PLOT  Witchbound is a game about becoming a witch. Coven Cove has been witch-free for over a century, and you will be the first witch in a long time. Will you be able to complete your story path to the end, become a witch and help the island? I will not spoil the prologue, but describe the story part of the game as a whole. Unlike decks like Middara, Tainted Grail, and Stars of Akarios, where you're greeted with sheets of art around every corner and every interaction, Witchbound is less expansive and more like Legend of Zelda and old PC RPGs. You have clues, interact with them and get a mini-story. More on this below in the Mechanics section. Just keep in mind that you won't have to read a ton of text in this solo game. Witchbound has an elaborate plot, but it moves pretty quickly. Whether this is a plus or a minus compared to other solo adventure decks is up to you. GAME MECHANICS The mechanics are perfectly integrated with the plot. They are very light. You interact with surrounding objects of interest, as well as local NPCs, and that's it. Witchbound also has mini-games that I didn't get to play, but overall the mechanics are very simple.  How does it work? For example, you use the basic action "explore" on a bird's nest. This action is number 1. Near the bird's nest is number 59. You combine them to get 159 and read the corresponding paragraph in the mini-story book. Or, alternatively, you can apply the bird's nest sling with the number 7 and read paragraph 759. Interaction with NPCs is arranged similarly. Only you don't use a slingshot on them, but lines like "hello", strike up a conversation and get dialogue, a bit of story and maybe a new quest. As the game progresses, you will acquire new lines, so it makes sense to go back and talk to people you already know about new topics.  Even in the game you will meet contacts: challenges that can sometimes be avoided, and sometimes have to be overcome. The mechanics are the same: apply something to the encountered contact, combine the numbers and read the result. DIFFICULTY OF THE GAME I think it's clear that Witchbound is a frivolous deck. It has mini-games that I haven't had a chance to try out and that most likely use different mechanics than the basic "add two numbers", but overall Witchbound is a simple and beginner-friendly game. Once you've mastered the basic mechanics, there shouldn't be any difficulties. As a result, you won't forget the rules between games. And during the game you will be given quests, so you will always know where you are and what you are going to do. SOLO MODE Please note that this is a solo game. You can play it as a party, like most solo games, making decisions together, but it's single-player and you only control one character. WHO IS WITCHBOUND FOR? I thought about this question during my party. Personally, Witchbound reminds me of Legend of Zelda, Point & Click games, Little Witch Academia anime, and Roll Player Adventures at the same time. Plus simple mechanics and a pinch of plot. A little more reminiscent of Legacy of Dragonholt.  Who is the game for? In my opinion, for RPG fans who want to play RPG solo, when there is no company nearby, and they don't want to turn on the computer. And for solo players who want a story-driven game without the fuss of layouts and components. Witchbound builds quickly, so it's perfect for those looking to play something like Stars of Akarios, Middara, or Oathsworn, only simpler. MINI-REVIEW The Witchbound prologue turned out to be very fan-friendly. I really like the simple mechanics and atmosphere of the game; this allowed me to play with the creator of the game from discord without any problems. He sent me pictures, and I chose what to interact with. Personally, for me, Witchbound is exactly what I look for in solo decks: a game that can be easily played live (on my Malts and Meeples channel). There is almost no need to explain the rules, it unfolds almost instantly. Exactly that. The only problem I noticed (even in the short prologue) was that I had to skip a lot. If you follow the plot directly, you will constantly flip the book from one scene to another, to the third, etc. Or re-read dialogues to get some goodies. However, since this is a solo game, I just skipped the dialogues and went straight to the bun when I needed it for a quest, for example. Not that it's a huge drawback, but in my opinion, as the game goes on, you'll have to flip from one page to another, to a third, etc. more often to get to the place you need for the quest. Or remember how to get where, and immediately open the right page by "teleporting". ..

