We continue our column about children's toys. In the near future, I will try to describe the minigames I have recently bought (it will take a few weeks to describe all the children's games, let's start with the minigames). I love small games because they don't take a lot of time to play (not always parents have), plus the format is perfect for traveling (lightweight and doesn't take up a lot of space).  Today we will talk about the game Alles Tomate!, a good filler for children with a short session of 15 minutes. HISTORY Grandfather and grandmother need to be helped to deal with the economy on the farm, they are very old and do not have time to remember where and what needs to be taken where. Help them remember where the shovel is kept or where the horse needs to be tied. GAME PROCESS A row of 7 cards is laid out, on which plots of the farm are depicted, each of the cards has its own color (7 colors in total) and finely drawn objects (such objects are present on cards of the same color in the main deck). Opposite each of the seven cards from the deck, one item card from the deck is placed face up. Together, we have two rows one below the other: the upper one is a farm, the lower one is an item from the farm, pulled from the deck. The players look at all this and after that the cards are turned face up. Remember where and what was? Forward! We take the top card from the deck and turn it over. For example, they pulled out a chair drawn on a blue card. Where is our blue farm, and what was under it just now? The first one to shout out the correct answer gets a card from under the farm and takes it for himself. The newly drawn card takes its place. And so in a circle until the deck ends. Whoever collects the most cards wins. CONCLUSIONS The game won a number of awards, such as the Children's Game of the Year and the German Game Prize in the field of education. In Germany, I brought this game to the teachers in my daughter's class (first grade), it became part of one of the weekly lessons, when instead of a lesson, the children have a board game session. Thus, in Europe, the education system allows the teacher himself to determine the curriculum. On the one hand, the game is very simple, on the other hand, it is a good tool for learning words and, especially, foreign words. It is easy for a child to remember new words, having a visual series. There is excitement in the game form. Diversify the rules by adding a clause that all words, let's say, should be pronounced only in English or German. You don't know the word - flew by. Now my daughter is learning German and with the teacher at home they also use it perfectly for their lessons. My verdict: simple, fun, unfussy. A wonderful school game tool (by the way, it was originally released for them). There is no depth, but this was not foreseen by the concept. Instead, it is perfect for learning a language...

 Having played many board games, I want to stop at the board game "Finka". First of all, it is the high quality of printing, which definitely distinguishes most games made in Germany. And quite an interesting game mechanism, but more on that below.  This is the fruit logistics of the island of Mallorca. Players have to move their farmers and collect fruits by moving on the wings of the windmill. Fruits - oranges, lemons, grapes, figs, olives, almonds - wooden chips painted in their colors.  And the movement takes place as follows: the player starts walking and makes as many moves as there are farmers standing on his wing at the beginning of the move, and he takes as many fruits as there are farmers (including himself) standing on the wing he stood on at the end of the move. In this way, you can move your farmers and prevent other players from making the moves they want - because you can calculate which fruits the opponents are picking, which tiles are aimed at.  After the player has the amount of fruit he needs, he can start transportation - for this, carts with donkeys are used, which the player takes from the center of the mill, each time crossing the border in the center (a line is drawn on the field). Each visa can carry only 6 fruits. During his turn, the player places the tile with the cart back to the center of the mill, and takes a tile from the playing field with fruits on it.  The player must put as many fruits as are drawn on the tile back into the pot. If the stack of tiles on the field ends, then a finca tile with the image of some fruit is drawn. It is awarded to the player whose collected tiles have the most images of this fruit - this gives an additional 5 points to the final score, and the empty area is placed as a hacienda. The game continues until all the haciendas are displayed. You can also get a bonus tile during the game - the player who first collected tiles with numbers from 1 to 6 gets 7 bonus points. The second - 6 points, the third - 5, the fourth - 4. You can also use special chips during your turn - round tiles in the amount of 4 pieces. What they provide: a chip with the image of a donkey and the number 10 - you can transport 10 fruits at a time (an ordinary donkey carries only 6); a chip with the image of the wings of the mill and a crossed-out donkey - you can move your farmer to any of the wings of the mill, but you do not get a visa with a donkey (this tile is usually used in the case when you urgently need some fruit, and it is not possible to take it using simple moves, or when many farmers have gathered on one of the wings, and standing up you can take a lot of fruit); a chip with the image of two wings of a mill and a farmer - you can go as a farmer twice in a row (or as different farmers); a chip with the number -1 - you can reduce the cost of transported fruit by 1 fruit (this tile is used when there is not enough fruit to take a tile, for example - a tile costs 2 oranges and 2 almonds, and the player has only 2 oranges and 1 almond - we use the -1 chip, take a tile, and give the bank 1 fruit less, this chip can also be used to take 7 fruits instead of 6. We would also like to note that if special chips were not used during the game, 2 additional points will be added to each during the calculation of points.  