In Keep The Heroes Out, like many other co-op games, you have to put out the fires all over the field until they spread and your brave heroes come to an end. However, in this case, you are the arsonist (if you are playing a certain monster), and the heroes are your enemies who are trying to clear your treasury. Keep The Heroes Out is a deckbuilder in which you play mainly with a starting deck of 10 cards; adding more than 1-2 new cards to the deck is a rarity. And only representatives of the lower races need it; with real monsters (like a dragon) the deck works great from the start. GAME PROCESS Your monsters roam the dungeon, attack heroes, set traps, create items in certain rooms, and move those items to other rooms to exchange them for new cards and improve your deck.  After each turn of the monster clan (the faction controlled by the player), 2, 4 or 6 heroes are dropped into the dungeon rooms, depending on the difficulty level. They activate their abilities, move to rooms with chests and rummage through them. If the heroes surround your main treasury, then you lose. Basically, heroes are wandering snacks that you need to eat (eliminate) between rounds. If they are allowed to accumulate, the situation will get out of control. The more heroes, the more dangerous they are, as freshly fired heroes activate already exhausted (like) heroes, and a snowball occurs. Each room of the dungeon has a small treasure chest that the heroes can get lost in (unless you breathe fire on them) if there are enough of them. When they are dissected, negative events are activated, the effects of which vary from "it doesn't matter" to "if you don't have a dragon, you've lost." Players must optimally manage their actions. Which is better: move and attack the hero? Summon new monsters? Spend 4-5 action cards and add a new card to the deck, but lose the game (because you're not playing a dragon)? You will have to make difficult decisions (including when choosing monster clans). Each turn you can risk and take 3 additional cards into your hand (a standard hand consists of 5 cards). If you are lucky, there are no consequences. If you're unlucky, you'll either get hurt a little (if things go well) or lose the game (if things don't go well). PROS OF THE GAME — Every turn you have to solve a new puzzle, and it's great. You usually draw 8 cards per turn + some effects allow you to draw additional cards. The moves are interesting, there is room for combinations and the feeling that you are a cool death machine (if you play as a dragon).  - The components are great. Meeples are not at all inferior to miniatures with their overproduction, only they are made of wood. They are big, strong and terribly cute. I like to touch them and look at them. Simply luxurious quality. — There are 10 types (clans) of monsters in the game, each with its own style of play, which is significantly different. There is a great variety of strategies, and it is interesting to find synergies between clans. - The game has 20 scenarios (plus alternate game modes), each with its own unique puzzle. This provides a lot of variety despite the non-random layout. CONS OF THE GAME - The game has good monsters (dragon) and bad monsters (most other clans). Weak and strong monsters can be taken in different combinations, and basically all of them can be played in all scenarios, but there are monsters that are always good and monsters that are always weak. Dragon is always the strongest monster with no options. Witches and slugs are always good too. Other monsters require more thoughtful planning and the arrival of certain cards. However, since the game is cooperative, perhaps the imbalance will not seem such a terrible disadvantage to you. - He rages at random times. The effects of opening treasure chests range from "nothing happens" to "you lose due to a chain reaction". Also, when you put heroes in prison, the result varies from "you got rid of one hero and got cards, yay" to "you're probably going to lose now." — The snowball effect works both against you and for you. If you're successful, you can afford to spend actions on deck upgrades and trap spam. Traps eliminate newly arrived heroes and free up your actions to spend on improving your deck... and so on. If things are not going well, then the heroes accumulate, activate each other and loot chests. When you rush ahead, sometimes you don't even have anything to do - there are extra cards in your hand. - Moves are long. You have 5 cards, you almost always draw another 3. A total of 8 cards with 8 to 24 actions. For example, a dragon with a single potion will regularly draw 10+ cards, just like a monster queen. You will also spend a lot of time discussing plans. Downtime is great; This is the cost of moves with many combinations. Ambiguous — You will have to constantly count how many and which cards are left in the guild deck. The deck contains 4 cards for each of the hero classes—one room for each species—plus special cards unique to the scenario. At first there is complete randomness, but what follows is easier to guess what awaits you next. This information plays a key role; for example, "now you can safely throw heroes in prison, there are no mages left in the deck" or "these rooms no longer need to be defended: there are enough traps to kill the remaining heroes in the deck who sleep in these rooms." — The gameplay is somewhat monotonous. After a few rounds, you'll find yourself doing the same thing all the time, only slightly changing your strategy depending on the current scenario. Apparently, the potential of the game was not fully realized, but in general the gameplay is quite good. — The rules are not quite clearly laid out, which is clearly evident when you try to find an answer in the rule book, how to act in an ambiguous situation. Fortunately, the game is quite simple and such situations rarely arise. CONCLUSIONS  Keep The Heroes Out is a fan game, period. Is it worth trying it out? In my opinion, yes. After all, you will be able to play as a dragon and... why play as someone else but a dragon? The game is clearly not polished. Situations when you have nothing else to do and situations where you don't have enough actions to buy even one additional card are equally unpleasant. The only function of dungeon tiles is to generate you resources and exchange those resources for cards, which isn't very thematic. Some monster clans are very difficult to play effectively. In general, the game was a little underdeveloped, which is a pity; the result could be an even cooler cooperative. Either way, Keep The Heroes Out has enough content, combos, difficulty levels, etc. to make the game worth the money. She is a fan - and it is worth trying. I'll give her an 8.5/10...

