Spectral is a competitive deductive game, and an unusual one at that. The haunted house you and your companions explore is represented by a 4 x 4 grid of semi-randomized face-down cards, full of gems and curses. You want gems! But beware of curses. You find out where they are by placing any number of explorers between any two rooms and then exploring the contents of one of them. "Content" is somewhat misleading. The rooms in this house don't tell you what's inside. They tell you about the contents of other rooms. On the face of each card is either a curse or, more likely, a gem and one of four symbols. The symbols indicate where the displayed item is located. This card, for example, says that the gem is on the opposite side of the grid:  This card tells me that the curse is in a room that is within two spaces, diagonally:  You spend most of the game placing pieces on a grid and gathering information, all the while taking notes in the notebooks provided. Information is not the only purpose of these components. At the end of the game, when all rooms are revealed and all gems and curses are placed on the field, the gems are distributed among the players using the pieces surrounding that room. Each gem, conveniently enough, is worth 12 points and easily splits into two, three, or four, regardless of the circumstances.  Curses, on the other hand, banish nearby players before the final count. In many cases it is better to find out the location of curses than gems. Precious stones that you can risk, or curses that will not bring any good! There is an element of betting around the placement of pieces. You can give other players an advantage from a position that seems particularly profitable by placing twice as many pieces in the same position. You can even substitute your own pieces, which represents aspects of bluffing that I adore. If I realize I've put one piece next to a curse, who's to say I can't convince someone else I'm on to something good by replacing it with two or three? One of the biggest challenges of puzzle games is to make them interactive, and Spectral has found just about the best way to do it that I've seen. Unused pieces also score points at the end of the game, and depending on the number of players, they score quite a bit. You always have the option of giving away your move if you feel it is better to hold your pieces than risk a bad return. You will never have time to explore every room. By the end of the game, you're making tough choices based on opportunities and hunches.  I have nothing but good things to say about Spectral. Designer Ryan Courtney, of Pipeline fame, managed to combine the trade-offs of territory control and auction games with an engaging puzzle game, all in about thirty minutes. Spectral is smart, interactive, easy to learn and fun. Also, the final reveal of all the rooms provides a nice dramatic moment. Spectral is one of the first two releases in a new series from publisher Bitewing Games, Deep Clean. The idea behind the series is to combine complex game states and inherent gameplay with simplified rulesets. They speak my language. That's all I want. Spectral is a very good start. Oh, and to top it all off, the game comes in a pretty small box. You know, maybe 4.5/5 is too little. We may have finally done it. Maybe this is the perfect game...

 “How different can a card game be?” you might ask yourself. But then you play Faraway and get your answer. Faraway requires you to think in forward and reverse, at the same time, which means that at the end of eight rounds you’re never quite sure whether you made the right moves or not. Let’s find out more. Faraway Overview In Faraway plays will take a journey across the land of Alula “a mysterious continent where a harmonious nature reigns” (Pandasaurus is leaning in pretty heavy on the mythos here). Over the course of eight rounds, players will draft Region cards from a central display, placing them left to right into a personal tableau, and hopefully also acquiring critically useful Sanctuary cards. At the end of the eighth round, players flip all of their region cards face down, and one by one reveal them—starting with the rightmost card. But I’m getting ahead of myself…in Faraway the goal is to earn the most points, which are acquired via end game scoring on both Region and Sanctuary cards. In some cases, points are simply given (this card is worth 5 points), in other cases points are collected from icons or colors on other cards (1 point for every map icon, 2 points for every red or yellow card), and in the remainder of the cards the points are gated behind requirements (2 points for every night card, as long as you have 2 thistle icons). Now, let’s get back to the gameplay. As you reveal the cards from right to left, you score them based solely on the cards which are already revealed. “Oh, you’ve got a card which awards 10 points if you have 3 antler icons? Bummer for you…seems like you didn’t plan ahead.” This is the reason why Sanctuary cards are so important, as they don’t get flipped over at the end of the game. You can earn them for always playing Region cards which are a higher number than the one immediately to your left. If you placed a 7 last turn, and place a 16 this turn, you get to draw a Sanctuary card—and you get to draw additional Sanctuary cards for each map icon you’ve previously played. Sadly you only get to keep one, but these Sanctuary cards generally make the difference between winning and losing. After revealing and scoring all your Region cards, you make one last pass to score any points found on Sanctuary cards, then tally up the points.Faraway or Far Out?  Let’s just lay it out there…everyone I’ve played Faraway with has been tripped up in the first game or two. Even though I always double down on calling out the “forwards then backwards” scoring approach, it still takes them off guard. It usually takes 2 or 3 games to really catch on to how you must shift your thinking. Faraway rewards strategic thinking, but because it’s a card game, you also have to be able to respond to shifting situations. Faraway is also a game which requires making sacrifices. If you draw a card near the beginning of the game that intends to give you 16 points, you better play it for the points. But if you draw that same card in round 7, it might never even hit the table—unless you play it for the icons. Even though Faraway isn’t a multi-use card game in the traditional sense, I think it belongs in that group in spirit. Cards can be both points and resources, or they can just be resources if you can think far enough ahead.  Even though the others members of my game group ultimately felt that Faraway was a bit too thinky for the “small game” time slot we had placed it in, that didn’t prevent us from playing the game a number of times, in an effort to develop an understanding of the game and the strategy it requires. Faraway is definitely a game that rewards multiple plays. What about you, will you give Faraway a shot at your table? In my opinion, it’s a journey worth taking...

