Who does not know Sagrada Familia? As a former art and design student, I always wanted to visit this amazing work of art and admire it from a different vantage point than just a computer monitor. With Sagrada, I feel like I managed to get at least a little closer to that. Sagrada is a small puzzle game where you as an artist compete with other artists to create the best stained glass window for the Sagrada Familia. I already liked the theme of the game and couldn't wait to play it. GAME OVERVIEW Preparing the Sagrada for the party is quite easy. Randomly deal each player a personal dale face card along with two stained glass template cards and one player square. Each player chooses one side of the stained glass card and places it inside the player space. Then give each player the same number of favor tokens as the difficulty number on the stained glass pattern card. Then place the circular track with the players' score markers in the center of the table. Also place three random tool cards and public objective cards face up on the table. Finally, place all the cubes in the bag. Now you are ready to create your stained glass window.  The game lasts ten rounds. At the beginning of each round, a player takes two dice for each player and one additional dice from the bag and rolls them. For two players, it will be, for example, five cubes. Then, moving clockwise, each player can choose three options. You can take one die from the table and place it on your stained glass window, you can pay to use a tool card. The tool cards can help you finish the stained glass window by, for example, changing the blocks. Note that if the card already has a service token, you must pay two tokens. Finally, you can do nothing. Each action is absolutely optional. If you don't see a die or card you can or want to use, simply pass the turn and the next player can take their turn. The first move will go clockwise starting with the player who took the dice, the second move of..

 Cubitos is a cube racing game by John D. Clare released in 2021. I recently had a chance to play it a few times and wanted to share my thoughts. GAME PROCESS In Cubitos , players start with nine basic dice (of two types) and roll the dice simultaneously, keeping any dice that show coins or feet. Players can then re-roll any blank faces, but risk burning if no new non-blank faces are rolled. If a player has less than three dice in his active zone from previous rolls and "rollovers", he is in the safe zone and is allowed to continue re-rolling until at least three dice are placed in his active zone. If a player loses, they will not be able to take actions in the current round, but they will be able to move one space up the fan track, which will yield coins and/or hand tokens that will allow players to roll additional dice each round. They have the added advantage of being able to put any dice from their roll zone (those rolled as blank results that round) into their discard zone. The other players' dice that failed must remain in their roll zone and will be rolled again in the next round. This allows players who are knocked out to cycle through their lower value dice and return the higher quality dice to the roll zone more quickly. After each player decides to stop or a player has lost, they enter the running phase together. Any player who rolled the sword symbols on their red dice compares the rolled swords and the winner gets the bonus but has to sacrifice the red die. Because of this, it is likely that different players will win this advantage in subsequent rounds. After matching the red dice, players simultaneously use their feet to move around the racetrack, possibly collecting power-ups depending on where they stopped, and use coins to buy new dice into their reset zone.  Each game has eight new types of dice that can be purchased. Each color of the die has seven cards with different abilities corresponding to it, and one of each is chosen..

ZOMBIE KIDZ GAME REVIEW In Zombie Kidz , players go to the scariest part of the cemetery to lock the gates and stop the zombie horde from spreading through the city. Work together to lock all the gates or destroy all the zombies in the graveyard to win. PREPARATION FOR THE GAME Preparing Zombie Kidz is very easy. Place the field in the center of the playing area. For a two-player game, use the side of the field with diagonal paths between the tombstones. For a 3-4 player game, use the side without diagonal paths. Place one zombie on each goal in the corners of the field, and place the remaining zombies within reach of all players. Place all 4 castle tokens on the side of the field. Have each player choose a character token and a plastic base, then place all of the character tokens on the red tombstone in the middle of the field. Select the first player and you are ready to go. GAME PROCESS The player's move consists of 4 possible actions, which are performed in the following order: PLACEMENT OF ZOMBIES At the beginning of his turn, the player must roll a die and determine if and where he will place the zombie. If the face of the die is black, red, blue, yellow, or green, place the zombie on the corresponding tombstone. If the face of the die is white, the players are lucky and no zombies are placed in that round.  Jeopardy : Any time a player should put a zombie on the field but can't, it's game over and the zombies have won. If placing a zombie causes the character token to take up the same amount of space as 3 zombies, then the zombies have won. MOVING Players can move along one path segment at a time. Players can also stay in their current location. The player could move from the red gravestone area to the green gravestone area in one move. If players use a board with diagonal paths, players can also move from a yellow tombstone to a green tombstone in one turn. If a tombstone is occupied by 3 or more zombies, players cannot..

