Dixit Odyssey is a card game where you can let your imagination run free. It's an expansion of the original Dixit board game, but it also came out as a stand-alone version: it's basically the same as the main game, but has added the ability to play with up to 12 players. This allowed some new mechanics to be added, making the game even better than it already is. I first encountered Dixit Odyssey in 2016. I was with a bunch of friends and they introduced me to what would later become my favorite board game. It wasn't the first board game I ever played, but it definitely started my passion for board games. I immediately decided to buy it and started introducing it to all my friends. Since then, it has become one of the games we play most often during our game nights. Besides being a great game, it's also a work of art. For this version of the game, the card artwork was created by Marie Cardois and Pierrot. Without further ado, let's get into the components and gameplay of Dixit Odyssey . GAME COMPONENTS These are the components that come with the full version of Dixit Odyssey, not the expansion version that only gives you 84 new cards to add to the original Dixit . Main field (divided into 2 parts that fold together) 84 new cards 12 wooden bunnies 12 green pegs 12 red pegs 12 player tablets Rules HOW TO PLAY DIXIT How to win there? There are different ways to earn points. First of all, there must be a narrator in each round: there is no rule as to who must go first. In my group, we usually do first-come-first-serve. The Storyteller must look at the 6 cards in his hand, choose one and give it a "title". It can be anything with which he associates this card, for example, the title of a movie, song or book. It can be an emotion or a feeling. It can even be a single sound or gesture. It is important that it is not too obvious and too complicated. This is where the other players come into play: each of them must choose a card from their hand that best fits the association given by the narrator. They will have to try to pick the best card to get more bonus points. When all players have dealt their cards, the storyteller shuffles them and places them face up on the table, each card numbered on the side of the field.  At this stage, all players except the storyteller must try to guess the storyteller's card by placing a green peg on the board in the number space associated with the card they believe belongs to the storyteller. Each vote must remain secret until everyone has voted. It's time to show the votes and collect points. SCORE POINTS As the storyteller, you have to give a name so that at least one person guesses your card; in this case, the narrator and the one who guessed the card get three points each. But, if all players or none of the players guessed the card, then everyone except the narrator gets two points. In addition to these points, each player other than the narrator receives one bonus point for each vote their card receives (up to three bonus points). If there are 7 or more players, you can also use the red peg: if you have a problem between two cards, you can use both pegs to vote for both cards. But if you guess the storyteller's card using only one peg, you get a bonus point. So, take a risk for that bonus point or play it safe to have a better chance of not flying? Your choice. When all the points are distributed, it's time to give the new storyteller a new association. In my company, we make it so that those who have already given the name have to wait until everyone gets a chance to be the narrator. How to monitor points? Just move the rabbit along the board by as many cells as you have scored. The first rabbit to score 30 points wins. IS IT WORTH PICKING DIXIT: ODYSSEY INTO THE COLLECTION  So, let's start by saying that Dixit is one of the best board games in recent years, personally speaking. It's fun, it's got an original concept, and it's been praised and raved about pretty much everywhere. Dixit Odyssey took what was already a great game and made it even better by introducing a second tie-in for voting and some new variations that you can find in the rulebook. In particular, I'd suggest trying the Dixit party variant, which adds spice by adding the ability for the storyteller to "lock" points on one of the cards drawn. This game is very easy to explain and only takes 2 minutes to learn how to play, so I think it's a great game to introduce people to the world of board games. It is also a great game for all ages, even for young children. I played this game with my 7 and 10 year old cousins and they had a lot of fun. The only thing is that they could be a little too obvious with the titles, but once they figured that out, they actually got pretty good and creative. Trust me when I say that I have yet to find someone who hasn't told me they love this game and asked me where to buy it. So what are you waiting for? Grab this game and let your imagination run wild!..

 Land of Clans by TACTIC (from Finland's leading game developer) is a game for 2-4 players with a game time of up to 30+ minutes to control territories. The game mechanics are simple enough to play with 8 year olds and the rules are very well explained and laid out in just three pages, with short text and good illustrations. This game can also be played with 4 or 6 players in 2 teams of 2 or 3 players each. With only three players, this isn't as good because it introduces a "kingmaker" element to the game, allowing two players to "choose" a third player and then continue as a normal two-player game. We prefer a four-player game where each player has their own set of 4 wooden locks and 15 wooden tokens.  Each player is dealt two Wizard cards and 5 random playing cards. These five cards make up his starting hand, while the Wizard cards are placed face up in front of each player. Cards, tokens, castles, a cross-shaped playing field and terrain tiles of various shapes are all made from the highest quality cardboard or wood. There are no dice. The map (playing area/field) is covered with a grid of squares that form plots of land, each of which is marked with a numerical value and a colored figure - each individual figure has its own color; the shapes and numbers match those on the cards the players are holding.  To "conquer" an empty space on the field, a player must play a card that matches the value (shape/color/number) of that space. They then place one of their wooden discs on that spot. By placing the discs, players try to create and match the landforms depicted on one of the four "Victory" tiles located around the field.  When a player's discs form a shape that matches the shape of a terrain tile (the victory tile), he can grab one of the pieces of the same shape from the supply and then place it on the board, returning the discs to their owner. They then place one of their locks on that figure to show that they own it, but it's dangerous. Opponents can place their pieces around the castle/piece in what is basically a siege position and the attack can continue. Both sides can play cards (crossed swords to attack, shields to defend) to increase their values. If the defense wins, nothing happens, if the offense wins, the current lock is replaced by the attacking force's lock; in any case, all used cards are discarded.  