nuances here, so I will describe only the main elements of the gameplay. Each move is divided into the following phases: Adventure Phase - Effects vary depending on the rules of the current scenario, but generally enemies will move and attack heroes. Dice phase - each hero rolls 3 six-sided dice. Initiative phase - shuffle the heroes' initiative cards and lay them out in random order. Action phase - activate heroes according to the initiative order; one cube at a time. After each activation, one enemy reacts (see below). Leader Phase - Each leader on the field activates. Refresh phase - if you are near the shelter, then all the disabled heroes return to the game.  The action, surprisingly, takes place in the action phase. However, every action is followed by a reaction, which makes the game resemble Newton's pendulum on a table. You can break out of the "back and forth" cycle with the help of chains of actions. A chain of actions is a situation when you have an active hero with a cube with a value of 1, and you sequentially play the actions of any heroes with values of 2, 3, etc. After the chain ends, only one enemy reacts. Hero cards have numbers indicating which dice values a hero must spend to take an "inspired" action (there are both generic move-rest-interact actions and combat skills unique to each hero). Inspired actions are stronger than the regular version; For example, in combat, you can deal more damage or apply an additional effect. If you haven't dealt a minion damage equal to the HP on its card, it flips over to the "wounded" side. Thus, any minion can be defeated with two weak hands. But bosses need to reduce HP to zero to win. The hero also turns to the wounded side when he takes damage equal to his HP. If after that he receives the same damage again, he is out of the game. Leaders are different in that they get an extra action in the leader phase and do some mischief, for example, summon new minions, get an extra reaction or activation. Each mission has its own special rules, victory and defeat conditions, as well as ways to obtain fate tokens, which can be used to roll the dice to any limit. IMPRESSION I love the dice placement mechanic found in both Lost Relics and older Warhammer Quest games like Silver Tower. However, in Silver Tower, after deciding which die to use, you also roll hit dice. Lost Relics doesn't have this step, so battles are random. On the one hand, it's nice to be guaranteed to destroy enemies, on the other hand, it's unpleasant when they're guaranteed to hurt you. And the random activation of enemies removes the element of chaos from the game when you don't know in advance how your opponent will act. With these innovations, tactical thinking is very welcome in Lost Relics. You're anticipating your moves and the moves of your enemies, rather than dashing through a dungeon like Leeroy Jenkins.  The mechanics of the activations are not very clearly laid out, and I repeatedly wondered if I was playing correctly. I assumed that when reacting, the enemy activates all the actions listed on his card in the specified order, skipping the currently impossible ones. Therefore, it is important to use chains of actions so that there are fewer reactions from enemies. But it depends on dice rolls and initiative cards. If the only die with a value of 1 fell on the fourth character in line, then, unfortunately. But with successful throws, after turning a few powerful combinations, you can go through the dungeon on a steam roller.  Equipment is either disposable or permanent or available per mission. But according to feelings, it often makes no sense to turn off the path in order to lose the equipment. Maybe I'll regret it later when I face tougher enemies, but... we'll see. Judging by the first six scenarios, the characters do not level up, which is not very pleasing in a game with a campaign mode. Let's go to the main thing: is it fun to play? In general, yes, but I have not yet decided on my feelings. Due to the alternating activations of characters and enemies, you often freeze in place for a long time, planning your future actions and the reactions of enemies. Or make a chain of actions and destroy all enemies in the room without an answer. And even after going through six scenarios, I still have to look at enemy and leader cards almost every turn. Dungeons are laid out very quickly since you only place four double-sided tiles on the field plus some tokens. The images in the campaign book are hard to look at, so I resorted to a magnifying glass to examine some of the enemies and scenario-unique icons. Since each token has a unique image, and each enemy card also has the same image, it's hard to tell who is who at first. The side with the wounded enemy on some tokens is also difficult to distinguish.  Games Workshop standard quality miniatures. Assembled without glue, removal from sprues and assembly took about 45 minutes. I recommend using scissors; I had an onion string fall off when I removed it from the sprue. Surprisingly, one figurine has a stand that is completely nondescript — just a few stones — unlike the others, which are decorated. CONCLUSIONS The random activation of dice actions by feeling is not as fan-friendly as the mechanics traditional to Warhammer Quests. But for some players, this may turn out to be a plus (if you are one of them, then Lost Relics is most likely for you). Personally, I didn't like the reaction mechanics too much, because if I was lucky I could complete the level in a few turns, and if I was careless I could lose all the heroes just as quickly. As a result, I didn't enjoy Lost Relics as much as Doomsday Countdown and the old Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower.  The rating is 2.5 stars . Random mechanics may appeal to some, but kill the magical atmosphere of past Warhammer Quests...