REVIEW  1-4 players, 40 minutes  Designers: Aske Christiansen  Artist: Apollin Etienne  Publisher: Ludonaute  Publisher in Ukraine: Games7Days OUR HISTORY It's always interesting to know the winners of the Kennerspiel des Jahres and Spiel des Jahres, although the latter is awarded to lighter games that aren't always on our radar. Well, this year it was Living Forest that won the prestigious title of expert game of the year. Which, to be honest, was a bit surprising - considering its difficulty, Living Forest can't be classified as an expert game. But we've played this game quite a few times already and yes, we think it's really too easy for expert level. But we understood why she won the award and it was a great experience. Thematically, Living Forest is set in an enchanted forest (obviously) - the game is inspired by Japanese mythology, though I'm not entirely sure how much. Players embody spirits trying to save the forest from the threat of the Onibi, which in Japanese folklore is represented as a ghost that often appears as fire: that's why you always need to put out the fires that the Onibi lights. The design contributes to the thematic value of the game - the game looks extremely beautiful on the table, and the cards remind us of Medow (which is great). But that's where the similarities end, because we're dealing with completely different games. Living Forest has three win conditions: players must plant 12 different trees, collect 12 mystical flowers, or put out 12 fires. It's always the same number - 12. And that's great - it means we're dealing with a game that's very well balanced, but most importantly, it accurately defines the game's duration at around 45 minutes, which is perfect for this level of difficulty .  So, we already mentioned how balanced this game is - and it's true. No matter which path you choose, you have the same chance of winning if you play it right. Well, that's to be expected from a good..

ABOUT THE GAME In the game The Isle of Cats, you sail your ship to an amazing island. There have been rumors of an island full of beautiful cats for some time now. The rumors are true! Unfortunately, the island is in danger. Vesh Darkhand's army is on its way to destroy the island. Fortunately, you arrived on the island in time and can try to save as many cats as possible! The goal of The Isle of Cats is to rescue and collect as many cats as possible on your ship. In addition, you also collect as many valuable treasures as possible. At the end of the game, cats and treasures bring points in different ways. Cat Island needs some time to prepare. Each player gets their own field in the shape of a ship with a basket to carry cats. In the middle of the table you place an island. It has a circular track, and it allows you to track the order of the move. To the left and right of the island you place a supply of cats. They are randomly drawn from the bag. Each player places 2 cats on the left and right. So in a two player game there are 4 cats on both sides. The difference between the left and right side is the price. Cats on the left side are worth 3 fish, and cats on the right side are worth 5 fish. In addition, you place regular treasures, special Oshax cats, meeple cats, fish tokens, cards, and of course a big bag of cats on the table. Island of Cats is played for 5 rounds. These 5 rounds are divided into 5 phases. PHASE 1 FISHING In the first phase of the game, all players go fishing. After all, to lure a sufficient number of cats, you need a lot of fish! During this phase, all players receive 20 fish. PHASE 2 OF THE RESEARCH The research phase is divided into 2 parts: selecting research cards and paying for the cards you decide to keep. At this stage you have to draw cards from the deck. Each player receives 7 cards. From these 7 cards, each player chooses 2 to keep. Then each player passes the remaining 5 cards clockwise to the..

 There are games and there are games. Some games can be seen everywhere and are played by everyone, while others are shrouded in mystery and ritual. It's like comparing a mass-market soft drink to a vintage wine—some are readily available and give instant but quickly forgotten pleasure, while others are rare and unique experiences. Splotter Spellen games belong to the last category. I was first introduced to Splotter Spellen when a collector unceremoniously presented a copy of Roads & Boats and carefully peeled off its protective film to reveal what at first glance looked like a collection of uninspiring components. With the playing time and price triple what I was used to, I remained lukewarm to his enthusiasm. The lack of Splotter Spellen games at all my gaming gatherings further confirmed my skepticism. But the more I learned about games, the more Splotter Spellen's games stood out in discussions of great games. Could a game like this fill a gap in my already limited collection? Maybe there was one game that was highly rated by a few influential geek friends with a reasonable play time (90-150 min) and weight (3.7). When I was offered to buy a used copy from the aforementioned collector, it was time to discover the world of Splotter Spellen! ECONOMY OF THE GREAT ZIMBABWE  The Great Zimbabwe is a good representation of the type of mechanics that I've come to find characterize many of Splotter Spellen's games: build a shared infrastructure and use it to make more money than your competition. In The Great Zimbabwe, the shared infrastructure consists of artisans who transform resources into goods, which are then used to build monuments. The higher the monument, the higher your score. Let's take a closer look at the different links in this economy.  Assets Resources are provided during training (clay, wood, ivory and diamonds). The playing field consists of several 6x6 squares, some of which contain resources. Artisans (potters,..

 When the mere mention of a franchise's name causes twelve to fifteen thousand people to open their wallets to support it, I think the world should take notice.  Canvas by Road to Infamy Games (R2i) is from designers Jeff Chin and Andrew Nerger. And while the game itself has its merits, Luan Huynh's creativity probably deserves more praise. Canvas is one of those games that is so visually stunning that the game itself often takes a back seat. But inside that beautiful box is a game. In fact, thanks to three wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns, there are now three games in three great box sets, completing this trilogy franchise. Today we're going to take a look at the basic box that started it all. VISUAL The hook that lures you into playing Canvas is the transparent cards that will eventually form a picture of the players. These five cards are opened in the market, which changes as the cards are received. The cards are stored in a box to avoid accidental glances. At the beginning, four cards are chosen as artistic goals for the game. The back of the rulebook has a number of suggested combinations to suit skill levels and thematic presentations, but randomness is always a possibility. Objectives control the selection of cards to collect combinations of symbols in their easels to score points.  Each player turn consists of visiting the market to get a card or presenting a finished painting. When visiting the market, the first card is free, but skipping cards requires one Imagination Token for each missed card. These collected Imagination Tokens remain on the cards until they are picked up in subsequent turns. Three cards are needed to represent the picture. If a player reaches five cards in his hand, he must reveal them on the next turn. The three cards are (hopefully) stacked in such a way as to maximize the scoring potential of the various symbols according to the objectives. Of course, since each painting will be stunning in..