There are several additional features that can be done during the game. For example, some squares have a Celtic knot symbol. These are waste lands and can only be claimed by a player by placing a counter on it when it is the last square of the "win" tile shape. If it can be shown that this is the last place needed, then it can be obtained by discarding any card, it does not have to match the shape/color/number. The second additional game concerns the Wizard cards. They are essentially "jokers" that can be used like any card to place a disc on the field, except that the wasteland field has unbeatable protection against wizards.  Game mechanics are not new, they can be found in several games. They are good, reliable mechanics that work well. Lands of Clans uses this mechanic extremely well; So good, in fact, that it's a very good game for teaching new players some classic and necessary strategies in territory control games. I think it has high value as a family game, and I would put it on the lower end of the experienced player rating scale for playability.  Very well made wooden parts, quality tokens, cards and field. The rules are extremely easy to understand, although I would suggest that the 8+ age rating only counts if the children are regular and competent board game players, otherwise an experienced teenager should be involved with an adult player - if only as a consultant (ie two 8-year-olds play against each other with an older player explaining the moves and other available actions.  Although the game is called Land of Clans and shows a Scottish scene on the box cover that seems to take place around the mid-16th century (allegedly it is not known that kilts were regularly worn before 1538), there is nothing there. The only hint of a Scottish flavor, in fact the Celtic knot used to distinguish the "Wasteland" squares on the field, has connections (pun intended) to Ireland, not Scotland. Basically what I'm trying to say is don't buy the game expecting a Scottish connection, buy it because it's a good, enjoyable game with a light strategy. USEFUL LINKS Land of the Clans on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/319709/land-clans VIDEO REVIEWS ..

GAME OVERVIEW  Coatl is a colorful abstract puzzle game in which you will make the most beautiful "feathered" snakes. Having created them, you will try to win the title of high priest. You set up the game by placing a market square in the center of the field. You place parts of the body, head and tail in the designated places. Place a stock of 6 prediction cards next to the prediction deck. Each player receives a personal playing field, a temple card, and a prediction card. You also place 2 temple cards face up in the center of the table. The temple map gives you bonus points if you finish a Coatl that meets certain conditions, such as being 6 long and having no red parts. A prediction card can be placed next to a Coatl you are making or have just completed. They also give you points at the end of the game. During your turn you can choose one of 3 actions.  Take Coatl Parts: During this action, you can choose 1 space and take Coatl Parts from it. You can choose 2 body parts, 1 head or 1 tail. You must pay special attention to what color you take to match the conditions of your prediction and temple cards. The Coatl tokens you have taken are placed on your personal space where you can place up to 8 pieces.  Take the Prediction Cards: The prediction cards have a certain condition that Coatl must fulfill in order to get points for it. You can draw as many cards as you want from your stock, but you can only have 5 cards in your hand. An example of a prediction card is that you must have the colors in a certain order.  Build a Coatl: You can take as many actions as you want while building a Coatl. You can create a new Coatl, expand an existing Coatl, and/or place prediction cards next to the Coatl. Once the Coatl has a head, tail, and several body parts, it is finished and you cannot continue to extend it. The game ends when one player completes 3 Coatleys. You then get points for completing temple and divination maps. So make sure you fulfill the terms of these cards to the best of your ability. If you have the most points at the end of the game, you are the winner and can claim the title of High Priest! OUR IMPRESSIONS If you like abstract puzzle games, we highly recommend Coatl! A lot of people make the comparison to Azul, but we don't think you can properly compare the 2. Coatl and Azul are really two different games, but if you like Azul, you'll also like Coatl. At Coatl, you have several ways to win. Basically, you're trying to satisfy all the Prophecy and Temple cards as best you can and create the perfect Coats. You can also spawn 3 Coatleys as quickly as possible, which can leave your opponent with less ready Coatleys. As a result, the game can end very quickly or take a very long time. We really like this variety, although it can also be annoying when you do everything perfectly and your opponent rushes in and ends the game. In any case, these different options allow you to try new tactics. Coatl plays beautifully and the gameplay feels very simplistic. You will quickly learn the rules, and all actions speak for themselves. You have a few actions you can take during your turn, but not so many that you have to think for 5 minutes. Thus, the game of Coatl is quite fast and you won't have to wait long for your opponents. Since the game doesn't take too much time and the steps are simple, you can also introduce this game to new board game players. In addition to the gameplay, this game looks very beautiful. All components are of very high quality, and the game is very colorful. This is a real party on the table! We consider it an advantage that the scoring scale is on the other side of the total field, this saves a lot of space on the table. We also like the fact that the points are tallied at the end, so you can play with peace of mind without keeping track of the score. In games like Azul, scoring points after each action can sometimes get in the way of the fun. On the other hand, we can imagine that instant scoring would add a kind of racing element that would make the game a little more exciting. For example, you can check your opponent's score to see how many points you need to beat him or her. Overall, we are very happy with Coatl . We're fans of abstract puzzle games and always welcome variety in our collection. However, experienced players will probably cool off a little faster to games like Coatl and Azul. The games tend to offer less replayability and less depth than other more complex board games. So we want to have a few of these types of games in our collection so we can rotate. This ensures that the game remains fun in the long run! Coatl is the custodian of our collection. As far as we are concerned, Coatl is a great new game in the abstract puzzle collection! GAME FOR TWO PLAYERS You can play Coatl with multiple people, but you're still doing everything by yourself. Everyone is working on their own puzzle. If you have played this game more often and have experience, you might be able to interfere with another player and take the pieces he or she needs, but this is very rare. We can imagine that with 4 players it can take quite a while before it's your turn again, so we think it's better to play with fewer players...