PORT ROYAL GAME REVIEW AND IMPRESSIONS  Alexander Pfister is a rock star in my house. All of his games (so far) have been huge hits, and Great Western Trail remains my wife's all-time favorite. Port Royal, a game I didn't know existed (or was erased from my memory after I saw the unpleasant Clemens Franz artwork of the old edition). The game was re-released as Big Box and with a bunch of additions. Each game we started adding new elements to diversify the game and it quickly became our de facto placeholder game that lasts under 30 minutes without ANY preparation/assembly. In short, she always makes us laugh in the face of our opponent's suffering. Isn't that why we play games?  In this theme-less game, you basically have to buy cards, and the first to 12 points wins. It's that simple! But the 'try your luck' element is where this game really shines. On your turn, you reveal as many cards from the deck as you want, but if there are duplicate colored ship cards, you lose! Your opponent has a chance to buy a card from your pool if they pay you 1 coin, which is an added incentive for you to flip even more cards. Many of the "crew" cards have special abilities that make your game unique, and some help you avoid crashes by dropping duplicate cards.  The layout and graphics are very nice and thematically sophisticated with a diverse range of ethnicities represented, and even though the types of crew cards are limited, the artwork varies a lot so you'll never get cards that look exactly the same.  Since the game only consists of cards and a compact box, you can literally play anywhere. We've taken this game on picnics, played it in the backyard, on our game table, and we'll take this game everywhere for fun!  We HIGHLY recommend this game if you like a fast-paced filler card game. ..

 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 the round will go counter-clockwise. After each player has made two moves (or missed), place the last die and possibly any remaining dice on the circular track. The next player can take dice from the bag to repeat the process. When placing the cubes on the stained glass window, you need to follow some placement rules. The first cube in the game must be placed in one of the corners or edges of your stained glass window. Every second cube must also be next to the previously placed cube. If you have a color or a specific number in your box, you can only place that number or color on that spot on the player's field. Finally, a die can never be placed orthogonally next to a die of the same color or value. This means that you cannot place a red cube next to another red cube, you can only place it diagonally. They cannot touch each other's sides.  If the round is over, the game ends and the final scoring begins. To calculate your points, use the back of the track where you placed the unused dice and tally up the points from the remaining public objectives, private objectives and services. A private objective will give you the color you must place in your stained glass to get points, while public objectives will often ask for pairs or specific values, such as pairs of values three and four. For each empty space in the window, you lose one victory point. The player with the most victory points is the best artist and wins the game. DESIGN AND DEPTH OF THE GAME Sagrada is a game that takes surprisingly more thought than I first thought. The rules of restricting the placement of cubes make this much more difficult and you get a lot of fun with how your stained glass window is created. You also won't know who wins until the end, due to personal and shared goals.  The game looks great on the table, and if you can, play it only by candlelight. Since the cubes are transparent, the light can really play with the colors, giving you a little extra coziness, or so we think. The quality of the components is quite good and there is plenty of opportunity to play multiple games in a row as all the stained glass challenges are two-sided. They also vary in difficulty, so if you want more challenges, you can choose a more difficult window to create. IMPRESSION  Sagrada is an easy logical thinking puzzle game where you have to build your own stained glass window. With each cube you select, your window becomes a little more colorful, and with 90 cubes and plenty of window patterns to choose from, this game will be different every time. The rules are simple but challenging and you can choose your own difficulty level. We think this game is a lot of fun with two or more players. ..