PRODUCT UPDATE  Hello everyone, we are happy to inform you about our super big product update. Meet the fresh arrival and novelties of our store :) Hurry up, the games are great and for all tastes, be the first to buy :)7 Wonders 7 Wonders: Duel King of Tokyo King of Tokyo: Lutoborshch Hive: Pocket ImagineDixitDixit 3 : JourneyDixit 4: OriginsDixit DisneyDixit OdysseyCartographers: A Roll Player TaleBoopKing of Tokyo. National Monster 2. ThunderhoundKing of Tokyo: Even More Wicked!EverdellEverdel: BelfaireWings: Fan Art PackCriminal ChroniclesCthulhu: Death May DieCity of HappinessHell TramSalem 1692Cynical StoriesPandemic SaboteurPROMOTIONAL ITEMS  We suggest you familiarize yourself with the promotional items that will pleasantly surprise your wallet)  Intention Intention: Age of Thirst (Intention)  Wings (Wingspan) (Ukrainian)  Endless Winter: Paleoamericans (Ukrainian)  Level 10 (Ukrainian)  5 Seconds (Ukrainian)  5 Seconds Junior (5 Seconds Junior) (Ukrainian)  Marsolovs..

ОГЛЯД ГРИ EL GRANDE El Grande is back. Hosanna. For those who are unfamiliar, El Grande, The Big itself, is one of the great canonical games in our hobby. Every podcast, list, and forum that extends beyond the Cult of the New considers it one of the greatest games ever published. That’s for good reason. El Grande is, in fact, a masterpiece. LE GRAND El Grande is an area-majority game in which players aim to accumulate political power throughout Spain. There are nine rounds, each of which follows the same pattern: players bid for turn order, then choose one of the five action cards available for that round while placing some of their caballeros out onto the board. Every three rounds, players score the board. A big part of the beauty and brilliance of the design is in the way those two—2!—decisions are woven together. Bidding is, on the face of it, simple. Each player starts the game with 13 cards, numbered from 1-13. The higher the card you bid with each round, the earlier in that round you’ll go, but there are two catches. Catch number one: the lower your card, the more caballeros—the meeples you place on the board to mark your influence—you get to add from the pool to your personal supply. Catch number two: the lowest bidding player in any given round gets to bid first for the next.  Then there are the action cards, split into five unique decks. The actions on the cards affect the board in various ways, but it mostly boils down to placing, moving, and removing caballeros. Choices are deeply political and involve a good amount of table talk. A great session of El Grande is a roiling seabed of agreements, betrayals, and machinations. The bottom of each action card also includes between 1 and 5 caballeros, which indicates the amount of influence you can place on the board that turn. There are, of course, some restrictions on placement. On the board, and as yet unmentioned, stands el rey, the King, visiting the various provinces of his kingdom. His position is critical. Caballeros can only be placed in regions adjacent to the King, and nothing—absolutely nothing—can change in the region where the king is present. In addition to putting caballeros out on the board, you have one other option: any number of caballeros can be placed in the Castle, a tall cardboard tube standing on an island to the southeast of the mainland. Why would you want to do that? Every three rounds, scoring triggers. Most of it is rote: go through each region, one at a time, and give the leading players in each region the points indicated on the board. If I have the most caballeros in Toledo, for example, and you have the second most, I get 7 points and you get 4. Before all that happens, though, we have a little bit of drama. At the start of the game, each player gets a spinner wheel showing all the regions. Before scoring begins, each player sets their spinner to one region, places their wheel down on the table, and the Castle is emptied. A moment to shovel praise on whichever member of Hans-im-Glück’s production team suggested giving the new castle a functioning gate. In the history of El Grande, the Castle has had various levels of aesthetic sophistication, but it has always been, fundamentally, a tube. To reveal its contents, one would simply lift the tube. That’s fine. Perfectly fine. Lifting that little gate and having all the caballeros spill out is wonderful.  The Castle itself counts as a region, but the real value comes in what happens after scoring it. Each player reveals their selected region and then places any caballeros they had in the castle out onto the board. This happens, I’ll reiterate, before the rest of the board is scored. The Castle is a source of tension, a sword of Damocles hovering over the board. I love a sword of Damocles hovering over the board. DER GROSS El Grande does everything I want a game to do. The rules are simple. The board state is never confusing. You make three choices every turn: how much to bid, what to pick, where to place. The choices are simple, the ramifications are complex. Truly, the ideal. Oh, and I have to say, do you know how long it takes to set up El Grande? Two minutes. That process is improved by Hans-im-Glück’s decision to include little boxes for each player’s components to be stored in between games, but even without those, that amount of time is a pittance. Lay out the board, hand out the boxes, place the starting pieces out in each province, shuffle the action cards, and you are done. Heaven. Find me a contemporary, comparably rich Euro with that kind of setup time. It cannot, by and large, be done. El Grande is not only a great game, finally made available to the masses. It is a reminder of what games can be, that complication isn’t necessary to create complexity. The Big indeed ..