 "Oscars" "pump" movies, music lovers have "Grammys", and board games have "Spiel des Jahres".  "Spiel des Jahres" ("Game of the Year" in Germany) is one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world of board games. Awarded every year in Germany by a jury consisting of game journalists, the main focus is on games for family leisure. The main prize of the "Spiel des Jahres" award in 2015 went to the game "Colt Express". And as soon as it became known, the number of searches for "Colt Express" on boardgameprices.com doubled.  Winner of the "Spiel des Jahres 2015" award - the game "Colt Express" Such popular games as Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Colonizers and Dominion have all been laureates of the Spiel des Jahres award. Although the Spiel des Jahres award is one of the most hyped tabletop events of the year, there are a few things you may not know about it. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPIEL DES JAHRES AWARD The most famous board game award, but not the oldest  The Spiel des Jahres is the most famous board game award, but came later than several other major industry awards.  The "Spiel des Jahres" award was founded in 1979, 4 years after the appearance of the "Origin Award" (USA, 1975) and 2 years after the "Speelgoed van het Jaar" (Netherlands, 1977). WHAT MAKES A GAME GAME OF THE YEAR The winner needs to have not only excellent gameplay, but also well-written rules, functional and beautiful design, as well as high replayability.  Winner of the "Spiel des Jahres 1998" award - the game "Elfenland" - famous for its attractive aesthetics Since the prize is German, the winner must also have the German version. MEMBERS OF THE JURY At the moment, the Spiel des Jahres jury consists of ten people. All of them are board game journalists from German-speaking countries. Each jury member tries hundreds of different games a year to come up with the shortlist for the award.  The judges of the Spiel des Jahres meet in person only four times a year, but exchange messages on their online forum. AWARD NOMINEES The Spiel des Jahres jury meets in May to draw up the final list of nominees. It is compiled on the basis of personal lists of the jury, each of which includes 20 selected games from the previous year, before the award.  The final list of five nominees, ie. contenders for the main prize, accompanied by a list of games recommended by jury members. And even to get to him is already honorable. A HUMBLE AWARD CEREMONY The laureate of the "Spiel des Jahres" award is announced in June, at a press conference in Berlin.  There is no prize money in the Spiel des Jahres award, but getting its logo on the box of your game is probably one of the best moments of life for a publisher and game designer. BEST RECOMMENDATION EVER When evaluating games, the jury of the "Spiel des Jahres" award does not take into account their sales figures, but at the same time can improve them.  The increase in sales for a Spiel des Jahres nominee is around 10,000 copies, and the additional sales of a winner can be between 300,000 and 500,000 copies...

 There is such a type of card game - on a bribe. It seems to me that many with this definition imagine a 36-card deck with queens and kings of four suits. At least for me, the bribery game is associated with exactly that. And today we will talk about one of these modernized tables. I got Fox in the Forest by accident - I saw a wonderful fox on the cover of the announced game on bgg, I was interested in the pictures on the cards, and in one of the orders "from there", when it was delivered, the box was somehow thrown in for delivery in the parcel. At that time, I did not expect anything special from it, I just liked the illustrations, it turned out later that the toy is not bad and is praised in various ways by foreign table-toppers. When it got to us, I didn't manage to try it for a long time, because I didn't feel a great desire, then I evaluated it after a couple of batches and threw it away again. But already in autumn and winter he recorded several sessions to his heart's content. WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT? In euros, you can safely score on the plot almost always, what can we say about fillers? But Fox in the Forest even has a flavor, can you imagine? Well, as a flavor, this is a short story by Alana Jolie Abbott and it has nothing to do with the maps and game mechanics, only the characters and the general environment are borrowed. But generally funny. WHAT'S IN THE BOX  A deck of cards, 33 pieces, of three suits: Bells, Keys and Moon. From one to eleven. Odd cards are text-ability cards, even numbers are just numbers.  The second component of the game is the scoring tokens.  Lots of rules and attractions. For a classic filler, the filling is quite normal, but by modern standards of stuffing boxes with any good - could the fairy tale be included in a separate mini-book, don't you think? And then I had to search on the publisher's website, and if it weren't for the Internet, I wouldn't have known that there was a plot here. HOW TO PLAY?  Fox in the Forest is designed for two. 13 cards are dealt to each person, the rest of the deck is placed face up on top of one card that is turned face up – as in The Fool, a deck with the trump card at the bottom. After that, the active player enters with one card from his hand, and the second player responds with his own, and it must be of the same suit as the first one. If the right suit is not on the hand, you can discard anything. Whoever has a larger denomination is a bribe. Trumps beat the rest of the suits. In general, such a classic bribery game that there would be no rule to describe the meaning, if not for two buts. But these are the features of the tabletop that fans of this genre have come to love.  The first is that all odd cards have some feature that works when drawn, and thanks to which you can trick and turn the tide of the game in your favor. The face and suit of most of the cards in the opponent's hands can be guessed, but there are always 6 unknown cards in the deck that add randomness and surprise throughout each hand. Second, in the game it doesn't matter if your hand is full of powerful nines and tens, because points are given here not only for collected bribes, but also for "undertaken". In order to better understand what we are talking about, here is a simple table of rules from which everything becomes clear.  