Separately, I will talk about a very nice nuance of the game. In the case when it happens that one of the types of fruit runs out, and the player does not have enough of this fruit after the end of the turn, the market for this fruit collapses. In this case, all players return to the bank all the chips of this fruit accumulated at the moment, and after that the player takes the appropriate amount of fruit into the piggy bank. The same thing happens with carts. If a player needs to take a cart with a donkey after his turn, and it is not at the mill, then the freight market collapses, and all players return all donkeys (except special chips) to the center of the mill, and after that the player takes the cart assigned to him. Moreover, when both the fruit market and transportation collapse, the player who collapsed and who needs to take the missing fruits or carts, also on a general basis, first returns the fruits or carts to the bank, and then takes what is due. In the total number of fruit tiles, there are some that do not have a fruit image, but have question marks and the cost of the tile for transportation. This means that in order to take this tile, you need to return to the bank any fruits in the amount indicated on the tile. The plus of collecting such tiles is that you can quickly collect tiles from 1 to 6 and pick up a +7 bonus card; it is not necessary to collect certain fruits - any belri and carts, carts, carts... The minus of collecting such tiles is that they do not participate in the drawing of finca tiles, which can significantly affect the result - because when counting, sometimes you can win with an advantage of only 1 - 2 points. After the fruit tiles have run out and all haciendas have been placed (4 for 2 players, 5 for 3 players, 6 for 4 players), the game ends and points are counted. The sum of all fruit tiles, finca tiles, bonus tiles, special chips (if any) are considered. Fruits left by the players do not take part in the account and are returned to the bank. The player with the most points wins. The game attracts primarily with its unpredictability. If 4 people are playing, it can be problematic to plan your next move - the situation at the mill can change a lot in a round. Well, and, of course, excitement in the pursuit of fruit and the necessary tiles. For me personally, in this particular game, victory is especially desirable...

 For me, Dust Tactics is a case where, after opening the box and playing the game, I got what I expected and even more what I was promised. Easy to learn, fast and dynamic game of soldiers. In DT, you can actually start playing about half an hour after opening the game. While one carefully adjusts cannons, machine guns and searchlights to robot walkers, removes soldiers from personal ziplocs and prepares the playing area, the other carefully reads the rules. The rules are explained in five minutes, and thoroughly fixed in the memory during the first game. In order to make the right decisions, it is important to know the characteristics of all the fighters represented on the field and to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as special tasks, but this can be learned in one or two fights. In terms of dynamics, perception of what is happening and passion, the game resembles hockey, behind which chess is hidden - with positional struggle, forks, sacrifices and exchange of pieces. In the first round, players take turns placing one figure on the field. For the next 2-3 rounds, the positional struggle and the convergence of troops continue - the players try to increase their chances of victory. Then comes the battle itself, in which everything is decided by the die, but based on the chances with which the players approached it, and regrouping if both sides managed to survive it. Since the basic set involves healing the wounded and the arrival of reinforcements, it is usually over in 5-6 rounds. All battles take 10-60 minutes depending on the scenario and the experience of the players. At the same time, the simplicity of the rules does not interfere with the depth of tactical possibilities provided by the variety of specialized combat units. But even though each figure is unique and the armies are asymmetrical, at least the base DT set is balanced. It's funny to realize, but in this game there is a place for dice. You have to throw them a lot, but usually the throw is accompanied by a surge of adrenaline and excitement, which is only a plus. In addition, part of the decisions that have to be made during the battle comes down to a game of probabilities. What is more effective - to concentrate the fire of all the weapons of a combat unit on one unit of the enemy to destroy it, or to disperse the fire and weaken the combat power of several of his units? What is better - to move to the enemy and open fire first or to give the right of first attack? The one who attacks second is usually weakened, but can make a strengthened attack that allows you to re-roll once for each mistake. Sometimes the dice bring surprises, but in the 9 games we played (and 6 and a half hours of pure game time), we encountered only two curious cases. Having left the lone grenadier with a laser alive and switched to a more serious goal, I could not even think that he would be able to turn my walker into a pile of useless scrap metal with one successful attack. Usually the laser doesn't have enough power to destroy a walker in 1 turn, but it has a sneaky ability - a success on the die allows you to re-roll the die, and so on until the first miss; all successes at the same time accumulate and turn into damage. On the next turn, the "laserman" passed away, but already a hero, although not the only one. Approaching the Axis infantry, the Allied rangers, armed with shotguns and flamethrowers, enveloped the enemy in a hail of shot and mixed fire. What was their surprise when the smoke cleared: the brave soldiers, who should have been in the best of worlds, decided to linger in the blood and ashes of the battlefield, and almost in full force. The dagger (which cannot be abandoned, since it was announced as a