ОГЛЯД НАСТІЛЬНОЇ ГРИ PINATA У грі Piñata гравці беруть на себе роль дітей на святкуванні дня народження, обоє намагаються з усіх сил зламати піньяту та отримати всередині смачну цукерку. Розумне керування вашими картками допоможе вам першим розкрити цю оболонку пап’є-маше. Піньята — це весела швидка карткова гра для двох гравців, у якій гравці протистоять один одному, обидва намагаються отримати якомога більше цукерок певного кольору, щоб виграти бажані медалі. Будь першим, хто заробить 3 медалі та стань переможцем вечірки до дня народження! Piñata постачається з 4 полями для маркерів великого розміру, які вказують, скільки цукерок належить на цій картці та чи намагаєтеся ви грати низько чи високо. Колода з 54 карт червоного, жовтого, зеленого, фіолетового, рожевого та білого кольорів (джокерів), кожна з різними номерами. 5 карток медалей, які використовуються для відзначення перемоги. Значення на медальній картці вказує, скільки цукерок цього кольору потрібно, щоб отримати медаль.  Кілька дерев’яних цукерок чудової форми в непрозорому тканинному пакеті.ПРИГОТУВАННЯ ДО ГРИ Приготувати Piñata швидко та легко. Перемішайте великі дошки (і випадковим чином переверніть їх набік) і розкладіть між обома гравцями в порядку від 1 до 4. Витягніть випадкову кількість цукерок із мішка відповідно до числа на кожній плитці та покладіть туди цукерки. Повторюйте, доки на кожній великій дошці не буде правильна кількість цукерок. Розкладіть 5 нагородних карток збоку.Перетасуйте колоду і роздайте кожному гравцеві по 8 карт. Виберіть першого гравця та починайте гру. ІГРОВИЙ ПРОЦЕС Мета гри «Піньята» полягає в тому, щоб гравець зіграв певні карти на своїй стороні кожної великої дошки «Піньята». Дошка зі стрілкою, спрямованою вгору, означає, що гравець намагається розіграти комбінацію карт із найбільшим значенням очок, тоді як стрілка вниз означає найменше значення очок. Кількість цукерок на кожній дошці визначає, скільки карток можна використати для отримання результату. Крім того, кольори на цукерках обмежують гравців грати лише в карти цих кольорів і саме тих кольорів. Використовуючи наведений нижче приклад, зауважте, що картка «3» має спрямовану вгору стрілку з фіолетовими, рожевими та жовтими цукерками. Це повідомляє гравцям, що вони можуть зіграти лише 3 карти, що карти мають бути фіолетовими, рожевими та жовтими, і що вони намагаються отримати якомога більше очок за допомогою цих 3 карт. Коли гравець розмістить правильну комбінацію карт на своїй стороні дошки, він має можливість розіграти карти на стороні суперника. У наведеному нижче прикладі гравець ліворуч уже розмістив правильну кількість і колір карток (використовуючи білий дикий символ як заміну необхідної жовтої картки).  Це означає, що тепер вони можуть зіграти жовту картку за власним вибором на табло іншого гравця. Враховуючи, що ця дошка має високі бали, якщо вони зіграють жовту 1 або 2, вони виграють дошку.ПЕРЕМОГА У ГРІ Коли обидва гравці мають правильну кількість і колір карток на дошці, гра зупиняється, і гравці визначають, хто виграє цю дошку. Гравець-переможець бере цукерки з цієї дошки, перевертає дошку на протилежний бік, кладе на неї нові цукерки, витягнуті з мішка, і гра поновлюється. Якщо після отримання цукерок гравець має достатньо, щоб претендувати на медаль, він бере цю медаль і кладе її перед собою. Гравець, який першим здобуде 3 медалі, є переможцем. ЩО МЕНІ ПОДОБАЄТЬСЯ В ГРІ Як завжди, я починаю з оформлення: якщо коробка не приваблива візуально, ви навряд чи візьмете її, і Piñata не розчарує у відділі мистецтва. Коробка чудова: святкова, яскрава, з темою мексиканської вечірки. Піньята має відчуття 3D, якого зазвичай не можна знайти в настільних іграх, і воно досить освіжає. Юнак, що бігає, зображений на кожній із карток, здається цілком сповненим рішучості добитися свого з піньятою, і вираз задоволення на його обличчі на картках із медалями є винагородою. Поля товсті та міцні, як і можна було очікувати від того, що можна буде перевертати десятки разів в одній грі. Гральні карти мають високу якість і повинні витримати багато ігор. Нарешті, цукерки… яка весела форма та яка тематична, що вони мають форму, як старомодні загорнуті цукерки! Ви та ваш партнер чудово проведете час, витягуючи їх із сумки та складаючи перед собою.ЩО НЕ СПОДОБАЛОСЬ Єдиний мінус, який я можу сказати про Піньяту, це те, що вона іноді може тривати трохи довго. На полі зазначено 30 хвилин, але іноді гра може збільшити 40 хвилин, оскільки гравці аналізують розташування карток. Це не велика угода, якщо обидва гравці знають про це, але просто знайте, що це може бути проблемою. ВИСНОВКИ Варто зазначити, що Piñata – це свого роду ребрендинг старішої гри під назвою Balloon Cup. Якщо ви хотіли спробувати цю гру, але не можете, тому що її важко знайти, тоді Piñata може подряпати цей свербіж за вас, і за набагато нижчою ціною. Якщо ви шукаєте чудову, веселу, досить швидку гру для двох гравців, то Piñata точно вам підійде. Чому б не покачатися і перевірити, чи подобається вам Піньята?!..