 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 during preparation. This means that the game has a large number of variations with an almost infinite number of combinations. Hints show which symbols appear on each face and what actions are actually performed when certain faces fall.  In the next round, players will use the remaining dice in their rolling area and then choose which dice to add to reach their "hand limit", which starts at 9 but will increase as players move up the fan track and as they fall behind on the racetrack. All dice will be rolled and a new round will begin. The game ends when one player crosses the finish line, and the player who advances further past the finish line wins, as it is possible for more than one player to cross the finish line in one round. Of course, the actions you can take are varied and I won't cover them in detail here. You can choose dice from the game, protect yourself from potential crashes by spending shields, set dice faces to whatever you want, get other dice for free, and more. IMPRESSION Anyone can play this game. The rules are relatively simple and can be learned in ten minutes. That being said, I think this is more of a gamer than meets the eye. A big part of strategy is analyzing the eight dice/abilities available in each game and being able to visualize what combinations will work well together. After that, it's all about executing the plan and maybe a little luck along the way. I wanted to like this game, but it seems like I'm missing something. Pros: Anyone can learn and play the game in 45-60 minutes. This is a good option for the whole family or for a group of experienced gamers. Looks great on the table. You will definitely have situations where people come to your table asking about the game with all the cool, non-standard dice and racetrack. There are so many different games to play. I'm not a math geek, but I'm guessing there are literally millions of combinations of dice abilities that can be used, and there are several racetracks that can be used. Each game will be completely different. Rolling a bunch of dice each round is really fun. The game becomes very intense when you know your odds are low, but you just need one more value to execute your plan for the round. Cons: I don't think the racing mechanic is adequate, as an extra pair of dice usually won't have much of an impact in the late game when someone else is moving 12-15 spaces a round. The game had a snowball problem: if you set up the "correct" dice pool early and the other players don't, the game can only be successful for one player, meaning the game can be broken. Every game I've played has been different, with one player winning by about 15 holes, and a few rounds into the game, it's pretty clear who that player is going to be. It's not a long game, so it's definitely not the end of the world, but the last few rounds felt like a formality. There is no way to influence the plans of other players. The only competitive similarity is in the red dice, but they shift back and forth from round to round, so winning or losing this battle has no effect. The game gives you extra dice to try to catch up, but the game feels like a race where no player can affect what the other player is doing. Everyone picks up at different speeds, but there aren't any lying cops to hit, other than obstacles (which are just as likely to happen to players behind as to players in front). It sucks to burn out. Of course, this allows you to fine-tune your dice pool a little better in the next round and move up the fan track, but our games only lasted 10-12 rounds. Skipping a whole round of action and buying dice is paralyzing. This ties in with my first objection, about the snowball effect. This can be especially frustrating because a breakup can come out of nowhere. You can roll 7 or 8 dice and still lose. Making the "right" move and still ending up with a dead round isn't very good. It's a small gripe, but the fan track felt redundant. I know some dice interact with this, but I found it didn't help at all. I'd rather be at a racetrack where I can pick dice or get coins to buy something right now than get credits later. My games weren't enough to make the fan track investment really pay off. How easy is it to learn the game? 4/5 This game takes about 10 minutes to learn and maybe 40-45 minutes per game. I've played with 3 and 4 players and the game time is about the same since players almost always take actions at the same time. How easy is it to play the game *well*? That's a bit of a different story, and it depends on how well you know deckbuilding and can interpret the optimal buying sequence. Will it be easy to find players? 4/5 I don't see why not! The design is attractive, the game looks great on the table and does not drag. People like to throw piles of dice. Is the game worth your time? 3/5 The good news is that the game doesn't take that long. So, in terms of "time spent", you haven't lost much by trying the game even if you don't like it. The bad news is that I don't think it's that helpful. Part of the reward for learning and playing is looking around the table and seeing smiles on faces, regardless of the score or score. With Cubitos, I just see a lot of frustration and confusion about how one player got so much better. Instead of trying again, I see people wanting to pack up and move on to something else. How much fun is it to lose? 2/5 It is difficult. I usually don't mind losing. The fact that the loss is so obvious and I've yet to see a way to affect the game past half (or so) just makes the back half of the game a bit pointless. What worries me is the fact that you see how much you are losing and how unlikely you are to catch up. Of course, you can push your luck a bit more to try to do a few more actions each round than the leaders, but that will likely lead to a corkscrew. I have no particular desire to review it. Overall 5/10 *I think one of the best ways to judge a game is to think about how much fun it is to lose. The goal is to have fun whether I win or lose!..