That is, there is a strategy in Fox in the Forest - depending on what comes to your hand in the game, you can plan and estimate the approximate schedule for the game, whether you should chop for each card, or play for a scarcity. Taking into account the fact that a full-fledged game in "Lysitsa" is considered several hands, after which the winner is declared who has reached a certain threshold of points, the long-term strategy is also respected here. Well, as far as this concept is applicable to the filler. IMPRESSION  Fox in the Forest is a smart box with gameplay that you wouldn't expect from such a simple content. Personal impressions of "Lysytsia" only become more positive with each game. As I said above, at the beginning of last year, I didn't even expect anything from the box, except for good art, but I got more than I expected. The problem with the perception of the board is that the basis of the game is banal bribes, from which by definition you expect something... well, what I described in the introduction, some ancient nonsense. Personally, I was helped to discard my superstitions not only by personal experience and recording parties, but also by constant positive reviews from abroad (perhaps, in part, they were the ones who inclined me to spend a few dollars on an order). The game was especially appreciated by fans of trick-taking mechanics. It is supplemented with such cool things as the special capabilities of some cards and the system of counting points, which turn this little toy into something much more interesting. But its relative "difficulty weight" according to the version of bgg is absolutely true (1.59 out of 5) and at first it seemed too primitive to me, for example. However, with the acquired experience and pumping of skills in the use of mechanics, you delve deeper into the nuances, you gain an understanding of subtle moments, awareness of the possibilities of using the powers of different cards.  The tension of the parties is a plus, since every map played is important. At the beginning of the next hand, you don't know how strong your hand is and how it should be played (because the exact cards of the opponent are unknown) - whether you should take bribes or give away (play a little). At first, the course of the game will seem almost random, but it is worth gaining experience (at least 10+ games) and you will get into tricks and tricks that can be rolled with a "losing" hand, realize how to roll and output a winning sequence of moves using abilities cards that are crucial in Fox in the Forest.  Extracting information from the opponent with a "king" (denomination "eleven"), collecting points individually with the help of cards-"treasures"-sevens, the same "foxes"-threes that fundamentally break the course of the game during the game - you change the trump card, turning everything from upside down, and you can use this tool so subtly that the difference between a master in "Fox" and an inexperienced player can be noticed just by the ability to use the fox. This is not chess, of course, but. In fact, it is the whites of the cards that can be considered the main feature of the game, on which the base works - bribes.  Being a classic filler for two, Fox in the Forest is not like its counterparts and gives some new experience, which I will explain now. For example, Jaipur or Lost Cities are just right for comparison (in the latter, by the way, 35 batches have already been laid out this year). In all these games, we compete with an opponent, grab/lay out cards at a fast pace, calculating a little in advance the simplest actions. "Fox" works differently - you also see approximately the correct moves, but the choice is influenced by an additional layer in the gameplay, namely the abilities of the cards. It is necessary, as always, not only to mathematically analyze what and how to do, but also to calculate and, most importantly, invent tricks with the abilities of cards. This cardinal difference gives a slightly different impression - later the game seems more complex and deeper, or something. More than one approach is needed in order to get used to the opportunities provided to the player in this filler.  I will not say that it is better and more interesting, it is simply a fact that is a distinctive feature of the game from the two taken as an example. They are chosen because the feel of the parties are very similar to Fox in the Forest, so if you are a fan/hater of them, Fox will also fit/no need to worry. Once again, don't take the game as a consolation, no. This is just another filler whose popularity is justified by its really good gameplay, the quality of which was able to reach the heights of the top recognized boxes, such as Jaipur and Lost Cities, given as an example of exactly what are excellent games. So don't get hyped if you're a die-hard genre hater. If you are not unfamiliar with simple dueling tabletop joys, then "Fox" is at least worth a try, it may well be placed on the shelf among a number of good fillers. USEFUL LINKS Fox in the Forest on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221965/fox-forest VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 In Back to the Future: Back in Time, you play (minimum 2 players) as Marty, Doc, Jennifer, and/or Einstein the dog as they try to help Marty's parents fall in love with each other and get the DeLorean to the right place on Main Street by 10: 04 to go back to 1985. The task is complicated by Biff, who constantly tries to get George with Lorraine and prevent them from falling in love. Each character has a unique special ability and a set of starting power tiles that give you a starting set of dice. During the course of the game, completing various tasks, you can get additional tiles.  Moves are divided into 2 phases: 1. Time phase Here you simply move the cube one division along the move counter and activate effects from the corresponding icons. Each round you must draw at least one movement card that moves Biff, George and/or Lorraine around town. In some rounds, you will also have to draw a Nuisance card: they are placed on the field and constantly have certain negative effects. In some rounds, you'll also have to check your love level, and if you haven't raised it to a high enough value, the McFly family photo fragment will disappear. 2. Action phase Here you use your power tiles and item cards to move around the field and attempt various tasks. When moving, you can take George or Lorraine with you to move them to more suitable locations. Challenges include trying to raise the love level between George and Lorraine when they are together, battling Biff, moving the DeLorean, trying to collect key items needed to go back in time, completing challenges from opportunity cards, and solving problems from trouble cards. When attempting a task, you can flip over any number of power tiles available to you, roll the appropriate dice, and get as many success symbols as you like. Any dice without a Biff symbol can then be rerolled in hopes of improving the outcome. The results can then be modified with some power tiles. If there is another player in the same location as you, they can help you by flipping over their power tiles and/or item cards, adding their dice to your pool.  