Trudvang Legends has become one of my most anticipated games of 2022, as well as one of the longest kickstarter projects. CMON even offered everyone a free two-wave split to deliver the base box to contributors while the rest of the content is still being finalized. As I've written before, the game was changed so significantly after the campaign that many contributors, myself included, doubted whether they would get what they expected. So, was the wait that long? Now let's find out... GAME PROCESS You lay out the game according to the instructions in the saga book, then travel around the map. The game proceeds in phases. You start with phase 2, but I believe that will change at some point in the campaign. Even at the start, you fill your character's rune bag with runes corresponding to his cards. If there is an add. cards, you will receive an add. runes As a general rule, runes earned during a scenario do not carry over to the next scenario. In the game, you mainly have to pass checks and fight. When passing a check, you are shown one of the runes and a number - the number of successes required. After that, you draw 7 runes and see if you managed to pass it. Battles are a bit more difficult. You first draw 4 of your 8 (typically) feat cards, then draw runes - 3 at a time - and place them on those cards. Runes that do not correspond to the symbols on the cards, as well as dark runes, are laid out on the failure track. Keep pulling until 5 dips accumulate or until you decide enough is enough. If you stop drawing runes before you draw 4 failures, you get all the blue tokens from the failure track. The fifth rune means failure: in this case, all red tokens from the track of failure are activated. In addition, additional battle runes push old runes off the cards, which increases the chances of victory and reduces the negative consequences of defeats.  After you stop drawing runes, you activate each ability. Skills and quick attacks are activated first. Then the enemies are activated; they draw a card and accordingly increase or decrease the attack parameter by the specified number. Also, sometimes an additional ability is activated if a card with a certain symbol is drawn. Some more feat cards give you Chronicle Points, which can be used to activate additional ones. abilities from other cards or spend them in locations for additional bonuses. After attacking the enemies, the heroes attack. If after that both of them are still on their feet, you move on to the next phase of the game. It will be possible to fight a new battle on the next turn, or leave the battle (and take a little damage while running away). When you win, you get an experience point. After gaining 3 experience points, you can draw 3 cards from the advanced feat deck and choose one of them; it will replace a similar, weaker card in your deck. You will run around the field, passing checks and fighting enemies until you complete the scenario. The story will progress by reading new chapters of the saga book, placing story cards on the field, as well as title cards that you receive based on your actions. There are still many locations on the field where you can spend actions and get bonuses. IMPRESSION One of the most innovative ideas of Trudvang Legends is the field with card pockets, thanks to which the surrounding world is constantly changing throughout the campaign. The mechanics of extracting runes are at first glance a simple and fan system, which is quite suitable for a game that does not focus on battles, like Roll Player Adventures or Solomon Kane. The plot and setting are interesting. The plot is well developed, each piece you read consists of several short paragraphs, which is quite enough for an atmospheric description without scrolling through excesses like 8-page sheets of text. In the first part of the campaign that I played, there are many branching storylines - depending on the decisions you make, different quests and enemies/allies become available, which is a big plus. I have no doubt that some of these lines lead to the same denouement, just in a different way, but at least Trudvang Legends isn't as railed as many other adventure games. I also liked that if you have certain classes in your company, you automatically pass some checks or open new pieces of the plot, which increases replayability. The rune extraction mechanics are good, the hit/miss track works well too, but after a few scenarios it all feels a little too monotonous. Levelups are cool, but you swing at a snail's pace, and advanced skills are just slightly improved versions of your basic skills. The runes purchased during the scenario are usually returned to the box at the end of the scenario, so the bag building mechanic almost does not work and in addition adds fuss with the components: after each scenario, shake the bag again, throwing away extra tokens.  