TRAILS OF TUCANA BOARD GAME REVIEW  In Trails of Tucana, each player is given a map sheet that shows villages, landmarks, and different types of terrain. The goal is to connect as many villages and sights as possible. To begin, you take a cooking card. This map shows where the villages are located on the map. The first player draws a red letter in village 1 and then draws clockwise. So that each player has a different map configuration, each subsequent player draws the first letter one village further. Each turn you always take 2 cards from the pile. These cards show the types of terrain. Now all players can simultaneously draw a route from one type of terrain to another. Routes can be drawn anywhere and they do not have to be adjacent. If you associate a landmark with a village, you can circle it on the right side of the sheet. If you cross the 2nd landmark, you can immediately draw a route of your choice. The first round ends when only 1 card remains in the deck. At the end of each round, the landmark symbols are added up. You get points for the corresponding round. Thus, for each point of interest circled in 1 round, you get more points. At the end of the 2nd round, you add up again all points of landmarks and points of connected villages. If you are the first to connect two villages with the same letters, you will also receive bonus points. The one with the most points at the end wins! There are 2 options: Isla Petit and Isla Grande. The only difference is that Isla Grande is bigger and is played in 3 rounds. There are also 3 landmarks of each type instead of 2. Isla Grande takes a bit longer to play. IMPRESSION Trails of Tucana is a short but very interesting game. You can start playing very quickly because the rules are clear and simple. The theme is very fun and so is the feel of the game. If you like to build networks, this is definitely an interesting addition to the collection. Don't expect this to be a huge game with tons of options, but it's fun and compact to take on vacation. A perfect addition to your roll/flip&write collection that adds a bit more depth than the likes of Qwixx. We think it's a very fun and entertaining game, but you definitely shouldn't expect miracles. Trails of Tucana is a good game, but it won't blow your mind. Various maps and variants have been added to increase the replayability of the game, but it always remains the same in its fundamentals. You always connect 2 villages and sights. The game doesn't really offer any other strategies that you can follow. If you like variety in games, this might be disappointing. Trails of Tucana is partly based on luck. The cards you draw are random, but you can keep track of how many cards of a certain terrain type have been drawn. This allows you to tactically connect certain terrain and take into account what types of terrain are still ahead. We usually don't, as we often just play a simple game. But if you want to win, this is definitely the way to beat your opponent! There is a fine balance between luck and insight. You have to think carefully about where you place routes, but it's not a very competitive game, so it's fun for all types of parties. When we first played Trails of Tucana, we had to get used to the game. Having played it several times, we can say that we find it a very good roll&write. It's not our favorite game right away, but it still makes it to the table regularly. We personally contacted Ticket to Ride. Both games keep you busy with networks and routes. Farfetched of course, but who knows, you might enjoy Trails of Tucana if you're a big fan of Ticket to Ride! If you're looking for a simpler flip and draw feature and love to build networks, this game is definitely for you. GAME FOR TWO  Trails of Tucana, like many other roll&writes, is fun with 2 players. There is almost no interaction in this game, but because it is so simple, you can communicate with each other a lot. We haven't played it with multiple players yet, but you can imagine it's pretty fun too. In this respect, Trails of Tucana is a bit like Welcome To. Even if you play with more players, the game won't last long...

ONE NIGHT ULTIMATE WEREWOLF BOARD GAME REVIEW IS THIS A GAME AT ALL? This is the question we asked ourselves when One Night Ultimate Werewolf was first laid out on the table. Each of us was given a card that told us what roles we would play in a small village where werewolves are being hunted. We closed our eyes and listened to the very clear instructions that the free app gave us. Some of us, unbeknownst to others, fiddled with the cards according to the instructions. At this the night phase passed and day began, but we still remained in the dark.  What were we to do now? The goal was clear to all of us: we had five minutes to find and hang one of the two werewolves in our midst. Success will win all non-werewolf players, while failure will win werewolves. But how can we find players with werewolf cards? How could we possibly know our own cards after possibly messing with them? We were all familiar with games like The Resistance: Avalon, but there you knew exactly what your role was and could watch other players' actions to draw conclusions. We had nothing to work with in this game. Did they have Carefully and gradually we began to piece together the puzzle last night. Player A revealed that she was a seer and actually saw the werewolf card with player C. Player B revealed that she was a troublemaker and that she replaced player C's card with player D's card. The case seemed clear, player D was now a werewolf and we needed all you had to do was vote for him to win. But then Player D stated that he had robbed Player C and left his card there, so if the cards were swapped, Player C should still have the werewolf card. Player C strongly denied this, admitting that he did start as a werewolf, but claiming , that player B also started as a werewolf, not a troublemaker. So she couldn't switch cards, and so player B and player D must now be werewolves. What seemed like a simple game of deduction turned into a blame game as people began to accuse each other of lying and only at the end did we learn the truth.  