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 move to it. ELIMINATE THE ZOMBIES Once the player has moved to the tombstone of their choice, they can destroy all the zombies that are there. CLOSE THE GATE If at any time 2 players are near the same gate, you can lock them by placing one of the lock tokens on the gate. Congratulations, you're that much closer to fending off the zombie onslaught. Note: When a player has eliminated a zombie or locked a gate, they cannot move their piece. Close all 4 gates or destroy all zombies on the field and you win! WHAT I WONDERED ABOUT THE GAME I bought this game on a whim. I didn't really know anything about it, and no one I knew had ever played it. But I am very glad I made this purchase. It is quite small, about the size of a paperback book. The illustrations are great…definitely kid-friendly and cartoony, with just a slight hint of grit that kids love. All characters are taken from different movies. The character of Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead, The Bride from Kill Bill, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and a combination of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and Neo from The Matrix. Component quality is good, with plastic bases for character parts. Unfortunately, the zombie pieces are lying flat on the board, but it's not that bad. The game is quite fast; in a 10-minute range with simple solutions for players. You roll a die and place a zombie on that color. The hardest part is deciding where to move when it's your turn. Do you try to eliminate all the zombies on the field or go for the goal? Offer options to your young players and see what they think. For younger kids like my 5 year old, he just wants to get rid of zombies. In several cases, he chose to defeat the zombies rather than go into a space with another player; losing the opportunity to close the gate...and that's absolutely cool. The game is so fast that even if you lose, it will only take you a few minutes. Prepare her and get back into battle! While the game is easy, there's enough of a balance between killing zombies and placing new zombies that you're constantly watching your remaining zombie tokens to make sure you don't run out. You can also make the game more difficult by removing 1 or more zombies from the stack. WHICH DISAPPOINTED ME The game really relies on luck through the dice roll, and in many cases your younger kids will make choices that you wouldn't. But that's fine… that's the nature of co-op games, right? Let your kids see the results of their choices by letting zombies eat their brains. The rules are a sheet of glossy paper folded several times. They could also use some TLC in the form of better graphic design and proofreading. Usable, but they could be better. FINAL IMPRESSIONS  Zombie Kidz is an ultra-light co-op game that's perfect for teaching your kids how to work together. It's small, portable, low-cost, and fits easily in a suitcase or travel bag. Zombie Kidz is a fun family game that deserves to be in your collection...

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 game. And it's great that "Living Forest" lived up to... expectations. But let's dive deeper. Players cannot do without the help of forest inhabitants: animals depicted on the cards. Each player starts with the same set of cards, which is a strong indication that we are dealing with deck collecting. Thanks to the open draft, players will have the opportunity to attract new animals to their deck. It sounds simple - and it mostly is: the catch is that you really have to be careful which animals you recruit, as some don't get along so well with others. And that's because each card with animals shows several symbols (action in the game) - the more symbols of one species, the more powerful the action. We were a little afraid of this - it seemed that there was a lot of math waiting for us. But it turns out that's not the case - you just have to do some very simple additions and subtractions (some animals don't get along with others, remember?) to work out the total for each symbol. You may be wondering exactly how this works, because at some point you have to stop drawing cards. Well, that's where the hermit animals come in - they're usually stronger (bringing more symbols into play and often with positive balance), but the catch is that you have to stop drawing cards from your deck once you get three lone animals out. Of course, there are animals that counteract their effects (you can think of them as yin and yang), so if you're careful enough, you can purchase them from the "market". So it's a "lucky" component of the game (and that's a good thing, it's one of our favorite mechanics - plus, it feels that way here). And it's important to note that you have a limited number of actions per turn - two (different) if you stop before bringing in three lone animals, and only one if you're forced to stop. So sometimes you can try your luck, but it's worth noting that this means you'll be doing 50% less actions that will end.  So there are three ways to win the game, but there are 4 possible actions: you can advance around the rondel, put out fires, hire new animals or plant trees. However, there is a fifth symbol on the cards (a mystical flower, but it is not an action in itself). Well, let's start with the pan - it's represented by the spiral symbol: advancing here can be crucial - not only does it allow you to perform a bonus action that you don't have enough power for (or just want to do it again), but it also allows you to take one a victory token from opponents you defeat (which brings you one stop closer to victory). Additionally, there are sun symbols - these allow you to draw more animals into your deck - divided into three categories (of increasing value). It's possible to add more animals to your deck, but you also have to consider that Onibi lights a fire for every animal card drawn that round! This can be a good strategy to face your opponents, especially if they don't have enough power (symbols that add more than the total fire value) to put out these fires. And this brings us to the third action - symbols of water help extinguish fires. Once you reach 12 fires, you win (well, almost - but we'll talk about that). This is probably the most interesting part of the game, as it has a semi-cooperative aspect: if players don't have enough water to put out the fire, they have to draw Fire Dragons (Onibi creatures) into their deck. And they don't idle: aside from being lonely, they offer absolutely nothing in return, so you don't want them around when you draw cards. By the way, it's nice that the game offers fragment tokens as a means of discarding unnecessary cards. Last but not least, trees - every player starts with the same empty display. This is the place where the magic trees will be planted - this is the tile placement component. Each individual tree counts towards the win condition. Clever placement can also trigger some valuable bonuses (for completed lines and columns and closed corners) - there are only two bonus actions available (compared to the pan, which has many more options), but they are more powerful. Yes, strategy also plays a big role here. It's also worth noting that there are only a limited number of trees of each species available - buying more trees of the same species gives you double the benefits and disrupts your opponents' plans, even if you're nowhere near the 12 different trees you need. .  It's amazing how grounded the actions are - they influence each other and work together. So it's impossible to focus on one thing because you need a lot more to win. Take flowers for example - of course you can just buy animals with flower symbols. Of course you could, but you need more fire symbols to buy more powerful animals, and you also need flowers from other sources (like trees) because you can't just rely on the luck of the draw. Game mechanics form a well-oiled engine, and it shows. The simplicity of the action makes the game accessible to everyone (and makes it perfect for family game nights), but the difficulty lies in how you link and time your actions so that you can collect the right items before others. And last but not least, yes, it's the difficulty of the game that made it feel a little bland to us after a few plays. Of course, it's still pretty relaxing and we'd be happy to play it anytime. But once you get the hang of the puzzle, the action starts to feel a little too easy - I'm sure more players open up many more possibilities. Finally, the Living Forest remains an absolute gem for the money (you can find it for as little as €25-30) - maybe we'll even introduce it to our parents one day.....

