PAVE YOUR WAY TO VICTORY This wonderful tile-laying game created by Michael Kiesling has taken the world by storm. Read our Azul review to find out why this Spiel des Jahres -nominated game keeps people talking about it so much! Originally blue and white, but later made in many bright colors, azulejo tiles have been around for a very long time. The beginning of these functional works of art dates back to the 13th century. Originally Moorish in origin, the art form really took off when King Manuel I of Portugal visited Spain in 1503. While there, he was mesmerized by the gorgeous tiling that covered almost every visible surface. Enchanted and inspired, upon his return he ordered the production of Portuguese azulejos. In Azul, you take on the role of one of the commissioned artists. Your goal is to decorate the estate with azulejo tiles (i.e. score the most points) before the end of the game to please the king. After all, the king's mercy is worth its weight in gold. SO LET'S START THE REVIEW) During each round in Azul, players will take turns building tiles from multiple collections of tiles in the center of the table. The tiles a player chooses directly affect the pool of tiles left for other players to choose from. After taking all the tiles of the same color from one of the factories, the player will place those tiles on the "pattern line" section of his board according to certain placement rules. Once all the tiles have been stacked, any completed lines of the pattern will result in the tiles being added to the "wall" area of the player's tablet and points will be awarded. The game continues in this manner until one player has completed a horizontal line of tiles on their wall. A final tally is then made and the player with the most points wins. If you're just wondering what we think of the game, feel free to scroll down to the Opinions section of this review. However, if you want to know more about the game, read on. PREPARATION FOR WORK First, each player takes a game tablet and places it in front of him and places his cube on division 0 of the victory point track:  Then several "factory tokens" (depending on the number of players) are placed in the center of the table in a ring. These Factories are then replenished with 4 tile tiles drawn from the bag: The first player is selected and receives the corresponding tile of the first turn:  Now you are ready to play. WE BEGIN TO FORM OUR PATTERNS At the core of Azul is the tile selection that takes place each round. Before the first player begins his turn, the player's starting tile is placed in the center of the factory circle, and the first player places 4 tiles per factory. On his turn, the player chooses a group of tiles from any factory, takes all tiles of the same color and places them on his board in the pattern line area. All unselected tiles are moved to the central area between factories. Alternatively, a player may take all tiles of the same color or pattern from the center area, but if a player's starting token is present, they must also take it and immediately add it to the "floor line" area on their board (more on that later). Placing tiles on a pattern line requires players to follow some basic rules: All tiles on the same line must be of the same type. A player cannot place tiles on a pattern line if the wall row corresponding to that pattern line already contains tiles of that color. WE TAKE A BREAK AND COUNT THE POINTS After all the tiles have been taken from the factories (any tiles that cannot be used by the players are placed on the floor line), each line of the pattern is examined from top to bottom. For each completed pattern line, the rightmost tile is moved from the pattern line to its corresponding location on the wall. Tiles remaining on a completed pattern line are removed from the player's board and returned to the box for a specified time. Each tile placed on the wall is counted both vertically and horizontally. A tile alone is worth one point. However, if that tile completes a line of tiles, it gets points for each tile in that line. To better illustrate this, consider an example.  In the above example, there are several finished pattern lines - line 1, line 2 and line 4. Lines 3 and 5 are incomplete. Pattern line 1 consists of a single tile in a classic blue and white azulejo style. Since this line is complete, the tile is placed in the corresponding location on wall line 1. There is already a black tile on wall line 1, and since this newly placed tile touches the black tile, the player will receive 2 points. There is currently nothing in wall line 2, so the newly placed tile will not score vertically. The second line of the pattern contains two red tiles. As this line is completed, one of the red tiles is moved to its corresponding location on the line of Wall 2. The remaining red tile is placed back into the box. Since there is already a yellow tile on the Wall 2 line, this newly placed tile will score points for both itself and the yellow tile. And, because of the black tile above the newly placed tile, it will also get a point for itself again, just like the black tile. As a result, the player gains 4 more points.  