 "Photograph," she said. "Just a fun little game." The next day I bought a copy of Photograph (also known as Wind the Film! , published by Saashi & Saashi ) and finally got it to my desk during the holidays. I must say that my friend was right. More importantly, I can see why she likes the game because it lends itself well as a thoughtful strategy game for gamers who want to kick off the night in front of heavier tables. A LITTLE ABOUT THE RULES  Photograph is a game where you need to control your hand blindly for 2-4 players. Depending on the number of players, a certain number of sets of 12 colored cards are added to the common deck, each of which depicts the story of a certain scene taking place somewhere in the city. The card market consists of two outer columns showing the cards face up, and an inner column to the left showing the cards face down. Players are dealt five cards, but must keep them in the order they were dealt. This is important because, similar to games like Luxor, the order of the cards is key to understanding the strategy of each move. During his turn, the player announces a number from one to three. Starting at the edge of one row, that player takes the number of cards announced and adds them one by one, and in the order in which they were removed from the market, to the right side of his hand. That player is then allowed to move one card forward in their hand, from left to right, one or more steps forward. Depending on the number of cards taken at the start of the turn, that player must play cards from the left hand onto the table. Each suit is a separate row in their personal area, and the cards must be played in ascending or descending order after the first card is placed, within three numbers of the previous card.  This means that if I play a yellow eight from my hand, my next yellow card can start with 9, 10, or 11, or 7, 6, or 5. Once that choice is made, future cards after the second must..

 Basically, Dungeon Heroes is a simple and fast dueling dungeon crawler with asymmetric objectives. The hero player tries to find 3 of 4 treasures hidden in the dungeon with the help of his thief, warrior, healer and wizard. Player - The Dungeon Master first lays out the dungeon during the first nine turns (passive phase), and then actively tries to prevent the heroes from getting the treasures (aggressive phase). It sounds pretty corny, but the mechanics make Dungeon Heroes a unique game. Each player can perform 4 actions. During the first nine turns, the dungeon master takes four tiles per turn and places them face down on the field. The tiles have 4 types of monsters, 4 types of traps, 3 treasures, 4 special items, 2 clouds of poison gas, 3 portals and 4 moving floor tiles. The owner of the dungeon decides where to place what, but cannot see where it lies after laying out the tile, so Dungeon Heroes has a place for memory training. Of course, the treasures should be hidden away from the players, and the passages to them blocked by monsters and traps, but isn't that too obvious? Yes, there is room for bluffing here too. After laying out all the tiles, the Dungeon Master uses his actions in a different way: he reveals tiles and moves monsters, hunting heroes.  Heroes spend on moving around the dungeon from the very start, but with some restrictions. Yes, the thief and wizards move like a chess king, and a warrior and a healer - like a rook, but only one square. Also, each character has their own special ability. A thief can step on traps and neutralize them without taking damage. A warrior can move to the same cell as a monster and kill it. The healer heals himself and others by spending an action point. Well, the wizard can open a tile anywhere on the field by spending action points. In my opinion, the wizard ability is the most useful because it allows you to explore dungeons without too much risk and guesswork, which reduces the role of..

REVIEW 7 heroes, 3 villains, simple rules, it's Marvel United  PLAYERS: 1-4  GAME TIME: 40 min  PUBLISHER: CMON Games,  PUBLISHER IN UKRAINE Geekach Games In Marvel United, players take on the role of one superhero from the Marvel Universe and work together to defeat a villain. GAIT STRUCTURE Each turn, the player plays one card on the "timeline", side by side, and plays the value on the card just played AND also uses the value on the previously played card. Each icon provides either a move, a hit, a heroic action, or a wildcard action (any of the above). It is important to understand which hero will play before you and which one after. Each hero comes with a different deck, each deck has a different number and distribution of icons, making them somewhat unique from each other. For example, Hulk has more punches and Cap has more heroics, understanding your deck composition and your friends will be helpful for proper cooperation. In addition, there are three cards in each deck that also grant unique abilities only to the hero playing them (they cannot be used by other heroes) and make the deck even more themed around that hero.  After the heroes have played three cards on the timeline, it's time for the villain to attack. One card from the Sinister Deck is revealed, and the Villain will move, attack, spawn tokens, and play powerful abilities that cripple heroes. Each villain has different victory conditions that are specific and themed to that villain.  Round by round, the Heroes will try to complete the tasks to defeat the villain. The Villain will win by destroying all the Heroes, or by completing his Nefarious Plan (if he has one), or by running out of the Sinister Plans deck. COMPONENTS The quality of the components is top notch, the miniatures are probably the best miniatures I've seen in the history of CMON. They have a lot of detail, and the reliefs under each one make them glow, giving them a..