In 1995, Klaus Toiber introduced Settlers of Catan to the world. It won the Spiel des Jahres that year and, without any hyperbole, changed board games forever. Four years later, Toiber launched his space game with The Starfarers of Catan. This version included a much larger board with planetary systems, new resources to collect, and one large rocket per player. Unfortunately, the production aspects let the game down. The rocket and the parts attached to it often break during repeated actions. As a result, Starfarers disappeared from the shelves, leaving behind a mixed legacy. Settlers of Catan has since been renamed Catan with many expansions. People like me who have long heard that Starfarers is better than standard Catan have been patiently waiting for a Starfarers re-release. In 2019, this reissue finally hit stores. It came with improved plastic parts and a modular field. But is Catan: Starfarers really any good? And can it be better than Catan? Let's bring the game to the table to see for ourselves, shall we? PREPARATION FOR THE GAME You will start by creating a playing field. It consists of six 11" x 11" puzzle pieces that, when assembled, will have several empty spaces that you will fill in with matching dolly pieces. The game's almanac suggests the setup for the first game, including which planetary systems (the pieces corresponding to the empty spaces) go where, as well as the positions of each player's starting pieces at the base of the field. We stuck with this and found it resulted in a well-balanced first game, but then changed the setup for subsequent games. The planets in each planetary system have their own symbol. Find the matching disks and place them symbol-side up on each planet. Set all other discs aside. Place all the resource cards in the tray provided, making sure the item cards go into the slot marked 2:1. Each of the other cards are slotted 3:1, meaning they can be exchanged for other cards throughout the game at this exchange rate. Take eight cards from each resource, shuffle them together and place them in the open hole in the tray. Deal three cards from this deck to each player. Another tray is added for various upgraded missiles (Booster, Freight and Cannon) and broken pieces of glory. Shuffle the deck of Encounter cards and place them in the large hole at the end of the tray. Sort the Friendship cards into four separate decks and place them on the side of the board. Place the corresponding standing tokens next to each deck. Then each player chooses a color and takes all pieces of that color. These include colonies (large hex pieces), trading stations (smaller hex pieces), shipyards (hex rings that fit around the colony pieces), and transport ships (tiny missile ships). Place the round score markers on the number 4 on the board. The first player to score 15 points wins. And there is Rocket. Let's face it: As far as gaming components go, these rockets are pretty cool. If you are playing for the first time, carefully unscrew the top of the rocket and drop 2 yellow, 1 blue, 1 red and 1 black small plastic balls into it. Then replace the top of the rocket. Now shake her. (You know what you want!) Take one of the orange boosters from the rocket upgrade tray and add it to the bottom of one of the three rocket fins. Then everyone gets half a fame token. (Two tokens = 1 point) Choose the first player and start the game. GAME PROCESS If you know how to play Catan, you will be familiar with most of how to play Starfarers. During your turn, you roll two dice, take the total, and match that number to the numbers on the planets. Players who have a trading station, colony, or spaceport next to a number collect a resource that matches the color of the planet. The active player can then trade resources with other players and/or trade resources to upgrade their rocket or build spaceports, colonies or ships. If you roll a seven in Starfarers, anyone with more than seven resource cards in their hand must discard half of their cards, rounded down. An extra action in Starfarers also involves shaking your rocket. In the movement phase, you count the number of displayed balls. This number indicates how many hex corners on the board you can move each of your ships in space. However, if one of these balls is black, no movement occurs. Instead, the player to your left draws the top encounter card from the deck and reads the top part aloud. Many encounter cards contain scenarios (“You meet a merchant…” or “You meet a space pirate…”) that require you to make a choice. If, for example, you choose to fight a space pirate, you and the other player will shake your rockets and compare the total number of small plastic balls that appear in the base (red = 3; yellow = 2; blue = 1). ; black = 0). The Encounter card explains the results and consequences. INTELLIGENCE As you move into space, you can choose to contact those planetary systems I mentioned earlier. Landing on an intersection that is adjacent to one will turn all three discs face up. Some of these will be numbers, indicating that they will generate resources if a trading station, colony, or spaceport is located on a nearby intersection. Some discs may have either the Ice Planet or the Pirate Base. In this case, planetary intersections with these markers are prohibited until they are resolved. In the case of an ice planet, one of your ships must be adjacent to it, and your rocket must be equipped with cargo containers equal to or greater than the number on the disc. At the pirate base, your missile must have a number of cannons equal to or greater than the specified number. When terraforming an ice planet or defeating a pirate base, you first collect a token on the planet and get one point. You then replace it with a disc with the same symbol, placing it face up so that the number is visible. WE ARE LOOKING FOR FRIENDS The board is also populated by four outposts. Each Outpost has a central docking point and places where trading stations can be placed. As a goodwill gesture, when you do, you'll get to choose