Row 3 is incomplete, so those tiles remain where they are. Ditto for pattern line 5. As pattern line 4 is completed, one of the tiles from there is moved to wall line 4, where it receives the corresponding points. The other tiles in pattern row 4 are placed back into the box. Finally, after scoring points for each pattern line completed, players look at their floor line. Any tile will give players negative points. The more tiles in that area, the more negative points they get. After all players have finished scoring, any tiles on their floor lines are placed back into the box. The player with the first player's tile places it back in the center area and then fills the bag factories with new tiles. If the bag runs out of tiles, it is replenished with tiles from the box. THE WORK IS FINISHED, THE FINAL POINTS CAN BE CALCULATED Play continues in this manner until the end of a round in which at least one player completes one horizontal line of the wall. Then the final scoring is done. Players earn bonus points for completing wall lines, vertical rows, and collecting all 5 items of the same color. After the final tally is completed, the player with the highest number of points is declared the winner. NOW FOR OUR IMPRESSIONS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE GAME Azul is very attractive at first with its design and excellent components. The colors are bold and bright, and the tiles have a pleasant massiveness and tactility. It's just a very attractive game. Looking at it, we can totally understand the obsession of King Manuel I. Kudos to Chris Quilliams and everyone else involved in the visual aesthetics of this game. When we first saw Azul on the table, we sat down to play knowing nothing about the game other than its popularity. To be honest, we didn't know what to expect. When we read the rules, they were pretty easy to understand and we couldn't wait to start playing once the rules were explained. The first game didn't go very well. By the end of the fifth or sixth round, one of the players managed to earn only 17 points. In the very next round, the player was stuck with a huge pile of red tiles, which all went to his floor. In one fell swoop, almost all of his progress was wiped out. We were a little disappointed and ready to throw Azul into the fire and never return to it. Fortunately, cool heads prevailed. We still convinced ourselves to come back and try the game. Our terrible experience with the first game taught us lessons we didn't even realize. To repeat a banal expression, it's as if a light bulb has gone out in our heads. Suddenly, we were able to look at the mechanics of the game and see the smart strategy behind it. Going from Azul's number one detractor to one of his biggest fans.  Playing Azul is very similar to playing chess. You should always be aware of what your opponent is doing. Sometimes it's very obvious, sometimes less so. If you can clearly see that their execution of one pattern line will earn them a ton of points, then your strategy should change accordingly. You may want to try to send as many tiles of that color to the center as possible so that they are forced to take more than they need. Or maybe you decide to try to collect all those tiles for yourself. However, if you go this route, you'll want to try to maximize your scoring opportunities accordingly. It's a clever game of cat-and-mouse as you try to force your opponents into undesirable positions while trying to force them to open up good scoring opportunities for you. This is where the essence of Azul lies - the constant guessing and re-guessing (and even triple or quadruple guessing!) as you try to figure out how your opponents might react to your actions. “If I take those tiles, they'll probably go to the ones over there, which will leave THOSE other tiles in the center, and then I can grab them next turn and complete this pattern line here. But, if they don't go for those other tiles, they can choose that group instead. Maybe I should take that other group, even if it doesn't help me much, to try to get them to go to the tiles I really want them to take. But, wait…” And it goes on. While these types of mental gymnastics may not appeal to some, for us they really make this game great. The constant need to make interesting decisions even helps to overlook randomness when displaying tiles. I almost don't notice it anymore. I'm all about getting the brain on fire. No wonder this amazing game received a nomination for Spiel des Jahres. In a few short months, it became our second most played game. Easy-to-learn rules, super-fast set-up, and thought-provoking gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. Add to..