I didn't like having to spend entire turns in combat with zero progress because I didn't draw an attack card. But although this is annoying and slows down the game, there is a more serious claim to combat: the almost complete absence of penalty for death. You revive with 6 health and gain a negative Wyrd card. If in your combat round you drew this card instead of one of the four feats, you can try to "finish" it, thereby removing it from play. If you fail to do this by the end of the scenario, you receive a minor penalty (though I haven't gone through the entire campaign yet; perhaps later the penalties will accumulate and become more severe). Of course, it is good that the game does not severely punish defeat, especially since the main thing here is the plot, but the almost complete lack of consequences of death together with mediocre combat mechanics kill the whole fan. And it is unlikely that deaths will be avoided given the fact that there is not much treatment here.  However, the unfinished battle turned out to be more popular than passing the tests, surprisingly. I think the problem is the number of necessary successes. Claiming 4 water runes when the character most likely has 4 in a bag of 15 runes... Chances of success are extremely low (0.2 to 0.7% if I'm not mistaken) . Therefore, often, when I came across a skill check and looked at my character's letter, I immediately went to the "fail" section, so as not to waste time drawing runes in a hopeless situation. I don't seem to have passed a check requiring 4 runes once in 5 scenarios, and only passed a check requiring 3 runes twice in 20+ attempts. CONCLUSIONS I was fascinated by the art and setting of the game, but after a few games I realized that I could read the book-game with the same success if I threw out all the non-fan mechanics from Trudvang Legends. I hate to write this - after all, a whole team of developers put a lot of time and effort into this project - but the game just doesn't work. I would have expected CMON to focus more on Trudvang Legends considering they bought the Trudvang license from Riotminds. It's better than NFT, but the bar is very low.  Overall rating: 2 out of 5 - bland underdeveloped mechanics spoil interesting ideas and an exciting plot...

 We were looking forward to Frosthaven. Since the box arrived, we've been going through scenario by scenario almost every day and have already gone through 8 scenarios. In order to avoid spoilers, I will limit myself to the information that you will learn after opening the box and going through the introductory scenario. I played Dark Harbor, Jaws of the Lion, Forgotten Circles, and digital Gloom with a friend. Each controlled two characters. We play on a normal difficulty level and rarely lose scenarios. In my opinion, we are average players. STARTING CLASSES  I started playing Boneshaper and Deathwalker.  Boneshaper is tied to summoning skeletons, and in large quantities. Summoned creatures were difficult to play in Gloomy Harbor because their cards were removed from the game after use, they were uncontrollable, and they had very low HP/damage and didn't scale as they leveled up. Frosthaven fixed things up a bit: Summoned creatures now follow the host with no other purpose, and skeleton prize cards are not removed from play, so they can be used multiple times. As before, they do not increase when gaining new levels, so they are most effective at the early stage of the campaign. Boneshaper goes well with the Bannerspear character; lining up allies in a formation so that her attacks are stronger is not difficult at all. Also, she is perfectly combined with the character Deathwalker - both are able to generate darkness.  Deathwalker is tied to the use of shadows. The problem is that placing shadows on the field is not easy. But once they're placed, it's much easier, as you can generate new shadows when the enemy you're attacking dies. However, the first couple of turns of the battle you have little use for, unless you use cards that are removed from the game to get a couple of shadows. You can move shadows around the field, but by spending cards to do so, you don't move yourself. While you can attack from the shadows, it doesn't help in scenarios where you need to run away. Fortunately, I found an item (SPOILER) Magnetic Cape that allows you to teleport to an ally - it was very useful. Deathwalker looks great. When someone else plays her, your first thought is, "Wow, what a cool character." But if you try to play it personally, not much happens; you just wander around the field suffering from a lack of shadows. It looks best in scenarios where there are a bunch of low HP enemies - it makes it easy to generate lots of shadows. My friend played for Banner Spear and Drifter.  Banner Spear is a bit of a monster because she has low mobility. She has some cool formation attacks, but getting the characters right doesn't always work out, as sometimes enemies move or die before you can execute that formation.  