Our first game of One Night Ultimate Werewolf was immediately followed by another game, and another, and another. Let's take a look at what made this experience so exciting for us. LIMITED INFORMATION The goal of all good social games is to give players only bits of the truth and let them use their social and deductive skills to figure out the rest. In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, the only information you can be sure of is the map you started the game with, which could very well change during the first night phase of the game. If you accumulate information about all the players, you will have perfect information about the past events and the current state. Werewolves see each other. The henchman is a member of the werewolf team and find out who they are. Freemasons join the team of villagers and find out who they are. The Seer gains the ability to see one player's card (or two cards that do not belong to either player). The robber can exchange cards with another player and look at a new one. The troublemaker can switch cards between other players. The drunk changes the card without looking at it. The dreamer looks at his card after all the cards have been shuffled. To win, the goldsmith must die. A hunter, if killed, kills indicated on him at the end of the game. Lychyna assumes the role of another player. But will this information be ready to spread among the players? No. UNDEFINED COMMANDS A good mechanic of the social deduction game is that you have to cooperate with your team members, but not reveal yourself or your teammates to the other team. In One Night Ultimate Werewolf, there is a "good" team (villagers) and a "bad" team (werewolves), but since you don't know which team you belong to, you can't give all the information either. Instead, you should be careful about which teams are available and which you belong to. Give too much information and it can help your opposing team, but too little and it can alienate you from both teams. I've seen games where players openly share all the information they have just to prove that the werewolf card ended up in front of them. I've also seen games where players have waited until the very end to share that last piece of information that finally reveals the truth, only to be distrusted for staying silent for so long. INTERACTION One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a very interactive game. Whether your current situation allows you to speak up or remain silent, you will have to listen to what others are saying and connect to guide the arguments to the conclusion that you feel is right for yourself. VARIABILITY OF COOKING One Night Ultimate Werewolf has many roles that you can combine. This not only adds variety to the game, but also allows you to adjust the balance if one side wins more often than the other. TIME LIMITS A game of One Night Ultimate Werewolf only lasts ten minutes - five minutes for preparation and the night phase, and five minutes for the day phase. This means it's easy to play multiple times in a row, and while each session is distinct, there's a sense of progression throughout the session as players see patterns of interaction and carry over experiences from previous sessions to the next. While most social games shine with more players, One Night Ultimate Werewolf plays well with just three players. In my opinion, it's best with five to six players (less can feel repetitive when players are learning the group interaction pattern, more can feel too chaotic when arguing), but it definitely works with all players. APPLICATION While the app is optional in One Night Ultimate Werewolf, it makes the gameplay smoother by instructing players on what to do during the night phase and keeping track of the time limit during the day phase. This is a good example of applications that are used directly during games.  In a time when many games believe that bigger is better, One Night Ultimate Werewolf comes in an extremely small box that is easy to bring to a game night and get to the table, whether it's the main game or just an add-on. That said, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is certainly not a game for everyone. There are many reports of sessions where players simply never get past the first question about what they are supposed to do. Others don't like the fact that you have to lie to succeed, or that you just have to name the least trustworthy player at the end. One Night Ultimate Werewolf is also not a game for the controlling player. You can't control what role you get at the beginning and what happens to it afterwards. Victory comes not through skillful use of one's own resources, but through reading and persuading other players. Finally, One Night Ultimate Werewolf may even be too fast for some players. Unlike a game like The Resistance: Avalon, where the story unfolds gradually over several rounds where you can employ various strategic maneuvers to achieve your goal, One Night Ultimate Werewolf only gives you one short round to do what give you many other games. an hour or more. CONCLUSIONS One Night Ultimate Werewolf isn't the deepest social game you can play. Hidden information can only be revealed through social interaction, not player actions, and the game needs the right group to shine. However, if you have a gaming group, preferably made up of long-time friends you know well, who know how to lie during the game and then laugh about it, One Night Ultimate Werewolf should be brought along for every game night...

ORIFLAМME BOARD GAME REVIEW 3-5 players 15-30 minutes Designers: Adrian and Axel Esling Artist: Tomasz Jedrushek Publisher: Studio H Publisher in Ukraine Geekach Games The game is played during 6 rounds, each of which consists of 2 phases: During the programming phase, players choose a card from their hand and place it face down on the table. Cards can be played to the left or right of the row, but not between them. You can also place a card on top of one of the previously played cards. Once each player has placed a card, the resolution phase begins. For each card, starting with the first in a row, the owner decides whether he wants to reveal it or not. If he leaves a card face down, he puts one effect on it. When he reveals a card, he gains all influence on it and applies the effect. If the card is already open from the previous round, applying the effect is also mandatory.  Oriflame caught my attention by winning the prestigious French As d'Or last year. The extensive use of text on the cards put me off as this is a typical entry-level game that I would mostly play with my kids, so I'm very glad that Geekach Games decided to publish a Ukrainian version of this game. The game certainly relies on card effects, and they seem very well balanced: some cards will have more benefits if played early in the game, others should be kept hidden for as long as possible. For more experienced players, this game may seem too chaotic, as some cards may be removed before you can even activate them. Being able to play on top of previously played cards certainly adds an extra dimension, with hidden cards protected but also not activated. There's definitely plenty of opportunity for replayability, as you'll get a different 7-card combination from a 10-card deck each time.  Oriflame is definitely a good game for me and I really enjoyed playing it. It is also very portable and I can see it accompanying us on our future travels...