GAME REVIEW RAIDERS OF SCYTHIA Are the Horsemen of Scythia just a clone of the Raiders of the North Sea? What new will the Scythians show us? Recently, we managed to play several games of the game Raiders of Scythia , which is localized in Ukraine by the Lord of Boards publishing house, so we want to share a little about our impressions of the game. Also in this article we will compare Riders of Scythia with the mechanically similar game Raiders of the North Sea. So let's start the review! In Raiders of Scythia, the first installment in Garphill Games ' Ancient Anthology series (which includes games like Hadrian's Wall and the recently announced Legacy of Yu), players take on the role of the Scythians (an empire that spanned large swathes of Central Asia and Eastern Europe from at least 1 10th century BC to 2nd century AD) as they advance south in their attempts to expand their power and influence.  At its core, Raiders of Scythia is a game with a worker placement mechanic. Each player on their turn will place a worker to perform an action and then pick up a new worker to perform another action. At the beginning of the game, the choice of actions will mostly focus on accumulating your resources and building a team. However, during the game, you will send your team to raid different locations of the playing field to earn the most victory points before the end of the game. If this sounds familiar, it's most likely because you've played Raiders of the North Sea before. And it's not just a coincidence. Also designed by Shem Phillips, Raiders of Scythia borrows many of its mechanics from its big brother and its expansions. So much so, in fact, that instead of telling you how to play Raiders of Scythia, we're going to talk about the similarities and differences between Riders of Scythia and the games that influenced the Scythians. WHAT ARE THE SIMILAR CHARACTERS IN THESE GAMES In essence, the Horsemen of Scythia function in the same way as the Raiders . As mentioned earlier, you place a worker from your supply into the action area, take that action, then take another worker off the board and take that action as well. Unless you're raiding. Unlike city actions, a raid does not give you a second action.  A raid requires you to use a worker of a certain color, a certain number of team members and the right amount of provisions to do so. Successful raids will reward you with certain resources, upgraded workers and possibly victory points depending on the overall strength of your team. These enhanced workers must visit certain locations and can be used for other purposes if desired. In the city area of the playfield, the results of most actions shown will vary depending on which type of worker is used to perform the action. And for the most part, the actions available are very similar to what you'll find in a settlement in Raiders of the North Sea: stockpile money and/or provisions, draw cards, hire team members, and use team members' unique abilities. Even the team card structure is similar: each team member has a hire cost, a unique raid ability, a unique city ability, and a specific skill. In addition to this, raiding units receive wounds that reduce that unit's strength (as in the Raiders: Fields of Glory expansion), and players can artificially increase their team's strength by using koumiss (similar to mead from Raiders: Hall of Heroes ). Another attribute that has been carried over is the concept of quests (introduced in the Raiders: Hall of Heroes expansion). DISTINCTIONS There are some minor differences between the Raiders of Scythia and the Raiders of the North Sea, and some very significant ones. For example, in the Raiders: Hall of Heroes expansion, you had to use a special action area on the expansion field to complete the quest. This feature is now in the Chieftain's Tent (one of the city actions) in Raiders of Scythia. The Chief's Tent also offers one of several ways to obtain kumis. The koumiss equivalent, mead, could only be obtained by taking cards from the expansion field in Raiders: Hall of Heroes and, occasionally, through a team member's ability. Also, in Raiders: Hall of Heroes, quests were added to the field as various raid locations were emptied, and they mostly just served as additional ways to get more victory points. In Riders of Scythia, they are deployed during training and actively function as one of the two endgame triggers. These are just a few minor differences.  As far as significant innovations go, the first thing you'll notice is the inclusion of horses and eagles. They can be purchased through one of the actions in town and added to your team board above (Eagles) or below (Horses) a specific team member location. Even if that team member dies, the Eagles and Horses will remain on the board and await the next host. Horses give players victory points at the end of the game and increase power during raids. Some Eagles will do the same, while others may double the ability of the added team member, or even provide an additional City Center action that can be performed without discarding a card. Another difference is in the way raids are conducted. In Vikings, many raids required certain strength thresholds to be reached before they could be undertaken. In Raiders, this restriction has been removed and replaced with the need for carriages (obtainable through another town action). Thematically, the further inland you go, the longer your supply chain needs to be to drive this activity. EXPERIENCE FROM THE GAME Raiders of Scythia is a great Euro-strategy that will make you strain your brain. The components of the game are simply incredible, which is only worth the wooden kumis tokens). The rules of the game are easy to learn and easy to explain to beginners. Also a big plus is the theme of the game, which fully corresponds to the gameplay and draws you into the events of the game and this era. VIDEO REVIEWS ..

Only one day 27.11.2020 -10% discount on the entire range. Choose! Make an order! Get the game you dreamed of!..

        Penguins gathered for a parade of animals, and most importantly at the parade ?! That's right - keep order and go through a beautiful column. Let's help the penguins line up on the ice so that they do not miss the parade. In the puzzle game Penguins at the Parade 48 tasks of 4 levels of difficulty. Shall we train these cute birds? Penguins line up! Place the puzzle pieces with the penguins on the board so that the 4 penguins line up horizontally, vertically or diagonally in a line with no free cells between them. Parade of penguins - trains your brain well, ideal for travel. For whom the game Magnetic puzzles are perfect in the way, even if you are traveling in an old truck on the road . Like other puzzles Penguin Parade develop logic in children and adults allow train brains and take advantage of the time. On-line version of the game..