Drifter is tied to long-term effects (persistent effects) and moving tokens back and forth. It doesn't sound like much, but in practice it can attack (and counterattack) often and very powerfully. Apparently, he has a lot of cards with long lasting effects; he would really need two or three, but most of the cards in his deck have those effects. This is probably the easiest class, and even very difficult by the standards of most players I know. In general, starting decks have few actions like "attack 3" or "move 4". All of their capabilities fit neatly into the style of play that this class is designed for. Yes, the Boneshaper can summon skeletons, move them and attack them, detonate them, heal them, poison enemies with them, and even roam, but on her own she has very little skill compared to the Dark Harbor characters. CHANGES IN THE RULES There are many small innovations in Frosthaven. In general, the gameplay remains the same, but some shortcomings have been fixed. In particular, I noticed the following: Enemies that have spawned and summoned leave behind loot. It's so much better than the original! More loot = everyone happy. Even now, there is a limit on the maximum amount that can be collected per scenario. A good limit to keep players from going crazy with greed. Summoned creatures follow the host in the absence of other targets. A trifle is nice. Personally, I'd like them to move towards the door if there's a door nearby. Usually my conscript sits in the back, so there is little point in moving creatures towards her. You can repel/attract enemies at a distance less than the maximum indicated on the map. My characters do not have such abilities, so I did not manage to test the innovation in practice, but it is nice that now you have more control over what is happening. Ranged attacks have been moved from the monster card to the monster's ability card. This is great. In Gloomhaven, a lot of monsters could hit every hex in the room with every attack, which is clearly overkill. Now even high level monsters don't always affect everyone. There are 3 combat targets to choose from at the start, which greatly reduces the risk of getting stuck with a difficult target. Hexes with tokens are considered empty, so enemies can summon creatures there. It looks logical and does not reduce the effectiveness of recruits when there are a lot of corpses around. Line of sight can be traced from any point on the hex. She is rarely of MG importance, and will now play an even smaller role; most hexes are visible to all other hexes in the room. Monsters will move through invisible characters. While we haven't gotten that ability yet, I'm glad that the tactic of blocking the passage with stealth and firing at melee monsters clustered on the other side no longer works. Advantage and difficulty have been fixed, so now drawing a card with an additional modifier when attacking with advantage is not a disadvantage. Interactions with other characters/creatures and terrain are more clearly spelled out. No more instant kill abilities. They were replaced by the status effect "death" (bane), which deals 10 damage, which will finish off most enemies, but not against high-level monsters.  It's also worth noting that Disarm, Stun, and Invisibility are now much less common, so you won't be able to disable entire rooms of enemies in a row with characters like Music Note, Mindthief, or Eclipse. NEW RULES Several new status effects have appeared: regeneration (Regenerate), fragility (Brittle), amulet (Ward) and weakening (Impair). Otherwise, there are practically no new mechanics. Loot is now more: not only coins, but also whole decks of useful herbs, materials and even random items. This maintains interest, increases variety and makes the option of going after the moon even more attractive. Admittedly, building a loot deck individually for each scenario is a bit tiresome. In addition, each individual resource must first be mixed into the deck, so you will have to do the following: Divide all loot cards into categories: coins, wood, metal, leather, herbs, random items. Shuffle the deck of coins (as well as metal, hides, and wood if you're playing with two or three). Draw as many loot cards as specified in the scenario and set aside unused cards. Shuffle all these cards into a loot deck. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but apart from that, you still need to do a bunch of other things in the layout process. COMPLEXITY OF SCENARIOS Many have complained that the scenarios in The Forgotten Circles are too difficult (I personally found two to be too difficult, the others seemed normal). And that there are too many "kill them all" scenarios in "Gloomy Harbor" (personally, that's fine with me). As far as we can tell so far, most of the scenarios in Frosthaven aren't too difficult and boil down to "kill them all". Some have a slightly different objective, say kill the boss or escape, but generally to kill the boss or escape you have to cut out all the living first. However, after the last played scenario, two more opened to us, which look more puzzling and difficult. So, I think, in general, there is a variety. I was surprised that the first few scenarios use mechanics from Forgotten Circles In my opinion, if "Forgotten Circles" seemed too much for you, you should not give up on Frosthaven, because it is less difficult. Although sometimes there will be scenarios that can freak you out and make you wonder, "How does this work?" EVENTS ON THE WAY The author promised to improve this mechanic, but the events are still random and unpredictable. I don't understand why the player is offered a choice at all; it would be better to limit yourself to a mini-story and a description of what happened to you. Events most often boil down to the following: You found a puppy by the side of the road. Option A is to pet him. Option B is to kill him. If you choose option A, the puppy will be demonic and everyone