backup option to dice rolls), only proved that the "shotguns" connected with the wrong ones - all the dice of the frozen frits showed hits and led to the grave of four Allied soldiers. But I wouldn't call this kind of case a flaw in the game. This is the difference between Dust Tactics and chess - sometimes a piece performs a planned maneuver not quite as expected. I think there will be those who remember computer chess, in which the knight, for example, is also deliberately stronger than the pawn, but when he tries to eat it, a separate screen opens, where the battle between them takes place, and there is a small chance that that the pawn will emerge from it as a winner. Dust Tactics is exactly that. So the first impression that luck is more important than calculation in DT is misleading. The statistics I received after returning home only confirmed that the die in DT decides who wins, with a game of roughly equal players, when none of them made a mistake (trust me, it's a shame to realize that after a series of mutual exchanges you are left alone with the opponent's pawn, having only a squad of infantry in his hands, physically unable to harm him). Victory due to the will of chance is possible, but it is much rarer. To summarize the impression, I would like to emphasize that Dust Tactics is more of a board comic that lives by its own laws and has its own internal logic than a military game. DT is a soldier game, not a war game, but unlike Memoir '44, which I successfully parted ways with, I'm perfectly fine with it in this case. Well, I'll add a spoonful of tar: the Dust Tactics base kit is just the beginning, nice and exciting, but the beginning. And the continuation will be expensive for everyone who wants it. Judging by the already announced expansions, the set of one additional infantry unit will cost $15-20, and another walker, albeit with the possibility of "transformation" into different models, will cost $25. The price for the additional eight-scenario Operation Cyclone military campaign, flavored with two new heroes, as well as elements and terrain tiles, is $40. But it is pleasing that under the current model of distribution of the game, everyone decides for himself what to purchase additionally. It remains to illustrate the rules of Dust Tactics.  The battle takes place on a caged field with impassable areas, ammunition crates and anti-tank hedgehogs scattered on it. The terrain is set in one of the eight scenarios included in the Dust Tactics core campaign, or according to the rules of the free scenario. In the second case, the players decide how rugged the terrain will be, and then take turns placing impassable areas and cover on the field, which is itself a struggle for future positions. The game lasts several rounds until one of the parties to the conflict is destroyed or the scenario's victory conditions are met. During the round, players take turns walking one of their idle combat units. When activated, a combat unit can either move and attack, or attack and move, or move double the distance, or attack with a single miss roll, or use a special ability that requires activation. Who starts the round is determined by a roll of dice: both players roll 3 dice each, and whoever gets more hits chooses who starts. In case of a tie, the dice are rolled over. While the Allied hero "Bazooka Joe" is in play, the Allies roll 4 instead of 3 when determining initiative. In the first round, players enter troops on the field in predetermined sectors, which is also part of the positional struggle. Combat units are introduced one at a time, the right of removal alternates between players. Once on the field, a combat unit can either move or attack, provided that an enemy is within range of its weapon. Determining the radius of movement and shooting range follows the same rules: a path is laid from the source to the target, while 1 cell horizontally is worth 1 point of movement or range, the first cell diagonally - 1 point, and each subsequent cell - 2 Thus , zones of possible movement and range are clumsy "circles". All base set miniatures have 1 movement point, giving 2 points when double movement. In addition, one of the Allied ranger units has the Fast trait, which allows you to gain +1 movement point. As for the Axis, the walker "Luther" due to the Charge quality is able to move one cell further, provided that it appears after that in a cell adjacent to the enemy. "Luther" then attacks with his "claw". The most common firing range is 3-4 points, but Axis Ludwig and Allied Pounder walkers are equipped with guns that have infinite range. Neither soldiers nor equipment can enter the impassable cage: walker A1 cannot go left, and infantry B4 can't go down. Soldiers can "go around" impassable cells diagonally (again, let's look at B4), and walkers - only at a right angle (A1). Both soldiers and equipment (A1 and A2) can enter cells with ammunition boxes, and the equipment can crush the box. Cells with anti-tank hedgehogs can be entered by soldiers, the way there is ordered for the equipment (A1, A2 and A4). Combat units that are unable to enter cells with the enemy. Soldiers can pass through cells with friendly troops, but cannot stop at them (A3). Walkers are afraid to crush or conquer their own, so they do not walk through occupied cells (B3). However, Allied walkers have the Jump trait, which allows them to cross an obstacle at the cost of double movement. No one can go diagonally in the direction of a corner, both sides of which are impassable (B4). The role of an impenetrable cell in this case can be played by the enemy (and in the case of equipment) squad. In order to shoot at a target, it is not enough that it be within range of fire. A continuous line of sight connecting the center of the shooter's cell with the center of his victim's cell is also required. Boxes with ammunition do not interrupt the line of sight (A2 and B1 can shoot each other). Anti-tank hedgehogs block line of sight only for soldiers who wish to open fire on soldiers (B4 and A2 do not fire at each other). Soldiers can also fire at enemy soldiers if their own or another combat unit is..