number of players: 2-4 players time: 45 minutes age: 8+ difficulty: 2.41 / 5 Pandemic is a cooperative board game. In a pandemic around the world, several virulent diseases broke out simultaneously! Players are disease control specialists who treat hotspots by exploring treatments for each of the four afflictions before they get out of control. The game board shows several major settlements on Earth. On each turn, the player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populations, detect drugs or build a research station. The deck of cards gives players these abilities, but the epidemic involved in this deck! cards that accelerate and intensify the activity of diseases. The second, separate deck of cards controls the "normal" spread of infections. Taking a unique role in the team, players must plan their strategy, combining with the strengths of their professionals to defeat the disease. For example, the Operations Expert may build research stations that are needed to treat disease drugs and that provide greater mobility between cities; a scientist only needs four cards of a certain disease to cure it instead of the usual five, but the disease spreads quickly and time is running out. If one or more illnesses spread after recovery or too much time passes, all players lose. If they cure four diseases, they will all win! Pandemic 2013 includes two new characters - an emergency planner and a quarantine specialist - not available in previous versions of the game. Pandemic is the first game in the Pandemic series. Let's show the Pandemics who's who Here is an exclusive Ukrainian version. In this edition, the capital of Ukraine - the city of Kyiv - appeared on the map. Now the fate of our native country and the whole world depends on each of us. Before the game We lay out the playing field, which is a map of the world with cities. According to the rules of the game, in some cities we break down disease cubes. In specially designated places in the field, we put a marker of outbreaks of viruses, a marker of the spread of disease, a deck of disease cards, as well as vital test tubes with drugs. Each player receives a memo and a random role in the game: doctor, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine specialist, researcher, engineer and emergency expert. Each role has its own, unique features. All members of the scientific and rescue expedition are sent to the start: to the first research station in Atlanta (USA). The beginning of the game Each move of the bark is divided into three phases: Perform from one to four actions (move the player's chip to another city, build a research station, cure the disease, invent a drug, share experiences with another player). You can perform different actions, you can do the same, but not more than four. Take 2 players' cards from the deck . Properly assembled combination of cards to help you in the invention medicines, building research stations in various cities, etc. Collect the card players to post, play their most profitable. But remember that the hand can be up to 7 cards. Detect the disease ( take some cards from the deck of diseases ) . Take as many cards from the deck as indicated by a marker of disease spread and spread disease to one cube at the city marked on maps. After these three phases, the turn is passed to the next player. Remember that Pandemic is a cooperative game, which means that you can and should discuss your moves with other players, because your only goal is to defeat viruses. Feel free to say your plans out loud. Epidemic and disease outbreaks Agree, not the nicest words. In the game, they also do not promise anything good. If in the phase of recruiting from the deck of player cards, one of the participants drops the Epidemic card, then he must move the marker of the spread of the disease per unit forward, from the deck to take a card with the name of the city in which to put 3 disease cubes. Outbreak of the epidemic worse. If the game you have to put the cube of the disease in the city, which already has three dice, there is outbreak. To begin, move the marker forward a flash unit, and then place one cube diseases in cities adjacent to those in which there was a flash. As you know, the outbreak could lead to a string of outbreaks in other cities. The purpose of the game The research team will win if invent drugs for 4 diseases . The team loses if outbreaks marker reaches its mark on the last or end blocks when one of the diseases or ending a deck of cards. Who is this game for? Pandemic - a game that has long won the hearts of fans around the world . A good, balanced game that fans will enjoy cooperative games such as Robinson Crusoe , Prohibition Island or Forbidden The sky . The range also includes localization games in Russian ...