COBRA PAW BOARD GAME REVIEW  Cobra Paw is a tile grabbing skill game from Bananagrams that pits 2 to 6 opponents against each other in a tile grabbing frenzy. Each turn, two dice are rolled, and these dice determine which tile the players try to capture. The player who captured that tile becomes the next player to roll the dice, and so on until one player has collected a certain number of chips. COMPONENTS AND PREPARATION FOR THE GAME  Cobra Paw is packaged in an attractive orange box decorated with a ninja cat on the cover. Open the box and you'll find 21 double-sided tiles along with two large black cubes. This is it. Dice and tiles are covered with 6 unique symbols. All of these components are large, polished, and have a nice weight to them.  Preparation for the game is simple. Just turn the box upside down and dump everything on the table (make sure the tiles are face up and no tiles are on top of another), choose the first player and you're ready to play! TILES AND GAMEPLAY Cobra Paw is a very simple game. Each tile has two symbols that correspond to the symbols printed on the two dice. When rolling the dice, two symbols will be shown and players will try to be the first to place their fingertip on the tile that matches those symbols. The one who succeeds first takes the tile and places it on the table in front of him. Note that it is possible to steal chips from other people, so each player must protect what they have already collected!  The game continues until one player has collected the agreed number of tiles. The game offers 6 tiles for 3 to 6 player play and 8 tiles for two player play. Obviously, this can be changed if you want the game to last a little longer or last a little less. IMPRESSION As my friends and I walked around Gen Con, we must have passed the Bananagrams booth a hundred times. My eyes were on heavy Euros – deep, brain-burning games that took hours to play. It didn't even occur to me to stop and demonstrate some stupid party game. I thought silly single party games were beneath me. I wanted a game with real meat…something I could sink my teeth into. But, Cobra Paw caught my attention. We really liked the game. It plays lightning fast, and it's just a lot of fun. It's great when you're the first to touch the right tile, and it's exciting to watch your collection grow and shrink as everyone competes for victory. The game is designed so that when there are a lot of chips at the beginning of the game, they are fairly evenly distributed and everyone has the same number of chips. However, as this large pool gets smaller and smaller, things start to get really crazy and silly as people try to steal tiles from each other.  Cobra Paw is an extremely simple, fun game. So it doesn't have a lot of depth, and that's okay. Not every game should burn your brain. It annoys me when a game pretends to be something difficult, but turns out to be pure fluff. Cobra Paw is exactly what it says it is. There is no pretense here. I really enjoy playing this game and I can't think of a single negative thing about it. I also seem to have supernatural acting skills. Out of the 9 games I played, I won every game...

BOARD GAME REVIEW NO THANKS! In the game "No Thanks!" players try not to draw cards from the center of the table, paying for the privilege by placing one of their 11 starting chips next to the card. During a table game, chips accumulate until one player decides to take a card (and all chips) or is forced to take a card because they are out of chips.  "No Thanks!" contains a deck of 33 cards numbered from 3 to 35 and 55 game chips. PREPARATION FOR THE GAME To prepare "No Thanks!" , deal 11 chips to each player and return the remaining chips to the box. Shuffle the cards and draw 9 cards at random by placing them in the box without looking at them. GAME PROCESS In "No Thanks!" the first player reveals the top card of the deck. After that, the player must choose whether to place the card in front of him or place the chip next to the card and pass it; "No, thank you." Play then proceeds clockwise to the next player, who must make the same choice: pass or take. Continue like this until one player takes the card in the middle (along with all the chips), either by choice or because they are out of chips. The player who takes the card will also be the player who turns over the next card in the next round with the same set of decisions. Play continues in this manner until the last card is turned over and taken. RECEIVING THE CARD IN NO THANKS! Taking a card in "No Thanks!", the player places this card face down in front of him, a little further away from the other cards. At the end of the game, each individual card is worth as many points as the face value of that card. Cards grouped together in a continuous numerical sequence are worth the value of the youngest card in the sequence. In the following example, only 19 will be worth points at the end of the game.  Gaps between individual cards (and even grouped cards) count as a space and will cause the lowest card in each group to score a point. In the following example, both 19 and 23 will count against the player.  A great strategy is to do your best to take cards that are already only 1 or 2 different from your other card. Then try to combine them together with another card. A player with this configuration of cards risks but can also be rewarded if he secures 21, 22 and/or 24.  Any chips left in front of you at the end of the game are deducted from your score, so do your best to have plenty of chips as the game draws to a close. The player with the fewest points at the end of the game is the winner. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE GAME  "No Thanks!" , simply put, a fun game. I like No Thanks! because it's fast-paced, has a moderate amount of strategy mixed with a bit of luck and uncertainty, and is extremely easy to learn. Bonus points for so few components and portability. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE The only thing I don't like about No Thanks! is the box. It comes in a standard two piece box that doesn't close very well for my copy. This forces me to put a rubber band on the box to keep it closed. This does not affect the game process and is a purely cosmetic nitpick. CONCLUSION In my opinion, the trifecta of criteria for small box card games is: Easy to teach Plays fast A lot of fun When you get a card game that has these 3 aspects, you are sure to have a winning game in your collection. And that's what "No Thanks!" is a winner!..