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 next player. You repeat this until all the cards are dealt. There are different types of cards. You can distinguish cards by different colors. Gold : Gold cards allow you to collect both common and rare treasures. Blue : Blue cards are tasks. Tasks can be personal or shared. You keep personal tasks a secret, joint tasks remain open on the table. Tasks earn you points at the end of the game. An example of a personal quest is 5 green cats on your ship. Green : Green cards determine turn order with boots and give extra baskets to carry cats. You need one basket for each cat you want to place on your ship. Purple : You can play these cards anytime and they give you different bonuses. For example, you can immediately get 5 fish by playing a purple card. These cards are good to have because you need fish to be able to place cats on your ship! From all the cards in your hand, you can choose the one you want to keep. The price of the cards is indicated on the top left. You must pay with fish. PHASE 3 READING TASKS During this 3rd phase, you look at all cards in your hand and play task cards. All individual tasks are played face-to-face in front of you, shared tasks are read aloud and then placed in the middle of the table for all players to see. If you have to choose a color in the co-op, you do so and place a cat of that color on the card. PHASE 4 CAT RESCUE At the beginning of this phase, all players play their green cards. These are salvation cards. These cards determine who will rescue the cats first, as well as how many cats each can rescue. The number of boots indicates who will go first, and the number of baskets shown on your green cards shows how many cats you can save. During this phase you can save the cats. If you want to save a cat, you have to pay 3 or 5 fish and you need a basket. If you can pay for a fish and a basket, you can take a cat and place it on your tablet. You can place the first cat anywhere. Subsequent cats are always placed next to another cat. If you place a cat above a scroll of the same color, you can immediately take a normal treasure and place it on the player's space. When placing cats on the player board, you should try to fill your boat as best as possible, place as many cats of the same color together as possible, and have as few rats as possible on your boat. PHASE 5 RARE FINDINGS When everyone has finished rescuing the cats, the final stage begins. During phase 5, you can play gold and brown cards. These cards give you treasures or special Oshaks cats. Treasures are placed on your boat as normal. Oshaksy cats are wild cats. When you place Oshaks on your boat, you can choose a color. You specify the color of Oshaks by placing a meeple cat of any color on it. At the end of each day, you remove all unsaved cats from the table and place 8 new cats next to the island. Each player then gets new cards and you go through all the stages again! You do this 5 times. After the 5th round, it's time to count the points. At the end of the game, you receive one penalty point for each rat on your boat and 5 penalty points for each room that is not completely filled. Points are earned by cat families on your boat! You also get points for completed tasks. The player with the most points wins The Isle of Cats. IMPRESSION We like games like Patchwork, MyCity and Calico. The latter can also show that we love the cat theme. Cat Island is perfect for us! After we finished MyCity, we started looking for a new similar game with enough difficulty. Then we decided to purchase "Island of Cats". To this day, we definitely do not regret it! "The Isle of Cats" is a fun and very multifaceted game. The game comes in a large box and thankfully offers a lot of options and replayability! You can play the game in two ways: normal way and family mode. We're divided on which version is more fun. The regular version is more advanced through the use of task cards. The family version is played faster and much easier. Sometimes we're more into a longer and more expansive game, and sometimes we just want to play a quick fun puzzle game. In the latter case, we prefer family mode. Overall, we really like that you have a choice between these two versions. This shows that "Cat Island" is very diverse. During a game night with your experienced board game friends, you can play the extended version. However, if you're playing Cat Island with your parents or inexperienced board game friends, you can easily play the family version. Therefore, "Island of cats" often ends up on our table. Replayability is high not only because you have multiple play options, but the game also comes with a decent stack of challenge cards. In each game, you will likely have new task cards to choose from. This ensures that no two The Isle of Cats games will be the same. While playing The Isle of Cats, you may not have a lot of direct interaction, but there is definitely a lot of interaction. Each round is a battle to see who is first, then you grab each other's cats by the nose and can compete for shared public lessons. This way, Isle of Cats doesn't feel like a solo game, but a fun game to play with friends! As far as we're concerned, Cat Island is perfect if you like puzzle and tile placement games and are looking for a game with a lot of features. You'll definitely want The Isle of Cats in your collection because of its fun theme, but the game itself is definitely a worthy addition to any gaming shelf as well! ..