At the end of the phase, you flip back your power tiles and item cards, but the allies who helped you will have to wait until the end of their next turn. Each Biff symbol on the die and on the movement card moves him closer to George or Lorraine. If Biff is in the same location as one of them, and you have to activate Biff's next symbol, then the level of love decreases. You win if the DeLorean is in the ready-to-go zone at 10:04 and the love level is in the love zone. Otherwise, you will lose. You also lose if the sixth, last fragment of the McFly family photo disappears. PROS OF THE GAME What impressed me the most about Back to the Future: Back in Time was the excellent transfer of the atmosphere of the film to the table. Biff is just as crazy, all the cards feature objects or famous scenes from the movie, and making George and Lorraine a couple is not easy at all (making the disappearing McFly family photo part of the game mechanics is a great idea). Everything is like the original. During the batch, the voltage is maintained. Biff is pretty dangerous to begin with, and is made even more dangerous by the trouble cards. In addition, something new constantly appears on the playing field, and it becomes much more difficult to complete the main tasks. Combined, this creates a complex puzzle that you will solve in each game. It's great to be able to help other players on their turn. When allies sacrifice their tiles and cards for you, it causes positive emotions. Probably, the game would have worked perfectly without this mechanic, but it takes cooperation to a new level, which, in my opinion, is always a plus. I also really like the opportunity map. They promise very useful rewards to help you win, but at the same time you risk wasting your turn if the task fails. It is also pleasing that the game has many ways to level unsuccessful dice rolls. You can reroll them as much as you want (provided you don't discard a Biff symbol), and some power tiles allow you to reroll Biffs and swap symbols for others. The game scales well. There are different move counters for different numbers of players, so the level of difficulty and the length of the games do not change. So far I've only played with 2 and 3 players, but it's pretty obvious that 4 players won't change either. In my opinion, the illustrations of characters, maps and fields look simply gorgeous. I really like this style of drawing. It is good that the authors did not decide to simply insert frames from the film. Great miniature Delorean! CONS OF THE GAME As I said, it's great to have a lot of dice modifiers, but cuborandom can still hurt you a lot at the start, drastically reducing your chances of winning. If at the start your team doesn't roll dice well and you don't manage to get used to new abilities and items, then the whole game you will be playing catch-up. We had this happen only once, but as a result we lost with a bang, which became clear already after the first 5-6 moves. However, this is the only party out of seven that left a negative impression. There is no regulated difficulty in the rulebook. The game is quite hardcore in itself, but the lack of an opportunity to increase the difficulty, if we put our hand in it and it becomes very easy to play, is not pleasing. Biff and George's miniatures look amazing. Biff resembles a zombie version of Drago from Rocky, and George is just an elderly zombie. CONCLUSIONS I'm a huge fan of the Back to the Future movies, so I was very pleased to see Back to the Future: Back in Time live up to the spirit of the original... and the fan gameplay. It takes coordinated teamwork to win, the games are quite intense, and the game looks impressive on the table. Apart from one unfortunate incident, we really enjoyed all the games. If you like dice co-op and/or are interested in a Back to the Future family, then I highly recommend checking out Back to the Future: Back in Time...

 13 Clues is a pure deduction game. At first glance, 13 Clues is an update of the classic Clue . I solve the mystery. Through thorough questioning, I must determine who committed the crime, what weapon was used, and where the crime was committed. But 13 Clues offers a few twists and advantages over Clue . The first feature is that each player has their own unique secret. During the preparation, 3 cards are distributed - the person, the weapon and the scene of the crime. They are placed at the front of the screen so that the player cannot see his 3 cards, but everyone else can. I have to guess what my 3 cards are before my opponents guess theirs. Just looking around the player sheet, you see a lot of information. Next, everyone begins to cross off the cards they see on the player's sheet, eliminating all known combinations except 13 (hence the name 13 Hints).  (There is plenty of space on the player sheets to write down thoughts and observations.) Each player, solving his own mystery, corrects the main drawback of Clue - the elimination of the player. In Clue, guessing the solution is very risky. If the guess is wrong, I'm out of the game. If I'm the first-guess player, I'm at a huge disadvantage. Not only can I lose instantly, I also give my opponents useful information. In 13 clues, I can guess my solution as many times as I want without penalty. Other players will tell me if I'm right or wrong. A wrong guess has no negative impact. I really like this system. Often there will be one clue that I can't figure out. Perhaps it is difficult for me to formulate the question correctly, or the opponent is deliberately withholding information, or someone made a mistake. But in 13 Clues, I can only guess when that will happen. Often a wrong answer gives me the clue I need and I can solve the case next turn. Even better, I never have to be afraid to guess. Sometimes my opponent makes a wrong guess that's so close that I know he'll figure it out next turn, while I might be a few hints away from perfecting my decision. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, I can safely venture to guess on my own. Who knows, maybe I'll be lucky! The second twist is tempo. Competitive deduction games should slow down the leader, allowing the laggards to catch up. Clue does this with a dice roll and move where I can spend a few turns moving to a new location. 13 Hint leads the game with magnifying glass tokens. I start with 1 token that I can spend on my turn either interrogating my opponent, looking at a hidden card, or making accusations. When I interrogate an opponent, I give him my magnifying glass. So a player who is constantly passing on information will get more opportunities in his turn. If I ever run out of dandruff, I take it from the stash. This has a nice side effect — players will naturally hold the magnifying glass without giving them ice. If everyone at the table thinks I'm ahead, that I know too much, they can stop asking me questions and instead pick a player they think is behind. I'll still get one question per turn, but others will get 2 or even 3 pieces of information per turn to help them catch up. Of course, at some point these players may have enough information from others to ask me questions, allowing me to catch up. I really like games with catch-up mechanics, and 13 Hints has a real subtle method that doesn't feel like an overt help. The questions are also very different. Instead of asking for specific cards a la Hint, I ask the opponent how many cards are of a certain category (male/female person, indoor/outdoor location, melee/ranged weapon) or color (grey, brown, white, orange) they can see From their answers, I draw the cards in front of me. For example, if I ask how many male characters you see and she says "none," I know my suspect must be a woman. If I ask her how many open locations she can see and she says "one," then my location is most likely outside. It just might not be. We each have 2 hidden cards that we can see. One of these 2 cards can be an outdoor area. So when it says it sees 1 outdoor location, it could mean that my location is actually indoors.  (People, places, and weapons are easy to distinguish with simple icons.) All information is shared openly. Often I can get information from the questions and answers of my opponents. It doesn't matter who is asking the question, if someone says they see 0 gray cards, I know none of my cards can be gray. Likewise, if someone says they see exactly 2 ranged weapons, and I also see 2 ranged weapons, I know my weapons must be melee. I love it. It keeps me interested and attentive even when it's not my turn. I also need to be careful with my questions so I don't inadvertently cause a leak. Determining the cards I have is much harder than Clue. Since I can't ask about a specific card, discarding cards can be very difficult. Imagine that I know the person and the weapon, but have 2 options for the location. Both options are out of place, so I can't ask about that category directly. One is gray, one is orange, but I also have an orange person and a gray weapon. No question seems to help me choose! Even without guessing (what would I do in this situation), it is still possible to identify the cards. This complexity of deduction can be frustrating. 13 Hints lose some of their fun when players don't understand each other. Perhaps 13 Clues's worst sin is that it can hang with the wrong crowd. If everyone around the table is deadlocked, move after move will go through without progress. Eventually, players will start guessing at random. Taking a stab in the dark and being right isn't that exciting. Fortunately, most games are played quickly and all players are agonizingly close to the solution when the crime is solved. Often we will play 2 or 3 games of 13 Hints back to back. 13 Clue is a great modern update to Clue . Similarities to this classic make this game easy to teach others. Giving each player their own secret solves the problem of player elimination. Deduction is a bit more complicated than I expected, making some games a real puzzle. Despite the difficulties, everyone around me loves 13 Tips!..

 Today we want to tell you about one new item in our collection that recently arrived. And this is Honey Buzz by Elf Creek Games.  If we talk about the publisher, then, in fact, this is still a little-known office, but judging by the games, this is a publisher with ambitions. Honey Buzz is first of all a very good game. Gorgeous illustrations on the maps and field, everything is bright and colorful. The rules are made on paper that looks like plastic.  The first time I felt such rules in "Kryly". In general, it is very clear that the publisher did not skimp on the components - and this gives the game a lot, because any beautifully designed game attracts the attention of players much more than an Excel table, although I would argue with myself about the "beauty of a square" here . Of course, it was not without shoals.  The bee markers in the field are covered with some kind of hairy substance that falls off (they look very sharp and unpleasant in reality due to the fact that, apparently, they were smeared with glue before that to stick this fluff and the color of the bees does not correspond to other bee markers of the same color); the pollen markers, made in the form of shoulder bags, were badly damaged during transportation, and for some reason the pollen in them is painted in different colors (probably they thought it would be more beautiful), although it does not carry any aesthetic or practical load. We did not like these moments, because we know that it can be implemented much better. Well, that's all the bad things we found in it. By the way, it is worth noting that the manufacturer immediately created a survey and decided to replace all damaged components to the owners of the boxes. In every other sense, the game is simply stunning, especially honey.  I would like to tell a little about the gameplay itself. The game is closer to the family segment, although playing with "inexperienced" children under the age of 10 will most likely not work, as generally stated on the box, but the rest will clearly find a lot of fun in it. And now you will understand why. The game implements the mechanics of building an engine not on maps, but on honeycombs.  In the game, you are tasked with producing different honey by activating different values on the honeycombs. But here it was necessary to think about how to collect the "correct" empty place to place the desired honeycomb that will produce honey, and which honeycombs should be placed next to each other for simultaneous activation, as well as choosing honeycombs from the market to activate the necessary icons, which by their actions are activated in turn. All this gives a lot of variety in terms of building your own strategy and makes your gray matter move. There are different ways to win, but as in all Euro games, you have to overcome points or money, which is the same in this game. The gameplay is simple and clear. You take a bee, put stacks of tiles with honeycombs in front of it, from which you want to take one. You take a tile - you put it in your hive; if you closed a circle of cells, you activate all the icons in the circle and after that perform all the actions of the icons in any order. Here, of course, there is variety (of course, it does not make the brain boil, as in some games, but still): if you want, send a bee to reproduce (you start with one bee); though, collect pollen; well, you can go to the market and sell what you have made (it is worth noting that every time you sell honey, the market price will fall inexorably, so someone has time - and slippers), or fulfill an order (the same gypsy story). Accordingly, the one who scored the most and more wins. The game plays pleasantly not only due to the design of the game components, but also due to the implemented mechanics: everything is difficult and good, checked and plays quickly. You don't have time to get tired of the game, there is practically no downtime, and the interaction between players is enough for a game of this level: you can fight on the field for honeycombs, in the hive for tiles, on the market for the price and contracts, as well as for the championship in queen bee tournaments.  I highly recommend it to everyone who likes nice families where there is room to think! USEFUL LINKS Honey Buzz on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284742/honey-buzz VIDEO REVIEWS ..