LINKO BOARD GAME REVIEW!  Linko! is another interesting card game that I think all fans of the genre should try if they get the chance. I'm not surprised to see Kiesling and Kramer's names associated with this game, but I am amazed at how diverse their design portfolios are. I've tried 4 of their creations in the last 18 months, which is pure coincidence, but I've enjoyed getting to know these designers' games. Linko! has been around since 2014 and I would consider it an almost unknown gem. It was originally released as Abluxxen I learned that the word is made up, but it is roughly derived from the German word Abluchsen, which means to take away, rob or steal. Add a picture of a lynx and realize that luchs is German for lynx and you have Abluxxen (I prefer the name Linko!... much more). Anyway... language lesson over. Ignoring all that Linko! it's a fairly easy-to-explain card game that has plenty of options and room for tricky moves. COMPONENTS Like many other great card games, all you need is Linko! it's a set of cards and some rules. Cards – there are only 110 cards in the game. Almost all (109) are used in the game, and one special card is used to keep track of whose turn it is...but we never use it because it's unnecessary. The deck itself consists of value cards and 5 jokers (X). Cards with denominations vary from 1 to 13, and there are 8 such sets in the game. Each value has its own color, mostly pastel. The meanings are clearly printed in each corner, and in the center is a nice image of a cartoon bobcat, smiling slyly at you the whole time. The colors do not affect the game, it all depends on the numbers. The 5 Jokers are very simple looking, consisting of an "X" and are grey/black to stand out against the rainbow that is the rest of the deck. All value cards feature a paw print on the reverse to emphasize the loose theme. Linko! The card (used to keep track of whose turn it is) has bright paw prints on the background. I'll say it again... we leave it in the box. Standard format cards, the only downside is the lack of a matte/linen coating. In my opinion, in a game like this (generally just cards) this should be standard. I wonder if there is such decoration in the German editions? Considering the game is otherwise language independent, I'd pay for the German edition to get that level of quality.  Rules - The rules are very clear and offer good illustrated examples to clarify key points, which I found very helpful. Although this is one of those games where the rules still require a bit of reading to fully understand (since there are a few twists and turns in the game), once you play it they immediately make sense. The rules also include a simple and very useful flowchart on the back cover that describes what happens when you perform a Heist.  Overall the quality of the components is good but not great due to the lack of high quality card finishing. Considering Ravensburger published the game, I'm a little disappointed as they are usually better than most at production. PREPARATION The game will be ready to play in about 30 seconds. Shuffle the deck, deal 13 cards to each player and reveal another 6 cards face up to form a market. Select the first player in any convenient way and the game is ready to begin. GAME PROCESS Play Linko! actually very simple. How best to play the game and what card(s) to play each turn is where the real fun and intrigue is to be found. The goal is Linko's goal! is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards...easy! The only solution is that a player can play one or more cards from his hand during a turn, but he can only play cards of the same value. Thus, a player could play one 6 or five 6s if there were any. A player may also play multiple cards of the same value that are less than the total they have. For example, a player may have five 6s, but decided to play only 3 of them. Card colors have nothing to do with the game. It is only intended to make the game more attractive and to help players recognize the cards on the table. Placement of cards - when a player plays cards from his hand, he places them in front of him in the shape of a fan so that it is clear how many cards of that denomination there are. If a player already has cards in play, the new card(s) should be placed on top of the last cards played, but not completely covering the previous cards. It is important for all players to know which cards are on top of a player's pile and also to know what is below them. The image below is a good example.  Steal Draw – So far the game has seemed pretty random depending on what you're dealt, but now we've moved on to Steal. If a player is able to play the same number of cards as the cards drawn in the stack of one or more players, and the value of the cards drawn is greater than that of others, it means that the player must make a "Steal"! Example. If a player plays three 7s, he must "Steal" from any other player who has exactly three cards on top of his draw pile of 1-6. The active player must make a decision (indicated below), but after that their turn ends and play moves to the next player in clockwise order. The active player will reduce the number of cards in his hand and thus move towards his ultimate goal of getting rid of all the cards. Take it or leave it? Executing a Steal – When the active player initiates a Steal, they must first decide if they want those cards. If a player wants these cards, they can take them from the corresponding player and add them to their hand. In fact, a player can "Draw" cards from multiple players in one turn if they meet the conditions, but players make each decision on whether or not to take cards in a clockwise order. Now an obvious question arises: - "What? Hey, dumbass... you're trying to get rid of all your cards, remember?!' - It's true, it's true... everything will soon become clear. Consequences of "Theft" - of course, if the active player takes cards, they are added to his hand. In addition, the stolen player must then return to his hand the number of cards that were "stolen". These cards can be taken from the open row or draw deck in any combination. The only restriction is that any cards taken face up are not replaced until the end of the active player's turn. Now, if the active player doesn't want to take player cards that he could have taken, they are still considered "stolen" and the player owning those cards has two choices. He can a) poison them to reset and then draw that many cards again, or b) he can take them back into his hand, meaning they can be played again later. However, in any of the 3 outcomes, the reality of performing a Steal is that the Stealed player will end up with the same number of cards in hand as they had before their last turn. In other words, they did not advance further. Using Jokers – There are only 5 Jokers in the deck and they are quite handy. First they play like most games, add them to a deck of cards and they take on the same value. But if a player plays wilds by themselves, they are considered the highest value card on the table, meaning they have the potential to "Crush" even a 13-value set that otherwise cannot be "Crushed"!  End of round\game and scoring - that's it Linko! is played when each player places one or more cards on the table each turn, potentially triggering a "Stealing", and then the players follow the consequences. Round of Linko! can end with someone starting a turn that leaves a player with no cards in their hand, or it can end when there are no more cards left in the draw pile or in the market (in case of confusion, both must be used). However, the duration of the game Linko! can be determined by the players. One game - win - the game can be played at a very simple level. As soon as someone exits, they simply win the game and no points need to be scored. You can play the next game or fold the game. I imagine there will be some tension if several players reduce their hand to 5-6 cards or less. One game per player (scored) - Alternatively, the game can be played over a number of rounds equal to the number of players, with each player being the first player once. At the end of each round, players tally up their points, which is very easy to do. All players earn 1 point for each card they had on the table in front of them. All players must then deduct 1 point for each card remaining in their hands. Of course, the player who exited will not have negative points. The values of the cards do not play a role in the actual scoring. At the end of the last round, the player with the most points wins. I prefer the second playthrough more because it makes Stealing even more important (reduces points in front of opposing players) and the game can ebb and flow in scoring throughout the game. CONCLUSIONS For all the reasons already given, I think that Linko! this is another great card game that people should know about and I'm very happy to have it in my collection. It's relatively quick to play, with an accurate time-to-fun ratio, and can be played in a one-and-done or scoring format. For me, the only way to play is with points and if I want something faster, I'll reach for Fuji Flush or LAMA instead (although I think this game is better than both). But really the appeal of this game is the moves you can make, there are more than meets the eye, and this means you can keep exploring strategies within it. I also think the game is very accessible, able to appeal to gamers, but is also good for families and will probably be a favorite for years to come. I think it's best to play 3-4 (especially when scoring, as 5 rounds can be one round too many). The game for two does not look dynamic enough...