 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, wood carvers, ivory carvers, and diamond cutters) are placed by the players themselves. They must be placed within reach of resources (no more than 3 squares). Monuments are also set by players themselves, and must be placed within reach of masters (to enable additional levels). Each additional level requires 1 unique item, but increases your score exponentially (1 for level 1, 3 for level 2, 7 for level 3, etc.). The higher you want your monument to be, the more craftsmen you need near it. The reach of the crafter (but not the resource) can be extended by using the monument as a hub, thus allowing for longer routes to obtain these precious goods. The connected sea squares work as one big "hub", which makes the adjacent land squares especially interesting for placing artisans and monuments.  Limitation Of course, this economy does not have unlimited assets, so let's continue by looking at spending and other limits of the Zimbabwean economy. Thematically, all prices are paid in cattle heads. Artisans cost livestock, but earn victory points when placed. The game has a limited number of masters. Artisans cost livestock to use (paid to the player who placed the craftsman). Resources used by wizards are free but limited throughout the round, meaning once used they cannot be used again until the next round. Monuments cost 1 cattle to use as centers (paid before supply). MAIN CHALLENGES This simple economy sets the stage for interesting interactions between players. You need to make sure you have access to both livestock and crafters to expand your monuments. Maybe you want to bring in a craftsman that only you can reach to secure the item? Maybe you want to place a crafter within range of other players to provide livestock? Or maybe you will focus only on the masters or only on the monuments? The designer could have stopped there and had a simple, almost solvable puzzle. But no, he decided to throw in just the right amount of wrenches to make the game more difficult. ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES  Increased requirements for victory The winning requirements are not fixed, but can change throughout the game and be different for different players. One example (and more will follow) is the acquisition of technology, which is a prerequisite for the placement of certain masters. The technology is free, but it increases the number of victory points needed to win. This adds some interesting challenges. First, you can choose between a "cheap" strategy (ignore the "engine" and keep the win requirement low) or an "expensive" strategy (build the "engine" and accept that the win requirement will be harder to achieve). Remember that the bulk of your victory points will come from monuments, and while higher monuments increase your score exponentially, their cost will also increase as they require more unique resources. Second, it is more difficult to determine who is leading. Is it a player who scores a few points per turn and is close to a low win requirement, or is it a player who scores a lot of points per turn but is far from a high win requirement? Or, in gamer parlance, who can you afford to help and who should you screw over? PRICES The prices for crafters' goods are not fixed, but are set by the players between 1 and 3. This is pure supply and demand. Which will make you the most: low price and high volume or high price and low volume? At what price will your profit from livestock be greater than your opponents' profit from goods? And what happens if the opponent puts a competing master? To make your decision even more painful, once the price is set you can only increase it, not decrease it. SECONDARY ARTISANS Do you think games like Power Grid and Santiago where you can strip your opponents of resources are evil? Then you haven't met the secondary artisans of The Great Zimbabwe. A secondary craftsman will use a resource AND a good from another ("primary") craftsman. To make a more valuable product? No, make the products of the primary craftsman unsuitable for monuments! A well-positioned second crafter can make goods more expensive and/or rarer and completely destroy the other player's economy. So much for product development! AUCTION Given that resources are limited in each round, turn order is important, so naturally there is a game around that as well. However, The Great Zimbabwe bet is not only about rewarding the highest bidder, but also about distributing the cattle among the players. He accomplishes this by placing bets on certain fields (1st cattle on 1st field, etc.) and then returning the cattle to players (1st field to highest bidder, etc.). Do you really want to make a high bet knowing that other players will eventually win most of your bet? Did I mention The Great Zimbabwe is a very evil game? SPECIALISTS AND GODS I'm not a fan of cards in games. They often dictate your strategy randomly and lead to gameplay where players are looking more at the card tables than the field. But The Great Zimbabwe is not like that. First, the cards are limited - the game uses only 5 specialists and 8 of the 12 gods, which