one of that alien race's bonus cards. All these cards give you a special power for the rest of the game. The first player to reach an outpost will also receive a friend token for that race worth one point. This friend token remains yours unless another player places more trading stations on the outpost than you. If so, the other player claims a Friend. You lose a point and they get one. CONCLUSIONS Catan: Starfarers has a lot to recommend it. Let's start by studying the game. As far as I've seen, the player hints in Starfarers are almost perfect. Even if you're new to the Catan system, the cards are easy to read. They explain player moves and show the resources needed to upgrade your rocket and build a trading station, colony or spaceport. Like Catan, Starfarers comes with a Rulebook and an Almanac. The rulebook covers the basic rules and details the possibilities of a particular move. The Almanac is an alphabetical listing of all game items with details on each part of the game. If you have a question, it will be answered in one (if not both) of these guides. Despite the number of planets in different planetary systems, the chance to get resources is much greater in Starfarers. More resources mean more trading opportunities. Also, the standard trade in the game is 3:1 (as opposed to Katana's 4:1). We were still short on certain resources, but there were more chances to build a spaceship or power up our rockets throughout the game. I'm sure some people may disagree with this, but I welcomed the lack of development cards from Catan in Starfarers. Development cards in Catan are a hidden element of the game that can be obtained as you get closer to victory. I've never been a big fan of these cards, and not having them is a big plus for me. This keeps Starfarers as an open-ended game, which is my favorite style of play. Starfarers, on the other hand, takes significantly longer to play than standard Catan. Our last game of Catan for three players took about an hour, a game of Starfarers with the same number of players took about 2.5 hours. (Our first four-player game, played by people familiar with Catan, took 3.5 hours.) Despite the increased access to resources, it will not be enough to stay only on the initial resources. Therefore, you will need to build spaceships and move them to other planets. Although both games take place within a limited field, the field of Starfarers is many times larger than the field of Catan. Clash cards often pause the game (again, they are drawn when a black orb appears at the base of your rocket), interrupting the flow of the game. Also, many Encounter cards are duplicates. With the attention to detail the team put into the rest of the game, repeating these frequently drawn cards just doesn't make sense. It became something of a running joke every time an Encounter card was drawn, with people around the table saying “You encounter a trader…” before the card was even read. If there were a greater variety of Encounters, they would be approached with some degree of caution. As it was, even the worst results were only mildly annoying and hardly worth the effort. Going back to the questions I posed at the beginning of this review, "Is Catan: Starfarers really good?" So. With Starfarers, Toiber took the concepts of its predecessor and turned it into a great adventure game. This leaves me wondering, "Can it be better than Catan?" For me, Starfarers is better than Catan. On my first playthrough, I realized that I had more fun with Starfarers than I had with Catan in a long time. This wasn't just because of a fancy rocket or new components, it was because the openness of the board demanded exploration, and with it, new things to discover. Another thing I realized during a recent game of standard Catan was that in Starfarers I could actively..

PIES GAME REVIEW I love old pictures and illustrations of fruits like those found in botany textbooks from the late 1800s. The attention to detail is impressive, the gradation of shades and shapes, flaws. Cards for Pies captivated me, lovingly executed work in an identical style. I found myself getting stuck on the cards while going through them. These cards create a world with a distinctly pastoral feel, the spine of the book covered in dust. Then I got to the tokens with the pie cut out on them, and I started to worry. They did not feel aesthetic. I caught myself thinking about the old writer's maxim: "Don't put a hat on top of a hat."  Pies is supposed to be an empowerment game and is being marketed as such, but that's flat out wrong. There are no suits, no pressure to follow, no trumps. The game exhibits none of the defining characteristics of the genre. This is an auction game about collecting fruits and recipes to turn them into pies.  Each player places one card from his hand in the middle of the table. Then, from the highest card to the lowest, everyone can choose any of the cards played to add to their table. Some cards have recipes that require fruit combinations, while others give you an immediate bonus. Bonuses can be three Pi tokens that can change the value of the card you play, the ability to steal a card from another player, or the aforementioned dog that protects your painting from being stolen. If you have successfully collected the required fruit combinations, you can turn over the recipe card and discard the corresponding fruit. This flipped card is now locked, a safe source of late game points.  Pies are boring from start to finish. There are very few solutions. Playing cards is rarely fun. The quality of solutions is somewhere between limited and non-existent. The only enjoyment to be found is when you play a Pi token that changes the value of your card by 3.14 so that your card is exactly 0.14 higher than the other player's card. A dog card comes out of nowhere. Pi tokens seem like a gratuitous joke. Their combined aesthetic departure from the game's world, suggesting a creation that doesn't know what it is, is perfectly aligned with the game's inability to choose a meaningful line...