 Trick games are probably the best "classic" card games in my opinion because of the combination of luck, strategy, and bluffing that occurs when playing with other people. It gets even better when you add bets, because trying to hit a certain target number of tricks (or - even harder - no tricks at all) dramatically increases the strategy. It's a complex mix of elements that's hard to replicate in a single-player game because trick-or-treating games thrive on player interaction. For Northwood! so clever because it turns everything into a puzzle.  During the preparation of the game, you arrange 8 fiefdoms in a row. The object of the game is to convince each possession to ally with you through skillful diplomacy (by winning the required amount of bribes for that possession). Instead of forcibly conquering kingdoms through violent expansion or threats, you engage in diplomatic conversation (cards of the same suit are called "conversation cards") to peacefully unite the land of Northwood. Can we have more designs dedicated to peaceful discussion of our problems rather than criticism? Let's go back to mechanics. The target number of bribes depends on the location of the fiefdom in the row. The goal for the leftmost possession is 0 bribes, while the rightmost possession is 7. Now here's what makes sense: - After setting up the game (and between each "round") you draw a hand of 8 cards. After checking your cards, you decide which estate to visit. There is no set order. And since each fiefdom has a separate trump suit, you can prioritize which one has the best chance of winning. You can only visit each fiefdom once, and if you don't reach your target number by the end of the round, they will become hostile and impossible to defeat again.  I'm visiting the King of Eyes and have to win 1 trick with this card combination - I think it's possible! - Feudal rule each bribe by playing the top card of the deck and you must respond (following the standard bribery rules). There's a lot of luck involved in this, so there are a number of luck mitigation abilities available to you. You have 4 allies with one-shot abilities each round that range from changing the composition of your hand to reordering the top cards of the deck to canceling tricks won. And once you win fiefdoms, their ability becomes available to use once, so your skill set expands as you progress.  I can't win a single trick against the King of Flowers, so I brought in the Queen of Leaves and the Queen of Eyes, two friends I made earlier, to help! - Because you can choose the order in which to visit each fiefdom, you can find strategic allies to help mitigate the unique challenges of a particular fiefdom. Taking 0 bribes is hard, but maybe if you have the option to return the winnings, it will be a little more real... - Finally, even if you lose a few fiefdoms, you can still win! This is because in order to win, you must win 3 possessions that have stars under them (each possession gets a random location card, 3 of which have stars). You won't find out until the end, but there is an incentive to keep playing until the end, since you can theoretically only win by winning 3 of the 8 fiefdoms. I've played a few times and I think there are actually too many ways to mitigate luck, but luckily for me there are two additional levels of difficulty that I haven't tried yet! I'm really impressed - which is probably pretty clear from this post. For Northwood! does a fantastic job of capturing the aspects of luck, strategy, and betting in bribery games. Bluffing - not so much, but who would you bluff against...yourself?..