starts the game wounded. If you choose option B, you will get rid of the demon and get 5 experience. However, in the next drawn map, you may meet a real puppy, and if you choose option A, the puppy will lead you into the forest and a new scenario will open up for you, and if you choose option B, you will lose 3 morale. So it is absolutely useless to think about solutions. True, now the characters have features that affect the outcome of events, but this mechanic is very unintuitive. PLEDGE PHASE Now, after each scenario, you have a pledge phase. Winter has not yet arrived, so everything is quite quiet. It was cool to put stickers on buildings in the city, but in general, construction is still pretty boring. Let's see what happens when the city grows. Now you don't buy everything in the store: you have to craft items and brew potions. Cool mechanics, we like it. So far there has been one early attack on the city, but as a result, we have not only not lost any resources, but also gained a little extra. MONSTERS  Most of the monsters from Gloomhaven migrated to Frosthaven, almost unchanged. We met new monsters. For..

 Betrayal at House on the Hill is a semi-cooperative tile-based adventure horror game. The action takes place in a creepy estate full of ghosts and all kinds of horror clichés. In the first act of the game, 3-6 explorers discover new rooms, find items and experience spooky events. Then, at a certain unexpected moment, the main part of the game begins - Hunting. At the beginning of the Hunt, one of the explorers turns out to be a traitor, and the rest of the explorers (now heroes) must work together to defeat the traitor.  In the first stage of the game, you simply "build" a house by exploring room tiles. Each character has his own card with four parameters: speed, strength, intelligence and knowledge. The first two parameters are physical, and the last two are mental. Each character has a starting value of the parameter, as well as the maximum and minimum possible; they will rise and fall as the game progresses. Many rooms have icons that dictate drawing a card from the appropriate deck: events, items, or traits. The event cards have an artistic description and some effect - depending on the result of the dice roll, as a rule. Items are useful items or weapons; especially useful during hunting. Omens are items or companions that can also come in handy at some point, but they also play a more important role: every time you find an omen, you make a check to see if the Hunt has started. On 6 dice, you need to discard a value greater than the total number of trait cards already drawn from the deck. By the way, there are only numbers 0-2 on the faces of the dice, so after finding a few signs it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid the start of the Hunt. If this check fails, the script starts.  There are 2 books in the game: Secrets of Survival for Heroes and Traitor's Book for Traitor. There are 50 scenarios in these books. The choice of scenario depends on which trait card was drawn last and in which room it was found. Afterwards, the traitor goes to another room (literally leaves) to review his victory condition while the heroes read their script and discuss strategy. I will not be a spoiler; all I'll say is that you never know what you're going to run into. The scripts have almost all the classic horror stories plus a few completely original stories. The winner is the one who fulfills his winning condition. Betrayal at House on the Hill literally exudes an eerie atmosphere; It is only necessary to plunge into the plot. I may be biased, since Betrayal is where my fascination with advanced tabletops began ("so what, board games are a hobby?"), but many of my most enjoyable tabletop experiences have been with this game. There are crazy plots, some funny gameplay and a horror atmosphere. Sometimes the Hunt ends in general disappointment; the balance depends on the layout of the house tiles, cash items and the location of the explorers and the traitor. But when everything goes right, Betrayal leaves an unforgettable impression.  I won't lie, the game is far from perfect; For example, the wording of some scenarios raises questions, and sometimes you have to flexibly interpret the rules in certain situations, but usually the game remains a fan game. That's what Betrayal at House on the Hill is all about: pure fandom. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to play a serious thoughtful abstract, a casual card game, words, or heavy euro. Betrayal is an ideal choice in such situations when you want something simple, atmospheric and fun. I am very pleased with the variety of rooms and the different layout of the house from batch to batch. And if you add a bunch of scenarios (with the addition, their number reaches 100!), then the regrabability goes off the scale. As far as mechanics go, all the available actions are simple, and often you just walk around, read the cards and act according to the instructions on them. Betrayal's cooperativeness is a big plus for the game, because it makes it easy for beginners to learn how to play; everyone can discuss actions together and collaborate. In addition, the entire first act you are occupied only with building a house from tiles and exploring it. We even introduced a home rule that a traitor cannot become a person who sat down for the first time for the game. This eases the threshold of entry, as newcomers won't have to navigate the Traitor's Book on their own.  In 2016, the Widow's Walk app was released for the game. If you liked the base, I highly recommend it; there are tons of new scenarios, cards and rooms. Although there are many decks that leave a more stable and pleasant impression, the circumstances of my introduction to the game and the unpredictable fan that it delivers make it my most favorite pleasure...