We don't know about you, and when we go somewhere, we always take some board games with us - with them the journey is much faster, more fun and more interesting. It is gratifying that the publishers of board games understand that it is not very convenient to take a five-kilogram box with you on vacation (although I really want to), so they create wonderful board games on the road. The compact size is a huge plus for this type of board game. And the same compactness means that the game will be very inexpensive. We want to show you some examples of really high-quality board games that you are not ashamed to take with you on the road. The first option is a classic. This is Dobble , which can be played by both children and adults. You don't need a lot of space - just any surface where you can put a card, be it a table, bench or blanket on the grass. What is even more important - the game is mega fast, because you need to react instantly to the same images on the cards. Gambling that will take a minimum of space. If you are traveling alone, and you just want to sit and think about an interesting puzzle, then IQ Stars (IQ Stars) is a great option. This game can be played by both school-age children and adults. In the booklet you will find many different levels that will make you think seriously about how to solve them. A convenient box in which the stars are securely placed (you will need to try to make them fly) makes this game great for travel. Too often, people travel with someone instead of alone, in which case we have a great association game and a team game called Alias Original (UKR) . Should we talk about the compact box again? We think not. It contains 400 words that you will need to explain to your teammates during the game in other words. Very fast and fun game, and also how it develops your vocabulary! Don't want to play in a team? No problem, then let's move to the Wild West in the board game Beng! (Bang!) , Where there will be a lot of shooting all over the place. The game has roles (sheriff, assistant sheriff, bandit and renegade), each of which has its own role. But it is desirable to at least survive in this meat grinder. No one knows who is who - everyone only knows the sheriff. The bandits want to kill him, the helper wants to protect him, and the renegade wants to kill everyone. This can be an unforgettable showdown. Well, another option for those who want maximum humor and minimum thinking - Munchkin (Munchkin) . Here everything is simple - you have different manats, you put on yourself, you beat all kinds of monsters, you collect new manats, you gain levels, you substitute others, you win. Easy, fast and fun - what you need on the road. There are many options for road games, for every taste can be found. And all of them will help to dilute the monotonous movement from point A to point B, will take your time useful and fun. ..

Unfortunately, or fortunately, today, April 22, the government has continued quarantine for at least 2 weeks - until May 11. Everyone already wants for "freedom", but for the sake of the common good, it is still worth listening to the government and saving several lives. We, as a board game store, can do all possible ways to help you decide what to do in quarantine. To begin with, you can save the world. They always wanted to be a hero, right? And then there was such an opportunity - to destroy the viruses that want to kill the lives of millions of people in the board game Pandemic (Pandemic) . Actually, right? Of course, it will be difficult for you to save the whole world, but with three other heroes it is quite possible, all in your hands! Dachshund, the world saved, what to do next? It is probably worth rebuilding lost animal species if such bad cases do happen. In the Evolution: Natural selection board game, you will be working on growing several species of animals to help them survive in this brutal world. They need food, some protective characteristics from predators (if it is a predator, you need the ability to hunt). Several small lives will depend on your choice ... Who are you to worry about now, but not our smaller brothers? We know, we know, you are tired of staying at home - you can also travel a little Europe, for example. There are few legal options at this time, except for the board game Train Ticket: Europe (Ticket to Ride: Europe) will allow you to get a route from Kiev to Madrid in a matter of minutes, and you can still visit several sights. And, believe me, sometimes such routes are easier to find than the sofa-kitchen-sofa. Why not learn something completely new during quarantine. For example, to put a tile ... Yes, you did not think, we suggest you to learn to put a tile in a wonderful family game Azul, Xin (Azul) . Why is it worth a try? First, it's very good. Secondly, it is a real relaxation, a holiday, full immersion in your inner world. And thirdly, why not? Quarantine is over, something to boast about! Here, the tile learned to put, a useful skill. After all, while in quarantine, you can try to find out more about the people you live with - family, friends, just random people you first see. Whatever it is, their inner world is very mysterious, try to understand it better with the help of the game Dixit (Dixit) . What is very valuable here is how you understand other people's thoughts, feelings, emotions. If you don't know how to do this, then it's time to learn. What we all wanted to say to this is always to think of something to do. We probably still have more than a dozen variants of different classes going for you, it would be a desire to explore it all. Board games give you the opportunity to plunge into new worlds, to try something completely new - you should not neglect this opportunity, especially now. ..

St. Nicholas Day, New Year, Christmas ... The holidays are approaching, and they need to start preparing gifts for loved ones. All these days we are associated with family, a friendly circle and a cozy atmosphere with the obligatory feast and a mountain of food left over. Every family is made to give gifts for different holidays & nbsp; & nbsp; many Ukrainians traditionally prepare something nice for St. Nicholas Day and for the New Year, but we also know those who ignore the change of year on the calendar and buy gifts for Christmas. We would not be a board games store if we didn't say the obvious things: & nbsp; board games are the best gift for different holidays & nbsp; (which we have mentioned a few times above). Now let's explain why. ..