 Battlestar Galactica is a cooperative game that supports from three to six (optionally expandable to seven) players, in which one or two of them, depending on the number of participants, turn out to be "traitors" and play against their comrades. The average playing time is about 2.5-3 hours. I would immediately like to dispel the myth about the need to watch the series before sitting down at the gaming table. This is completely optional, and you won't lose anything fundamental, since the game is completely self-sufficient. PLOT AND MECHANICS  The task of the human players is to lead the fleet, led by the "Galaxy", to a certain distance without losing either the cruiser itself or any of the key resources - Population, Food, Fuel and Morale. The task of "traitor" players is quite the opposite. The plot of the game, without being sly, repeats the television one. Cylon robots, created by man, revolted, destroyed most of the people, forcing those who remained alive to seek salvation by fleeing. The remnants of humanity on their spaceships, united around the last hope - the cruiser "Galaxy", are trying to break away from the pursuit of the Cylon fleet and find a new home with the prosaic name "Earth". The case of rescue is complicated by the fact that the Cylons have managed to create 12 models of humanoid robots and introduced them into the glorious ranks of the human race. And so "who is who" makes up the lion's share of the intrigue of both the series and the game. At the beginning and in the middle of the game, each participant secretly receives a so-called loyalty card from the others, which determines whether your character is a Cylon or a human. The game has a lot of characters, each of which is endowed with its own special skills, as well as unique positive and negative properties. It is not difficult to guess, it may happen that in the first part of the game, not a single cylon will appear on the field, and in the second phase, the player who honestly saved all this time will learn that he was made and programmed for a completely different matter. Such collisions perfectly diversify the personal game in each game. By the way, the developers, taking everything into account, quite accidentally managed to foresee a strong role potential in the game. Whether you use it or not is up to you, but it is there. Each participant's move consists of two phases - movement and action. In the first case, you can move to a location on a ship, in space or on a special track of Cylons that have opened to the world, in the second - to activate the properties of the location or play the text of one skill card. At the end of the turn, except for specially stipulated cases, a so-called crisis should be drawn from a special deck — a task that must be solved or failed by all participants. The crisis system is the heart of the game; they initiate the fleet's problems, but also propel it to victory. Most crises offer to solve the problem by scoring a certain number of points with skill cards. There are a total of five such types of cards in the basic box, of different colors for convenience. Characters have their own set of two or three different types. In the event of a crisis, the participants secretly lay out their cards from each other; only those whose types are shown on the crisis map are considered positive, the others are negative. Then the sum is calculated and the result is announced. HUMAN HUMAN WHO?  Like any cooperative game, BSG involves constant communication between the participants in the process. Making a plan of action, finding tactical tricks, analyzing the nearest moves - the game provides all these possibilities. Now consider that among the players there is a person who participates in this discussion, but only his goals are completely different. BSG has two unique positions - Admiral and President. The former decides which route the Galaxy will take to victory, the latter has exclusive rights to use Quorum cards that can facilitate the salvation of humanity. What is the Admiral's motivation for suggesting a crisis: the desire to save scarce cards of a certain skill for a more serious problem, or the goal of reducing a key resource? Can you trust the intuition of a player who has arrested another character based on circumstantial evidence alone? Should you support your neighbor who plans to re-elect the current president? Which of the two players who are furiously accusing each other of betrayal is right, or is it possible that the real Cylon is the one watching it all with a hidden smile? Withdraw fighter jets to cover the civilian courts or take the latter to a safe sector for the time being? Sacrificing fuel to save the population, or abandoning people, but leaving kerosene reserves for a long jump? There can be dozens of such questions per game session, and each time you will have to make a choice, because if you just wash your hands, the game will make this choice