 I played a few games of Napoleon vs. Europe (NaE), a strategy wargame spanning the entire period of the Napoleonic Wars. At the heart of it is a card engine; Most of the actions you take are related to cards. Of the wargames dedicated to this period, I had to play The Napoleonic Wars and Wellington (a card engine wargame from GMT Games). They didn't leave a particularly bright impression, because both games adhere to the real story quite strictly and do not generate such a tense atmosphere as other wargames on the card engine such as Hannibal, Paths of Glory and Crusade and Revolution. After looking at the box, the map of Europe, and some of the cards, I decided to buy Napoleon against Europe in the hope that the game would have about the same experience as the old Napoleonic wargames I played a long time ago (Empires in Arms and War and Peace by Avalon Hill) - only without the need to look for a bunch of fanatical players who are ready to play for several months. Napoleon against Europe is a purely card-based wargame with somewhat simple but very interesting mechanics of sea battles, diplomacy, economics and logistics, as well as large-scale land campaigns involving army movements, battles, sieges, pursuits... Although I have limited experience playing NaE, I will try to describe the game mechanics, their pros and cons.  The action begins in 1805, when the French army stands near the English Channel, and French ships are in their ports. They are opposed by the ubiquitous British fleet and England's continental allies: Austria nearby, Russia in the distance. Each game move is one year (up to 1815); there are 11 moves in total. Each turn consists of a preparation phase and 6 rounds (however, due to event cards, their number can be reduced to 5 or increased to 7 if there is a winter campaign), in each of which participants take turns playing, as a rule, one or more cards . The French are always the first to go. The game has two separate decks for the Allies (called the Coalition) and for the French Empire. Both have 55 cards, which are divided into two stages: the first is Epic, the second is Punishments. There are also two counters in the game that play a very important role, marking the SP - victory points (roughly like in Paths of Glory), and the level of escalation (roughly like the level of mobilization of the country (War Commitment) or the state of war (State of War) in Paths of Glory). When the escalation reaches the 15 mark, both decks are shuffled with Punishments cards. The game ends with the French winning if they score 20 or more programs, or the coalition winning if the French have 0 or less programs. If neither side has fulfilled the victory condition by 1815, the winner is whoever controls key areas of France. Let's go to the components and gameplay:  1) Maps (on which the game engine is built) with a cost of 1, 2 or 3. More reminiscent of For the People (GMT's excellent US Civil War strategy wargame) than Paths of Glory. As a rule, the maps of the first stage bring more benefit to the French, and the second stage - to the coalition. Thanks to this, the French can try to drag out the "agony" until the final, if they did not manage to win an automatic victory in the midgame. The number of cards received by both sides is not fixed, but depends on the number of controlled key points, the number of states attacked or conquered by France, and events. A total of 6 to 10 cards. The cards look great, the text is easy to read, there is even a special yellow star in the title of the cards that are removed from the game after the draw. The only thing is that the numbers in the British flag on the coalition maps are not very visible. Among the effects on the cards there are some very interesting ones that you will have to puzzle over - whether to play them out as a historical event that can greatly alleviate what seems to be an almost hopeless situation (or a situation in which you would have to take rather absurd actions to solve, as in many other Napoleonic ). games), or as glasses. On the other hand, there are also pointless or worse, boring effects. More about them below.  There are also 4 cards that are constantly in play - one for each of the great powers. As in the best card wargames, there are a lot of different event cards: combat, political-diplomatic, economic, response measures, reinforcements, operational... Some cards have a double type - for example, a political event, aka reinforcements. On average, battle cards have less effect on the outcome of battles than in wargames like Crusade and Revolution and Paths of Glory, as they only decrease or increase by 1 the result of rolling two dice, not one. Great cards include Bayonne Trap and Madrid Uprising; both perfectly reflect the stupidity of the rulers of Spain and the anger of the people. Another great map is "Tilsit World": thanks to it, you can make peace with Russia without defeating it in battle, and establish a Continental Blockade. On the other hand, there are cards (fortunately not very numerous) with such complex and ambiguous wording that it is difficult to correctly interpret them in the first games. It is preferable that the players agree before the start of the game on a certain interpretation to avoid disputes. There are also cards that have little to do with history: for example, "Guerrillas" and "Cossacks", which in the game have almost no effect on French morale and the depletion of French strength. Another problematic card is the ever-present French card, Napoleon's Genius, which allows you to move a French army from Poland to Moscow or from Bayonne to Cadiz in one action, almost guaranteed to wipe out any opposing army. In reality, nothing like that happened. In general, the idea is interesting, but the implementation was disappointing. Many of the cards in Napoleon against Europe have questionable effects and are almost always played on points. Notably, French generals have a very low activation cost; You can move several for almost any card. Moving coalition armies because of the higher price of activation is a pain. There are very few campaign cards in the deck that allow you to move several generals at a time - like in Hannibal or For the People, which makes playing for a coalition quite difficult. Simple hand management is a bit frustrating. You just see what was drawn and act on the situation (a similar feeling was in The Napoleonic Wars and Wellington). It is necessary to think for a long time about what and when to act, I did not have it. Reserve some card for the upcoming turn (like Kemal in Paths of Glory, or in Crusade and Revolution, when you don't get a reinforcement card and you have to think hard). Figuratively speaking, many cards have no "soul", they are primitive. There are, of course, well-thought-out maps, but in general the game is not polished enough, unfortunately. 2) The map is elegantly designed, the regions resemble the monstrous map from Empires in Arms. The cardboard is thick and looks great. In the corner are the software, escalation, move and round counters. There are also boxes for each army, which contain corps, generals, depots and special units. All great powers except Spain have one army, France has two. One of them is called the Great Army. Regions on the map are of different colors; they reflect the presence of mountains, swamps, slums, forts, rivers, key points... There are also sea regions, ports and naval blockade boxes - one for each port. All names are in French. The map is arranged in such a way that the main campaigns will be played out quite historically. From the minuses, the coloring does not look too attractive. Some regions and army boxes are small and do not always contain all tokens. Poor regions (which have a higher attrition rate) are distributed somewhat oddly; yes, all of Spain and Russia are poor regions, although Russia and Ukraine seem to have very fertile soil. And Perpignan in France is a blooming garden, while nearby Girona is an Egyptian desert. 3) The rulebook seems to be perfectly structured: numbered paragraphs, large font, color illustrations, exceptions highlighted in red. But as you delve deeper into the book, so many flaws surface that many give up at this point. Also, the English translation from the original French version is poorly done (though the Spanish translation turned out excellent). In my opinion, most of the game's flaws are the result of a lack of proper testing and proofreading by players (not developers). Among the main shortcomings are the randomly scattered rules, which is worsened by the absence of an alphabetical indication, as well as errors in some explanatory examples. The main thing in the game are land campaigns (England quickly establishes complete control over the seas). The rules for army and corps movements are quite complicated, but when you get the hang of it, you will understand that some of these rules are just "water", and some rules are practically never applied. I should also note that the rules allow you to capture besieged cities - for example, Cadiz, Königsberg or Lisbon - in a round or at most two, although in real life sieges would last several turns and would not always end in success.  The game focuses on battles, as befits a good Napoleonic wargame. The outcome of battles depends on many modifiers (including cavalry advantage, soldier quality, terrain, demoralization, lack of supplies, general talent (here the French player has a big advantage)). True, numerical superiority does not play any role, even if 95,000 French are fighting 180,000 Coalition - which is obviously completely unrealistic. Trenches and redoubts dug/built before the battle (like the Russians at Borodino and the British at Torris Vedras) are also not taken into account. There is no place for tactics either, although it could be done roughly..