QUARRIORS BOARD GAME REVIEW Developed by Mike Elliott and Eric Lang and published in the US by WizKids Games, Quarriors is an incredible dice rolling extravaganza. This 2011 Golden Geek nominee and 2013 Origins Award winner will make you wish you could travel back in time to experience this game for the first time all over again.  In Quarriors 2 – 4, players will arm themselves with powerful magical spells and summon legions of cube creatures to battle their opponents. Boldly cover yourself in Glory while protecting your creatures from your opponents, or choose wisely to summon increasingly powerful creatures to dominate your enemies. PREPARATION FOR THE GAME  Quarriors is a dice game based on the same engine as Dominion, released in 2008. The central tableau, consisting of 3 base cards, 7 creature cards, and 3 spell cards, is located in the center of the game area known as The Wilds. 7 creature cards and 3 spell cards are drawn (and replaced if necessary) at random until each stack is unique. Place the corresponding dice on each card within each player's reach.  Finally, all players are given 8 mana dice and 4 helper dice (low power creatures) and the game can begin. GAME PROCESS During his turn, the player takes a certain number of dice from his bag and throws them. The dice, which feature the mystical teardrop symbol for mana, can be used to energize existing creatures or to attract more powerful creatures and spells from the Wildlands.  The faces of the die that do not drop mana will usually be either creatures that can be summoned to battle or special abilities (spell dice). Players who choose to send their creatures into battle must have enough mana available to pay the creature level cost located in the upper left corner of the die. Most dice in the game will have at least one mana face and several other faces, all of which appear at the bottom of the power card for that die.  After the mana cost of any creatures is paid, the player will send their creatures into battle. The attacking player adds up the cost of all their attacking creatures (located in the upper right corner of each creature cube). Then, clockwise, each player offers a defender who may or may not beat the overall offense presented. If a creature is defeated (attacker or defender), it goes into that player's discard pile. In the example below, the bottom player (with an attack value of 4) attacks the top player.  Attacks continue until all of the attacking player's creatures are defeated or until any remaining creatures have gone around the entire table. These creatures will now act as that player's defenders while the other players change their actions. Any creatures still in front of the player at the start of the next turn will receive Glory points equal to the number shown in the upper right corner of that creature's power card.  After the attacks are completed, players can use any remaining dice to capture new creatures from the Wildlands. Players pay the mana cost in the upper left corner of the power card they wish to purchase. Players then place all dice rolled into the discard pile, along with any captured creatures, and the active status passes to the next player. The game will continue like this until one player reaches the glory goal according to the number of players. WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE GAME Of course, first of all, you should remember the cubes. They are great. Not full-size, but a little smaller. They come in all colors and styles. Some have solid colors, some have frosted crystal, some are sprinkled with glitter, they're just really cool. The design of the game is really nice, with only a small amount of animation to avoid being too serious. The gameplay is easy to explain and only takes a few minutes to play. WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THE GAME Although the dice are cool, the printing on some of the dice is blurry. This is a small problem, but it can make them difficult to read. The game is fun, but maybe doesn't lend itself to many, many replays (if that's what you're looking for). IMPRESSION At its core, Quarriors is a simple game; you roll dice, attack other players (if you want) and capture new creatures (if you want). The base game includes 130 dice and 53 creature and spell cards, giving Quarriors a lot of variety. Each set of dice is represented by several power cards, and each power card has different options. This means that from game to game, each set of dice can perform completely different actions depending on the preparation. Quarriors doesn't offer much strategy, but smart purchases early in the game can make a big difference late in the game...