 Project GIPF is a series of eight abstract strategy games designed by Chris Burm. Each game has a hexagonal playing area and involves reducing the number of pieces or mechanics of the playing area. The way they approach these elements is not only unique, but also combines what I think are the best qualities in most theses: simple rules that reveal a complex game. If you've never heard of Project GIPF, GIPF , TAMSK , ZÈRTZ , DVONN , YINSH , PÜNCT , TZAAR , and LYNGK , I encourage you to look them up in cardboard form or digitally online. They are worth your time. Today's game: TAMSK  Before I begin, I know some supporters may object to including TAMSK here. This is because in 2007, when Broome introduced TZAAR , he stated that it would replace TAMSK in the GIPF project. fine. When you write a review about a GIPF project, feel free not to mention it. Having played TAMSK, I know it deserves a mention every time a GIPF project comes up. That's because TAMSK , a game about balancing the falling sands of time against a rapidly shrinking board, is a great game. Great game. GAME PROCESS The game takes place on the hexagonal black field located between them. Each player has three hourglass timers; one takes the black timers and the other takes the red timers. You will also have 32 white rings.  At the start of each turn, you'll take one of your three hourglasses, flip it over and place it in any available pipe next to where it started. You will then place one of your rings on top of the hourglass where it will fall around the tube that holds the hourglass. As soon as one player places the hourglass in the tube, the next player can move. They don't have to wait for the ring to sweep through the hourglass just played. When a tube has rings equal to its height, that tube is out of play. This means that the outermost trumpets can only be played once, the second "ring" of hexes can be played twice, and so on. For an hourglass timer to remain in play, it must always have sand from the top half to the bottom. If the hourglass runs out of sand at the top, it freezes on the board. The pipe he is standing in is blocked until the end of the game. The game continues until neither player can make any additional moves because their timers have run out of sand or they have no valid moves. Again, the winner is the one with the fewest rings at the end of the game. CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE GAME When the taller pipes are toward the center of the board, the gameplay will naturally move toward the center. However, the outer edges can be good places to quickly drop rings in an attempt to block your opponent's hourglass. (Remember that a frozen hourglass cannot move and therefore will not help you get rid of the rings.) By introducing real-time as a game mechanic, players are forced to quickly assess their hourglass, their position on the board, the position of their opponent's hourglass, the areas where their hourglass can be trapped, and how you can catch one of your opponents. sand clock. All in a fraction of a second. With varying degrees of 3-minute hourglass, there is no time for analysis paralysis in TAMSK.  TAMSK is the only game I play standing up. Too much is happening too fast for me to sit and feel like I can take it all in. It's also the only abstract strategy game that gives me an adrenaline rush. True, this type of game is not for everyone. I once played TAMSK with a friend who, at the end of the game we were playing, said, “I play games to relax and take my time between turns. I never want to play that again." Personally, I will play it when I can. It's a fast-paced game similar to Speed Chess, except you don't hit the timer after making a move—the timers are your playing pieces, and you have to manage them both in time and place. TAMSK was removed as an official game in Project GIPF mainly due to production costs. As a result, it has been out of print for years and is hard to find. However, if an exciting abstract strategy game sounds intriguing, then this Pluto from the GIPF project is worth your time...

 In this review, I want to talk about an unusual board game. It is unusual for two (even three) reasons: firstly, it is based on a popular computer game (no, no, this is not Civilization), and secondly, this game is an action game. A real action game in a desktop version! And thirdly, the game was successful, which, as you understand, does not always happen in games (or movies) based on well-known franchises. So, meet: Gears of War, or "Six of War"! The board game Gears of War is based on the computer game of the same name, released on PC and consoles in three parts, which has gained considerable popularity. To be honest, I haven't played the original, so I don't even know who the Locasts are and why they fight the humans. Then, you ask, how did I buy it if I'm not a fan of this game on PC? For several reasons: FFG, Corey Konicka, and fancy Artificial Intelligence (AI). The game promised a never-before-seen opponent AI (yes, this is a cooperative game in which one to four people face off against a cardboard dummy), and looking ahead, I will say that the developer managed to fully realize the illusion that you are playing with a fairly intelligent opponent. And all it took was a deck of cards! A very unusual game genre. Although there were games with a similar content before that (Doom, Space Hulk), it was quite a long time ago and each of them had a villain player. So, this is a real tactical shooter! I wonder how Konichka managed to adequately transfer the infernal shooter from the computer to the table and also turn it into a multiplayer? Miracles, and sometimes...  Perhaps, I will tell you about the composition of the box. Since Gears of War was released by FFG, the quality of miniatures and maps should not be mentioned separately - and so it is clear that it is excellent. Although, I will stop a little bit on minky - I have not seen such high-quality ones anywhere on the tables (or so I think). The detailing is excellent, you can see every little thing, and they did not skimp on the size. The artist who painted the miniatures for me noted that it was both easy and difficult to paint them at the same time - precisely because of the excellent detailing, where every jamb was immediately visible. In the tabletop Gears of War, 4 heroes are available, each with their own card, which indicates their starting ammunition (it is slightly different for each fighter) and some unique special ability (more details below). There are a lot of cards in the game - as I already said, the II engine consists entirely of them; also, all orders to fighters are given using maps, all weapons, mission conditions and information about locast monsters are displayed on the maps. Ammunition and grenades are made using tokens, very convenient. The terrain tiles are great, the cardboard is very thick and dense. Some expressed complaints, they say that the small ones are too small, the monsters pile up on them, it's inconvenient, but I didn't notice this during the game - everything is perfectly contained and practical. The tiles are divided into zones, along which the fighters and Locasts walk, very conveniently, there are practically no questions about the range of movement and line of sight (unlike the unforgettable Descent, where the tiles are divided into cells and disputes of this kind arise at every step).  