REVIEW In Quetzal, each player leads a group of meeples adventurers and archaeologists on a journey through the ruins of an ancient civilization. Each meeples is black on one side and white on the other, and its color affects what actions you can perform with it. At the start of a round, players roll their meeples (just like they roll dice) to determine their party composition for the round, then take turns placing their meeples in various action locations to earn money, collect artifact cards, and deliver those artifacts for victory points. After 5 rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points wins. PREPARATION Each player chooses a color and receives all the wooden components of that color and the Character tablet, as well as some money. One of their wooden markers is placed on the 0 scoring track and the other on the 0 research track. Next, the artifact decks are shuffled, 14 of them are drawn and placed in each artifact location, the circular marker is placed in the first position of the circular track, and the enhancement tiles are shuffled, with 3 of them placed in the corresponding locations on the playing field. Some locations will have tokens that close them with fewer players.  Once that's all set up, the first player is chosen and given the first player token, and you're ready to start playing Quetzal. THROWING MEEPLES In Phase 1 of a round, players collect all of their meeples (their workers as well as character meeples), shake them in their hands, and then roll them onto the playing field as dice. All that land on a side are treated as any color. If one lands on a side, it is considered wild and can replace any color when placed. Ditto for all who get on their feet, but they also bring their owners a coin. The meeple character has always been considered a joker. LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS Phase 2, the placement phase, is where most of the game action takes place. During this phase, players will take turns assigning their workers to different locations on the field. In general, there are 3 types of locations: unique, betting and free locations. The unique locations—the Stele of Knowledge, the Temple, the Black Market, and the Village—only accept meeples of certain colors. The pond locations — Temple Precincts, Black Market, and Ships — can accept meeples of any color. However, once a color has been used in that location, it is locked and other meeples sent to that location must be of the same color. Any jokers sent to these spots become any color that is already there, or the player chooses the color that joker will become if there are no other colors. Also, if meeples are already present in that location, the player sending meeples there must send more than are currently in that location. Meeples that were already there are banished and returned to the owner's supply (their colors do not change). Of these locations, only the Black Market crosses the line between unique locations and trading locations. Free locations - Camp Captain's Office and Harbor - can accept meeples of any color, regardless of what may already be there.  Here's a quick rundown of the locations and what they do (in the same order they play during the third stage): Stele of Knowledge - The player receives the first player token and movement on the research track. Temple – Players pay coins to get artifact cards. Some locations reward face-up cards, other locations reward cards drawn from the deck, while others reward a mix of both. Surroundings of the temple . Each of these locations rewards the highest bidder with two cards shown and a coin, research track movement, or victory points. Black Market - This place allows the highest bidder to discard an artifact card from their hand for 7 coins. Settlement - Players pay coins to take 1 of the open upgrade tokens. Tile A player's character can only have 2 face-up tiles at a time. If they already have 2 upgrades, they must replace one of them. This tile is stored face down to the left of the Character tile and will be worth a certain amount of victory points at the end of the game. Harbor Master's Office - Player can spend 2 coins to send meeples here. This will allow them to deliver 3 artifact cards during the third phase. Ships - In these locations, the highest bidder will have the opportunity to deliver 6 artifact cards. Camp - The player takes a coin from the pool and can re-roll one of their meeples. If a newly rolled meeples gets back on its feet, its owner gets another coin. This location is a special case and is activated immediately when a meeple is sent there. WORKERS HAVE TO WORK In the third phase, each location is played in order of numbers (from top to bottom in the case of Temple and Village locations). When a player plays an action, their worker is removed from it. After players have played the Village location and taken their upgrade tiles, it's time to start delivering the artifacts. Each artifact card has a specific type, and the more cards of the same type a player can deliver at once (maximum 3), the more victory points he will receive for delivering them. Players can mix and match artifact cards during delivery, but this is less efficient and earns fewer victory points. Some artifact cards also have bonus icons in the upper right corner and award these bonuses when the cards are delivered.  After all the workers are removed, the round marker moves forward, any empty artifact card slots are filled with cards drawn from the deck, and the village slots are refilled with new upgrade tiles. If it's the end of the 5th round, it's game over and you move on to the final scoring. THIS IS THE END The owner of the First Player marker gets 2 points. Each player gets 1 point for every 3 coins they have left, and however many points are printed on all the upgrade tokens they have collected. These are added to any points scored by players throughout the game, and whoever has the highest total wins. CONCLUSIONS Reading about the game, everything about it sounds like something that would be right up my alley – worker placement, bidding, kit collecting, and even the intriguing meeple rolling mechanic – but the actual experience comes with so much baggage that it ends up being the one that I am in no hurry to repeat never. The problem starts before you even open the box. The game's subtitle says City of the Sacred Birds, and you'd be right to think that birds might play a part in the game. But you would also be completely wrong. Aside from an icon that looks like it could be a bird, Quetzal has nothing to do with any birds; a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.  