REVIEW In the game, you are the citizens of Squalls End saving the Cat Islands and must save as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vash arrives. Each cat comes in a unique shape and belongs to a family, you have to find a way to fit them all on your boat while keeping the families together. GAME PROCESS  Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw consists of 7 rounds where you try to save as many cats as possible, learn lessons and collect treasures. At the beginning of the game, a 3x4 grid is formed from cards from the cat deck and cards from the lesson deck according to a predetermined pattern. Once the grid is prepared, all players can make moves at the same time and must choose one of the four columns of cards. Players can reveal their chosen cards in any order. There are two different types of cards in the game: The openings on your boat are drawn as polymino shapes. Cats are always drawn in the specified color and you try to form large groups of cats (families) because they score a lot of points at the end of the game. Oshaks are wild cats and you can choose the color. Finally, there are treasures, they help you fill your boat. Rare treasures are also worth points at the end of the game. Discoveries are always drawn next to each other, and the first discovery you draw can be anywhere. Lesson cards show different scoring conditions. If you choose a lesson card, you can check that specific lesson on your lesson sheet to activate this scoring condition at the end of the game. Each player has a slightly different boat layout with treasure cards and rats. Treasure cards allow you to get treasures if they are covered by a cat of the correct color, and rats score negative points at the end of the game if they are still not covered. You can also activate special abilities as listed on the boat sheet, but only once per round and only 3 in the entire game. After round 7, you tally up your points and the player with the most points is declared the winner! IMPRESSION Originally released in 2019, Cat Island was a huge success on Kickstarter (8,168 backers contributed £467,847), while the new campaign also provided more expansions for fans. With everyone staying at home more the past few years, Frank West, the designer, decided that a remote edition of Isle of Cats would be a good way to let players enjoy Isle of Cats. Since players also really liked this Print-and-Play Flip-and-Write variant of Isle of Cats, City of Games decided to release it in 2022. So let me start by saying that I absolutely love Cat Island. I've played it quite a bit since its release, and I've introduced a lot of people to it because of its approachable theme and simplistic rules. I also love Roll-and-Write games, so I was eager to try this new option. Explore & Draw does a really good job of keeping the feel of the original. Filling a boat and taking classes is a satisfying combination of mechanics. Instead of drafting cards with opponents, it has an interesting card selection mechanism that offers players equally challenging decisions. It does all this in a much smaller package, and setup time is also greatly reduced. Since most of the placement rules are similar to its big brother, you can also start playing even faster if you are already familiar with them. The addition of special abilities (which have limited availability each round and game) adds another layer of decision-making to the game to make it a little more interesting. The graphics are mostly reused from the original game, and that's a good thing, as they look great and vibrant. The quality of the cards, erasable fields and included markers is also fantastic. Once again, City of Games has released a perfect game. The question is, do I need both games in my collection? Both will remain in my collection for now as they serve different purposes. Explore & Draw as an extra game or after a long day at work. While the Original Game is more of a Main Event game, it has a lot more to offer, especially if you add expansions. PROS OF THE GAME It conveys the feeling of the original game in a much smaller form There are many strategies to try The order in which the cards come out makes the game different every time you play Beautiful production with high quality components CONS OF THE GAME Still need some desk space (for card grid) No interaction with players ..