Let's move smoothly to the gameplay. All the missions in "Gears" are varied, it may seem to some that 7 missions are too few for the game, but it is not so. Not only are they all different and use different monsters, but each time the tiles of the terrain will be laid out in a different order, and because of this, the optimal order of passage (if there is one at all) will be different. Each type of monster has its own card, where all the information about them is displayed - how much protection it has, whether it can be cut down by a lancer (ooooo, rifles with chainsaws are not only a feature of "Warhammer"!), how many life points it has, how powerfully it attacks. Some have ranged weapons, some only attack in an area with a fighter. Well, each type of monster has its own special feature, which is activated only if a special sign, popularly known as a "skull", or, using the game's terminology, an "omen", falls on one of the attack cubes. By the way, each weapon in the game not only has 2 alternative modes of fire, but also has its own features that are activated by the "omen". Each fire mode shows how many dice the fighter will roll in an attack, attacking with or without spending an ammo token. The "trick" is that with the consumption of cartridges, the attack is much stronger, but replenishing stores can become a real problem. And if you take into account that with the lack of cartridges, even the "gentle" mode of shooting stops working, you will involuntarily start saving ammunition and sawing more often (especially since some order cards hint).  Now about the Locust AI. Like I said, it's just a deck of two types of cards: 1) monster-specific order cards, and 2) general orders. Due to the fact that the orders are formulated very competently, one gets the impression of an "intelligent" opponent. For example, the order on the Locust map indicates that if the drones (men with rifles) are no more than two zones away from the nearest fighter in line of sight, then they move to him one zone and attack. Otherwise (that is, they are two zones away) - they move two zones to the nearest fighter. In this spirit, almost all the orders are kept, it is very difficult to interpret them. If none of the conditions are met - draw the next card of the order, and so on until the order does not work. The difficulty of the missions varies due to which orders are mixed into the II deck. Monsters appear on the map also in an original way - the tiles are marked with "holes", from which they climb out thanks to the general order cards, and the number and type of Locusts that appear depends on how much a person resists them (the game has excellent scalability , although, of course, the most complete Gears of War opens on the 4th). These holes, by the way, can be sealed with grenades (the goal of the first mission is to seal such a hole), and this is one of the tactics of the game.  And the last type of reaction is "defense". Let's say the preemptive strike didn't work, Cole also missed, and Boomer is already preparing to attack with four cubes. You can discard a card with a "defense" reaction before attacking, and then 2 more is added to your defense dice, which is quite a lot and can save your ass from getting hurt. When wounded, let me remind you, you discard cards from your hand, and if you have nothing left in your hands - you are wounded, and all your actions are limited to crawling one zone in a move; you can be picked up by a friend who is in the same zone as you and spends a card from your hand. Then you go up with zero cards in hand, and take two at the start of your turn. Thanks to all of the above, all this fun with tactics arises. As a rule, there are no less than three reprehensible options for a move, what can we say about unreprehensible ones. By ill-judged, I mean moves that completely ignore the Locust's counter move, or ignore a possible harsh response in the hopes of something. But maybe it doesn't flow here; I witnessed the cruel end of the party move to the 6th - II is sometimes inhumanly insightful and accurate. However, even taking into account "good" moves, you can have unpleasant surprises from a seemingly stupid "cardboard". But it depends to a greater extent on the dice and to a much lesser extent on the issued order cards. You can shamefully miss the Thing with 4 cubes (in the last game I personally saw 5 (!) misses on 5 attack cubes at once), but you can throw away 5 "shields" on 3 defense cubes.  Ah yes, I didn't talk about the combat system. Everything is very simple (it is similar to the game Descent) - there are attack cubes with successful and unsuccessful hits, and there are defense cubes with "shields" and without. Moreover, the defense modifier can change depending on whether a fighter or a Locust is in the shelter or not. Those hits that were not absorbed by the shields are applied. Also, depending on the mission, the tactics of passage also change. Rush to the treasured door to the second level on all pairs, or carefully clean everything and everything, covering each other? By the way, at first, when completely clearing the area and wiping out opponents, be careful. It may seem that it becomes boring to play, because the fighters advance without losses, Locasts are cut out in packs, there is a sea of cartridges ... Suddenly, everything can change, and after a pitiful couple of activations, a couple of fighters will already be crawling under your feet with sobs "don't leave me!" or "run, I'll catch them!" depending on the seriousness of the moment. I note that in a game of 4, getting a couple of fighters to their feet and fighting off the Locusts at the same time is like a feat. Although the situations are different, in one game a soldier blew himself up with a grenade, killing four Locasts (and even managed to stay on his feet, although he was all wounded). Although I talked about the fact that it is most fun to play with four, it is quite a raking composition for three, and for two, and even for one! True, many order cards then stop working, because they are designed for at least two, but I assure you that the game does not lose its charm and fun at all! And yes, an add-on was released for Gears of War, which is a set of maps (more), where there are 2 new missions, new types of monsters and new types of weapons. The new Locasts use base miniatures, replacing their stats. Also, I know that fans make up their fighters, creating their own characteristics.  Summing up, I can't help but note some of the game's shortcomings. Some missions are very long,..