are known in advance to all players. As such, their potential impact on the game is transparent and predictable. Secondly, the cards are not random, but are chosen by the players themselves (at the cost of increased requirements to win). This way you can adapt your strategy to your choice of specialist and/or god and vice versa. Third, given the interconnected economy, other players' choices will have a profound effect on gameplay and what you should consider in your own strategy. Let's look at some examples: Elegua and Engai: The player receives cattle from the stock. This can be expected to increase the total number of livestock in the game. Eshu, Kamata: Players get increased range/payout when hubs are used. This can be expected to increase distances in the game. Gu: The player gets cheaper innovations. This can be expected to increase the number of masters in the council. The result is that the presence or absence of a specialist or god can dramatically change the game from game to game. New players are saved from the surprise of a god unknown to them, while experienced players are rewarded by knowing how a god known to all players can affect the game. In my book, this is an example of cards made right in the game. SO WHAT'S ON THE PLAYER'S HEAD There is a lot to think about in The Great Zimbabwe . First, we have a tender. If I bid high, will I have enough cattle left to do what I want to do in the field? If I bid low, will I have enough left to work the field after the other players have taken turns? Second, we have a choice of god and/or specialist. What abilities are good in this particular game and are they worth the increased win requirement? Maybe I should wait another round before making a decision, but what have they been plucked by another player before then? Thirdly, we have a choice between masters or monuments. If I choose masters, should I help myself with livestock (from other players with my masters) or goods (with my master)? If I choose monuments, I increase my score in the short term, but do I have enough livestock to expand them in the long term? Fourth, if I choose a master, who should I choose and where should I place it? Is proximity to many resources or many craftsmen best? Is low price or high price best? What other masters and prices are there on the board? Fifth, if I choose monuments, should I focus on a few large monuments or many small ones? A few big monuments increase my score faster, but are there enough resources? Many small monuments are cheaper, but is there enough time? Sixth, there is the question of what wizards and resources I should use. If I bring in my own masters, I get my money back next round. But maybe it's more important to use wizards than other players to strip them of their goods? Seventh, there is another question about..

 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 its own right, as well as having an exciting title, there's a lot of buzz to be made for each entry to be recognized for its creativity and ingenuity. Or not.  Since each player will present three paintings, the final score is determined by the number of times each of the objectives is achieved during the game. The value of accumulated ribbon tokens determines the winner. QUALITY OF COMPONENTS The cards are made with love. Each of them comes with a protective film. The clarity of the cards is amazing. The title words below add some flair. The original Kickstarter product had a simple canvas mat (which is also included in the Ukrainian version of the game) instead of a field for goal and market cards. I prefer the ease of making. Depending on the variant, the tapes are made of wood or cardboard. Even the cardboard components are sturdy and double-sided to keep the tokens attractive. Each set of transparencies is presented over a base card in a sleeve and on an easel. The easels are of the Walmart wood variety, but when properly positioned (let the reader understand) they really add to the crafting.  A game box is designed for a greater purpose than a regular box can provide. Without a single printed word, the box hangs on the wall. I love board games, but I'm not a hole-in-the-wall kind of guy for stuff like that. Because if I look at it honestly, it would need a screw to hold the weight of the contents. Still, I admire this dedication to the thematic content of the experience. I imagine pulling a game off the wall for a night game with friends is a unique experience. SHADES Canvas is weird because I have, in a sense, already figured out the whole point of the game. Explaining the game takes a few minutes. The entire game can be completed in less than half an hour. Yet there's more to this little job than meets the eye, provided you're interested in the design. From an aesthetic point of view, I cannot accurately describe the effect of the artistic accompaniment. It is important. I've watched players eschew objectives almost entirely in favor of producing eclectic goodness only to later investigate whether it was worth anything on the scoreboard. I've watched players who are unerringly concerned with scoring points tilt their intent with a tape or two