First, there is the unpleasant aspect of the "looting ancient ruins for personal gain" narrative. This is not much different from the problem of colonialism, which Thomas Wells talks about in his "What are we playing at?". Researching and understanding the inner workings of an ancient civilization (a la The Lost Ruins of Arnak) is not problematic. However, upload found loot and ship it for victory points or money. The rulebook simply silences this aspect of the narrative, ignoring it or even acknowledging its existence. It seems like the designers were so overly focused on the game and its mechanics that they lost sight of what the game was really about, and that's not okay. Nowadays, we have to do better. We have to BE better. And speaking of mechanics, what's the deal with throwing meeples? It was this mechanic that got me the most excited when I first heard about Quetzal, and I really hoped that something interesting would come out of it. A few years ago I tried to develop a game with the meeple rolling mechanic, but I just couldn't figure out how to make it work in a way that would make anyone actually want to play the game, so I put it on the back burner. I was in awe of how Quetzal was going to do it. It looks really bad. The problem I have isn't so much with the meeples themselves. The fact is that there is no point in throwing them. When you roll your meeples, you get one of three possible outcomes: a black meeple, a white meeple, or a joker. However, at the end of the day, these meeples do the same thing, so there's nothing special about them. What is the difference between an "adventurer" who goes to a temple to collect cards and an "archaeologist" who goes to a temple to collect some cards? There is nothing that sets these titles apart thematically. As a result, I feel the same way and it really bothers me. It feels like the mechanic was added to the game just to give the game something unique to point to. I wish there were more spots on the field where only adventurers could enter and others where only archaeologists could enter, so that the decision between the two would be agonizing. Of course, the Black Market action can only be used by a black worker, and the stele of knowledge can only be activated by a white worker, but this is not enough. It never feels like your decisions really matter. And this is probably my biggest problem: the lack of interesting options. At the end of the day, Quetzal comes down to two things: collecting cards and selling cards. The cards you can collect mostly come down to sheer luck. You drop your meeples and hope for the best. The only mitigation is the Camp, which costs you a worker to recast another. There is no way to give up something now for a better outcome at another time (as in Castles of Burgundy). There's also no built-in conversion factor (à la Catan) so you can manipulate your choice of workers. You never add additional workers to your pool. No, you're just stuck with what you came in with, and the choice of what to do with these workers is always pretty obvious. For example, if you have a large collection of cards on hand, you send exactly one, of whatever color you have the most, to the location that will allow you to deliver..

 Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King Number of participants: 1-6. Game time: 60-150 minutes (depending on the selected game mode). Age: 12+. Preparation time for the party: 10-15 minutes.  Forgotten King is the sequel to Super Dungeon Explore , which is a complete base game. New features include co-op mode, new heroes, enemies and terrain, as well as updated rules. GAME OVERVIEW  Super Dungeon Explore is a board that simulates an old-school computer game: hacking heroes through hordes of monsters pouncing on them. Forgotten King has some innovations, but overall the gameplay is very close to the original. COMPARISON WITH SUPER DUNGEON EXPLORE  The main innovation of Forgotten King is a fully cooperative arcade mode. In this mode, monsters that are in a certain radius from the heroes are activated. And most of them are collected in groups of elite and ordinary minion enemies. Minions themselves do not act, but increase the attacks of elite enemies to which they are attached. Monsters take actions according to the command card you draw. It may have instructions to move and/or attack, use special abilities, or summon new monsters from spawn points. Monsters in arcade mode have a fixed attack parameter, so you have to roll the dice only to determine the hero's defense level. Monsters choose targets based on the amount of rage. When killing a monster, the hero receives points of rage, which makes it a priority target.  There are other innovations in both classic and arcade modes. Mini-bosses drop keys that can be used to get additional treasures. Among the treasures can be pets that join the group and choose their master. Pets are activated together with the owner and give him additional abilities.  When entering a new tile, you draw a research card. The find may turn out to be additional enemies, a trap, or (occasionally) something useful for the heroes. When a spawn point on a tile is destroyed, princess coins are placed in its place. With the help of these coins, you can resurrect a dead hero or completely heal any hero.  In addition to the unique actions, special abilities and attacks available to the hero, certain basic actions are available to all characters: bandage a wound (heal a comrade), rummage (search for tokens and items), cheer up (remove status effects), etc.  The original rules and classic mode have also undergone some changes. In classic mode, the consul either activates monsters with a total cost of 4 skulls, or spawns new ones. Moreover, spawning in any mode causes damage to the spawn point and spawns as many monsters as indicated on the card.  For activation, the hero can drink only one potion, and during his turn. The exception is one potion that can be drunk during consul activation. It is still possible to exchange potions, but swallowing bottles at any chosen moment will no longer work.  When you kill an elite enemy or minion, you get a loot card; a maximum of three per activation. This loot does not equip immediately. Now, at the end of each activation, there is a boost phase, in which heroes try on loot and treasures. IMPRESSION  Forgotten King licks the gameplay and rules of Super Dungeon Explore . The new co-op arcade mode is great when no one feels like playing as the consul. And many innovations make the gameplay smoother. The components are about the same level of quality. Great art, excellent (and do not require assembly) miniatures. The rulebook is better developed. I really like the new co-op mode. Once you get the hang of the mob mechanics, it's really easy and I can play with my son instead of against him. You can even play solo. Difficulty is adjustable, good thing there are options in the rulebook. And that's good, because we found the game easy. But maybe we just got lucky. Many new monsters poison the heroes. Some get bonuses by attacking poisoned heroes. This gives the monsters and consul synergy, which is great. The new characters are all interesting and very different from their predecessors.  You can also purchase an upgrade pack for the game, which allows you to use all the cards from the basic Super Dungeon Explore and previously released add-ons in Forgotten King. It's inexpensive and more than worth the chance to play arcade mode with all the SDE miniatures. If you liked the original Super Dungeon Explore, you will like Forgotten King. It adds fan innovations and licks the game a bit. If you haven't played SDE before, you should start familiarizing yourself with the line with Forgotten King. USEFUL LINKS Forgotten King on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156548/super-dungeon-explore-forgotten-king VIDEO REVIEWS ..