ABOUT THE GAME It's a modular dungeon crawler, somewhat similar to Massive Darkness 2. There are 3 types of custom dice (black, green, and pink from weakest to strongest) that are required to pass various skill checks (usually when you fight, solve a task, or dodge from attack). There is also a built-in "try your luck" mechanic: you decide how many dice to roll during a check, but more dice means not only an increased probability of success, but also an increased probability of trouble. The characters roam the field in search of the items they need to carry out their escape plan (a winning condition with varying objectives and a boss battle), encountering various enemies and traps along the way, and if they're unlucky, Batman himself (what a monster ). After collecting items, the characters move to a new map - from Arkham Hospital to the place of the final confrontation. In this map, they have to complete a series of difficult tasks to successfully escape, with a limited number of actions at their disposal. The one who gains the most bad fame (which is given for successfully completing the most actions) will be the winner in the event of a successful escape.  The first introduction to the game (learning the rules and training newbies) took a lot of time, but subsequent games in TTS (solo and 3 players) were faster: about 2-2.5 hours. They ended in the sixth round on average. PROS OF THE GAME  The characters are very thematic and interesting. A comparison with Marvel United is suggested, where there are many interesting villains in terms of mechanics, but most of the heroes are quite boring and primitive. Here, all 5 characters available in TTS (Joker, Two-Face, Bane, Harley Quinn and Scarecrow) are unique due to the presence of various skills that are issued for completing certain tasks. Sometimes it's very thematic when you do something that suits your character to get a new skill. Yes, the Joker will most likely act chaotically and often take risks, the Scarecrow - at the slightest opportunity to spray frightening gas even on those enemies who do not interfere with him, and Two-Face - to plan a move depending on which side of the tossed coin.  Batman is a dangerous and unique enemy. When it appears, it seems to you that you are losing now (sometimes it happens); he is not just another security guard, only with higher parameters. He moves in unpredictable ways and attacks you with various squirrels and gadgets (once when I was playing Scarecrow, I had Batman in a gas mask in my way...). The combat is quite dynamic and not too boring. I like that the game has several different kinds of dice, and the "try your luck" mechanic is cool, if not completely polished. AMBIGUOUS MOMENTS The final stage of the game is not very interesting; your options are too limited. Yes, in Aaron Cash's escape plan, you basically just move to the left and do everything listed on the card. You don't have to make decisions; just roll the dice 9 times and hope you get lucky. I'm sure the developers made the ending tense. You really feel like you have a cover in case of bad rolls. However, you have so little opportunity to influence anything that you are almost an outside observer. However, I must note that this is only one of many escape plans, and the simplest one at that, and the developers promised to address this problem. The chance tokens are also surprisingly balanced. When you roll dice to attack an enemy or solve a challenge, each additional black die also gives you a chance token, the in-game currency that can be used to turn one of the die's faces into a joker. During the game, we often accumulated mountains of these tokens, which made it very easy to solve the tasks that required them. You also get a chance token when you reach one of the divisions on the infamy meter, which can happen when you attack a jailer (rolling all the dice and getting 6 chance tokens) and win. Sort of a reward for defeating a strong enemy... More on infamy below. MINUS THE GAME The infamy mechanics are poorly worked out. Personally, I'm not against semi-cooperative games where the whole team wins, but there's only one winner. However, in the current version of the game, you gain fame for passing almost any check, and only lose it when you pass out. Depriving competitors of fame is impossible, only a few cards give additional fame, and everything related to fame is public information. The very idea of villains jostling at the very exit and betraying each other at the finish line and losing because of it is very thematic and looks cool, although not for everyone, of course. But in the current version of the game, playing as support characters is not very pleasant, since you yourself have to pass as many checks as possible to win. I strongly condemn such a winning condition; in my opinion, all styles of play should be viable. I'd hate to play Dark Harbor where the Plutovka of almost every party takes almost all the gold and is the only winner. So, if the current infamy mechanic doesn't change in the final version, then we will most likely be playing without it...