to make the picture more interesting. I've also watched players basically ignore the artwork until it was time to present, and then seem disappointed that they didn't do something more pleasing to the eye. Nowhere in the rulebook is there a sanction for goodness, beauty, or even entertainment, but the unspoken rule is that it doesn't matter. It seems almost an injustice when the tapes are showered with an unworthy exhibit. IMPRESSION  Canvas is great. It's essentially an abstract game about collecting and arranging symbols to achieve a set of arbitrary goals. On the outside, though, it's a game that's seductive enough to push itself above its fundamental limits. The puzzle here sometimes becomes painful. The economics revolving around managing a limited and negotiable supply of imagination tokens are pretty tight. As you survey the market, your imagination will keep writing checks that your brain can't cash. This is the real challenge of the game: can you manage the market well enough to have what you need, when you need it? And it will still be beautiful?  Strategically, I find it helpful to work on about one and a half paintings at a time. Managing imagination tokens will often mean taking a suboptimal card in the name of "thinking ahead" while biding your time for a card that completes the masterpiece. Of course, by the third picture I was occasionally thinking so far ahead that I'm obviously playing the next game because the cards I've collected are completely useless. I guess I appreciate mental gymnastics. The victory in Canvas is gratifying. Recognizing the utility of the perfect card and taking the appropriate risk of having it at the right time hits a sweet spot in my sense of satisfaction. Similarly, putting together a really charming piece of art that actually has good results is a lot of fun. It's moments like these that keep me coming back to the game again and again. In one of my favorite holiday movies of recent years, The Man Who Invented Christmas, the elder Mr. John Dickens repeatedly says, "People will believe anything if you're dressed right." With a cold intellect, it would be awfully easy to see Canvas as little more than an overwrought picture-making exercise. Of course transparent cards should exist to overlap symbols, but 80% of every card is mechanically and practically useless. But anyway, the clothes are just right for people to believe that it's worth it. I can't classify Canvas as one of my absolute favorite games, but I liked it because of its unique combination of simple mechanics, new components and aesthetic charm. I dipped into the first expansion, Reflections, but I didn't get into the second, Finishing Touches...

 "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 continue in the same direction . So if I have a yellow 8, then a yellow 6, my next yellow card MUST be a yellow 5, 4, or 3. If you draw two cards to start your turn, you must play two cards to end your turn, and those cards can be of different suits. If a player first plays 3-4 cards of the same color on the table (depending on the number of players), that player receives five points "Good shot!" bonus at the end of the game. But what if you can't play your cards in order? Don't worry, it will happen. You simply play the card out of order by turning it face down, which gives you -2 points at the end of the game. This also allows you to play a card outside of the three-card numerical range requirement, but you must still continue to play the cards in ascending or descending order. The game ends when a Sunset card comes out of the deck. This card triggers a hand correction to limit your hand to just three cards, and when the market is reduced to three cards or less after sunset, it's game over. Scoring is all about scoring - more cards of the same suit, more points - a good shot! cards and any negative face down cards that have been played onto the table. SEVERAL BATCHES ARE BETTER THAN ONE FAILURE The first game of Photograph was a failure, and when I explained it to other players, they shared some of the agony of the first game with me. The concept of not regulating  your hand is simple, but most people seem to sort their hands in card games by suit. "DO NOT CHANGE THE ORDER!!" was a big part of my in-game reminders. But during the second game in Photograph, you start to see the best way to place one card move forward in your hand. Then everything really opens up. With three inexperienced players, my first game took about 45 minutes. Every game after that lasted 20-30 minutes even with the maximum number of players. And it allows everyone to see the game at its best. The illustrations by Takako Takarai are simply gorgeous. I still don't really follow the story in each of the seven game modes, but I don't care because the art is so cute in many cases. My only gripe with the cards is the suit colors: yellow and brown are too similar since they use the same color palette. A fantastic way to start the night, Photograph is a very well thought out game that quickly got me hooked. Designer Saashi also gave us Remember Your Trip, which my colleague found just as satisfying as Photograph...