for you, and most often not in your favor. Some conclusions when calculating the hidden enemy can be made based on the simplest deduction, for example, calculating who put a card of a negative color in this or that crisis. Others are based on the study of the player's behavior at the table (skills acquired in poker battles will prove to be very relevant), others are based on the analysis of game actions. And, of course, you should not forget about banal intuition, the only question is: will it fail at a crucial moment? However, even if you are not a particular fan of talking, arguing and persuading, there will be a place on board - balanced decisions, calmness and a rare but timely word are worth a lot. This is what the game for humanity looks like - continuous choices, searching for a way out of another critical situation, paranoia and painful doubts about which of those sitting at the table you can trust. HIDDEN THREAT  And what about the cylons lurking under the mass of virtuous people? Playing as a hater of humanity is no less intense and interesting. On the one hand, you are out of panic and paranoia - being the bearer of a Secret, so far hidden from everyone, is a lot of fun. On the other hand, there is a constant search for the right solution alone, a minute-by-minute analysis of your actions, and the feeling of a cornered beast when a loop of well-founded suspicions tightens around you. There are a lot of action options, and this game is advantageously different from similar boxes. In particular, in Shadows over Camelot, another co-op game with a "traitor", the latter has to do as little as possible to win, and when he is revealed, the game takes on a distinctly mathematical flavor. In "Galaxy", a cylon has to crawl out of his skin to bring the hour of complete destruction of humanity closer. Provoke conflicts within the crew and silently enjoy the raised panic, waves of arrests, mutual insults and insults. To take a risk is to fail crises, to make silly moves and honest eyes, or, on the contrary, to contribute in every possible way to the passage of problems, to emphasize one's merits, to prove one's humanity in order to strike one blow at the right moment. And how not to miss this moment? When to take off the mask? Moreover, even after showing his true nature, the Cylon player does not leave the game: you still have to finish off the miserable people, and this may not be easy, because BSG, after discovering all the Cylons, easily turns into some kind of military headquarters game. Paranoia gives way to gut feeling, panic to cold analysis and development of a set of tactical actions. The same thing happens if, according to the game conditions, there are two Cylons, and on the opposite side of the conflict. And how such a confrontation will end is often unclear until the last move. CONCLUSIONS Of course, like any challenging game, BSG has its flaws. This also applies to game balance. In particular, with an even number of participants in the basic version, you need to use the rule of a person who sympathizes with the Cylons, the essence of which is that if there are a lot of resources at a certain moment, she will play for the Cylons, and if there are not enough - for the people. Such a situation is easily calculated, and experienced players are forced to sacrifice one of the resources in order for the "sympathizer" to join humanity. Despite the not so significant amount of text, the game remains very language-dependent until all participants know the meaning of all the skill cards by heart. True, it is not a problem to get a translation of all the cards in the game, but constantly searching for the right text can slow down the gameplay a lot. BSG is not a game that you only need to play once to understand and get involved. Several parties will go only to get acquainted with the possibilities provided by the basic box. The open architecture allows you to find more and more options for action, connections and tricks (in this, by the way, it reminds, oddly enough, Dominion), but it requires more and more game sessions. It is not easy for beginners to enter the company of the mother of players for this reason - the illusion is created that everyone knows what to do except you. It is treated only with subsequent games, if, of course, the desire remains. In general, "Galaxy" is a very "game-addicted" game. It only takes one of the participants to lose interest in what is happening at the table, as it instantly affects the atmosphere and course of the game. Due to the high degree of conflict given by the game mechanics, playing with children, pregnant women and vulnerable young people is not recommended. Battlestar Galactica is a very interesting and challenging game. It is not difficult to understand its rules, but it is not easy to learn to win in it. The frenetic dynamics, when enemy fighters are swarming around the ship, and every wrong decision can turn out..