REVIEW In Periodic: a Game of the Elements (hereafter referred to as Periodic), players compete to collect sets of elements and advance their research as they navigate the periodic table. Doing this research requires energy, but a lot of it. Players will need to use their reserves effectively to find the items they need to complete the objective cards and progress along the achievement track. When the game ends, points are earned for the objectives achieved as well as the achievement track, and the player with the most points wins. If you're just curious to know what I think of Periodic, feel free to scroll down to the Opinions section. For the rest... PREPARATION Preparing Periodic is relatively simple. The game board is laid out, and 8 element group cards are randomly placed around it, 4 on each side of the board. The objective cards are separated by color and shuffled into four face down decks. They are placed above the playing field, and the top card of each is turned face up.  Objective cards depict specific sets of items. The objective dice that correspond to the objective cards are then placed on top of each of those items, the bonus tiles for each stack of objective cards are placed on top of the corresponding objective cards, and the lab tokens are set aside. Finally, one energy is placed on each of the periodic trends below the periodic table. After choosing their player's color and collecting their pieces, each player gets some energy to start the game. After the starting player is chosen, each player places one of their lane markers on one of the element group cards (dictated by turn order), their flask on the element with the lowest number corresponding to that element group, and then another lane marker on the first place of achievement track. You are now ready to play Periodic. MOVING In Periodic, players will use energy to move their vials around the game board so they can find the items they need to fulfill the requirements of the objective cards. By putting energy into or taking energy from the Periodic Trend, the player can move their flask in the specified direction from 1 to 5 times. If the move causes the bulb to end up on the spot with the target die, then the player places one of their research dice on the corresponding target card to show that they have discovered the item. If the player has placed energy, then the extra energy can be spent during the player's turn to move multiple times and in different directions if the player wishes. If any player discovers all the elements on the target card, that card is scored. Any player with only 1 research die on their card gets 3 lab points. Any player with 2 research dice on their card gets a 5 point token. The player who completed the card does not receive lab tokens, but instead takes the card. The new card is then turned face up to replace it and the corresponding target dice are placed accordingly.  When setting up the map, Element Groups were laid out around the play area, and players would place one of their lane markers on one of them. To advance along the achievement track, a player looks at the next card of an element group clockwise from their current marker position, and then attempts to end their turn with their flask on one of the elements included in that group. If they do, they place their marker on that card and then advance their other marker one position on the achievement track. As we will soon see, this will provide players with points at the end of the game. ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END A Periodic Game End is triggered when a player meets one of the following conditions: 2 stacks of objective cards are empty, 1 stack of objective cards is empty, and one player has reached one of the last 3 cells of the Achievement Track, or 2 players have reached one of the last 3 spaces of the Achievement Track. Each other player then gets one extra turn. When this is done, the scores are tallied and the player with the most points wins. Players earn points for completing objective cards, collecting lab tokens, remaining research cubes that have been placed on unfinished objective cards, and tracking achievement progress. CONCLUSIONS If you've read my past Cytosis and Subatomic reviews, you'll no doubt know that I'm a huge fan of Genius Games. John Covia's ability to gamify the science behind everyday things continues to amaze me. I've always wondered what the world looks like through the eyes of a game designer. Being able to look down on the periodic table of the elements and see the game there is something that puzzled me. Yet John Covey did it, and it works. In his past games, John turned real scientific processes into games. Cytosis changes the way cells take in nutrients and expel waste, while in Subatomic, players manipulate subatomic particles to create protons, electrons, and neutrons, then combine them to create atoms. However, periodicity is something completely different. In Periodic, you don't put things together to make new things. Instead, you learn about what already exists by examining the structure in which the data is organized. It's like finding out about a person by going through their files in a filing cabinet. Although this can be interesting and informative, the process itself is not very exciting. It's easy to get carried away with smashing atomic particles to create things. It's much harder to get excited about looking at a chart.  However, if you can get past the theme, you'll find a game that might surprise you. On paper, Periodic is a game about efficient resource management and route planning. How do you get the most you can in one go using only the energy you have at your disposal? At its core, however, Periodic is a fast-paced racing game. These goal cards fill up quickly and the achievement track is a ticking clock. You are constantly forced to choose between generalization or specialization. Do you focus all of your efforts on one objective card or spread out over several? If you finish your move here, will it be an easy opening for your opponents to capitalize on and score big points? Is the personal benefit of ending your turn really worth it, or should you wait and see what happens next? There is constant pressure to keep moving and at the same time you feel the same pressure to stand still and stay put. These conflicting desires create an interesting tension, and that tension grows closer to the end of the game. Aside from wishing the theme was a little more exciting, the only downside I can find with this game is that there is no way to change the turn order as of this writing. While this doesn't affect gameplay, it was pointed out to me in at least one play session that if two players were racing to get to the end of an achievement track and could progress each turn, the player who goes first in queue order would always wins. This is important because the last 3 spots on this lane can only accommodate a certain number of players. If you reach the end first, the people behind you will have to settle for second to last place. It's only 5 points, but in a tight race those 5 points can make all the difference. I understand that the final round of the game is designed so that each player will have the same number of moves, and this will be impossible to calculate since a player's starting token is constantly changing positions, but the inability to change the move order is still worth mentioning. In the end, I really like Periodic. While this isn't Genius Games' strongest game, it's still very good. I like the fast pace of the game and I appreciate the challenges that are presented to me. And like all of Genius Games' offerings, I definitely approve of Periodic's sneaky educational nature. John Covey's games always teach you something, even if you don't know you're learning it. When you see Periodic Trends as more than just places to place energy tokens, you realize that these are real concepts that are accurately reflected in how your bulb token moves along the periodic table, and before you know it, you'll be re-searching for periodic trends in Google. And that is the magic that Genius Games constantly brings to the table. The experience goes beyond the tabletop. Their games don't just make you a better player, they make you a smarter person...