REVIEW Life in the forest is a lot of fun, at least while the sun is shining and the leaves are on the trees. However, these days do not last forever, and long before the weather begins to change, the wise animals begin to harvest for the long, cold winter. You will be spending many months huddled in your hole, and you want to make it as cozy as possible. A nice bowl of soup, a comfortable rocking chair, toys and games will help the dark winter days pass quickly. In Creature Comforts, you spend the spring, summer, and fall gathering various goods from the forest and spending them on items that will make your home more inviting while the world outside is covered in a layer of snow. Each round you send family members to different locations to get supplies. If they fall short of their goal, they will learn a lesson and be better prepared next time. The family that created the most comfortable den wins. GAME PROCESS A game of Creature Comforts lasts for 8 rounds (or months) and you go through 3 seasons: Spring, Summer and Fall. At the beginning of the round, a new Traveler opens. You can visit the Traveler by placing one of your workers there to perform a powerful action only available this round. After that, all players roll their dice from two families (of their player's color) and they can send their workers to different locations on the main board. When everyone has finished, the current starting player rolls a family die (4 white dice). Now the players take turns distributing all the dice (4 white dice + 2 family dice) to their workers. Some jobs require certain values or sequences to activate. If they have fully met the requirements for the cube, they can take a work action and return it to their personal tablet. Workers that cannot be activated give you a Lesson Learned token that can be used on your next turn to increase or decrease the value of the die. Worker actions include upgrading buildings, gathering/converting resources, visiting a traveler, and gaining new comfort cards. At the end of their turn, players can craft comfort goods from their comfort cards by paying the required resources. When all players have finished, the next round begins. If it was the last player of the fall month, go to the final score. IMPRESSION  Creature Comforts is one of those games that immediately catches your eye with its beautiful design. As soon as I saw it, I immediately wondered if the gameplay and mechanics were as interesting as the look of the game. Because of this, I ignored Creature Comforts for a while because I thought it lacked depth. After trying it out at a local meet my opinion changed, let me tell you why. The point of Creature Comforts is really quite simple. You place workers in different locations, collect resources and create comfort cards to earn points. However, what makes Create Comforts unique is how you activate these workers. You need to have the necessary dice to activate and this will push your luck a bit. Do you choose a place that gives more resources but with stricter requirements, or do you play it safe? Since you've only rolled your family dice (2 out of 6) when assigning workers, you'll never be 100% sure you'll be able to activate everything you want. Fortunately, if you fail to activate a worker, you are compensated in the form of a lesson learned token. Activating workers, changing the traveler each round (and triggering some special rules for that round), and changing worker locations in the forest and valley add a lot of weight to decision making. It gives the game more depth than I originally expected. Apart from the unique activation of the worker, there is not much innovation in the game. Actions can also feel pretty repetitive, as they usually involve one of three things: getting resources, converting resources, or getting cards. With two players, we sometimes had a hard time finding the right cards in the deck. Although there are duplicates in the deck, sometimes this allowed us to miss a better opportunity to get points. I also found the scoring mechanics on comfort maps to be pretty boring (matching cards or placing resources on them) and I think with a bit of effort it could have added more strategy to the game. There has already been a lot of discussion about the length of the Creature Comforts game. If playing with experienced gamers I don't think it's a problem, if you're playing with kids they might lose focus until it's their turn. While I'm probably not part of the primary target audience for Create Comforts, I still enjoyed my batches. I think the game will stay in my collection for quiet night play or use as a starter game to introduce new players of all backgrounds to the hobby. PROS OF THE GAME Looks great on the table The theme and design make it an accessible family game An interesting worker activation that adds a push your luck element It has more depth than you might think CONS OF THE GAME Actions may be repeated Cooldown cards could have more interesting scoring options In a two-player game, you sometimes don't get the right cards If you play with adults, the length of the game is normal, children may lose concentration due to the long playing time (there is a shorter version) ..