 Yesterday we tested the game The Golden City, which arrived at the beginning of the week. Since the parcel was from Germany, I have the game in German - Die Goldene Stadt (published by KOSMOS). The field and game components are completely language-independent, incl. to master it, only the rules in Russian or at least in English are necessary. The original rules take up only 4 pages, in the Russian version that I was able to find on the Internet, there are only 2 of them (there are no pictures, and they are not particularly needed - the rules are very simple).  The field is of good quality, moderately bright, wooden houses without chips and well painted, cardboard components from 3 mm cardboard, playing cards are quite dense, but "Business cards" (the equivalent of victory points) in quality as in the Manager (if someone remembers), that is. cheap paper  Inside the box is an organizer with more compartments than components. Why? Not clear. However, there are 4 slots for cards - enough to spare, because of cards in the game is 88, and the depth of one card slot is 70. Protectors are desirable, because after all, cards are not linen. Protectors from Fantasy Flight Games Mini European 1 11/16 x 2 5/8 (44x68 mm) are perfect, although they are sold in 50 pieces, and the package, on average, costs 150 rubles, but they are dense, unlike CardPro, which are sold in pieces of 100 rubles for 100. According to my own feelings, I like the FFG protectors much more - they fit like a glove, cards do not pop out. Two people played, but the game is for 3-4 players, so I had to play for two at once. Preparation for the game takes no more than 5 minutes. When playing with three, each player gets 18 houses and the hand with which to vote, when playing with four - 16 houses. Each player gets three coins twice, one "Coast" type landscape card. The rest of the landscape cards are shuffled and resounded one card at a time. 8 product cards are shuffled and the top 3 cards are placed face up. Nearby are placed 8 bonus cards (very necessary, which greatly affect the final calculation), 6 key cards, etc. "Business letters". Also, 16 scoring cards are laid out so that "1" is on top and "3" is on the bottom. That's it, you can start the game. The playing field is an island. There are 16 coastal locations along the coast, with the Golden City itself in the center, and between them are 30 rural locations - forests, meadows, mountains and wastelands - 12 of which are near the river. All locations are connected by a network of roads. The game consists of several rounds. Each round consists of 6 phases: Opening of scorecards. Teaching landscape maps. Bidding for a pair of landscape cards. Construction of houses. Receiving "Business letters". Changing the first player. The scoring map shows which riverside towns need to be captured in a given round to get Business Letters, and it also shows the item that will earn its owner additional Business Letters that round. In a game of three, 3 pairs of landscape cards are laid out, in a game of four - 4 pairs. Next, starting with the first player, everyone lays out their hand on the pair of cards they want to get. Next, all players clockwise do the same. If someone placed his hand on occupied cards, he must pay one coin to the Bank and remove the hand of the one who previously voted. Accordingly, the one whose hand was removed can choose a free pair or put his hand on his previous choice of a pair of landscape cards, but having already paid 2 coins, etc. When a hand lies on each pair, the phase ends. The construction of houses must be carried out according to certain rules: building a house requires a connected chain of already existing cities, that is, you cannot build a house somewhere in the middle of the map. It is necessary that the houses are connected by a network of roads, starting from a house built in a coastal location; in a coastal and rural location, only one house can be permanent; you can build up to 2 houses per turn (more simply won't work, because you only have 5 landscape cards); to build a house in a coastal location, it is necessary to discard 1 card of this location; to age a house in any other location, it is necessary to discard 2 cards of this location; to build a house in the inner part of the city, you need to discard 2 maps of this location + a key; Obtaining "Business Letters" from the card played in the first phase. Counting takes place in two categories: for goods and houses standing on one of the rivers or in one of the quarters of the city. If the player has the goods shown on the scoring card, he receives 2 "Business Letters", if the player has at least one house on the river shown on the scoring card, he receives 2 "Business Letters", similarly per sector cities If you are the only player with the right type of goods, you get 2 additional letters. If you are the only player or the player who has more houses than others on the required river, you get 2 extra cards. That's all the action. The game continues until one of the players has built all their houses (the round will be played to the end) or until all the "Business Cards" have been exhausted (which, in my opinion, is not realistic). At the end, bonus cards are revealed, which can dramatically change the situation. The winner is the one with more "Business Letters" at the end of the game. As a result, what we have: a highly addictive, simple, multi-award winning family game that can be played by three or four people in 60-80 minutes. For serious board players, the game will seem too simple, but for people who do not want to bother with the rules and engage in "taking away the brain", as well as for families with children from 7-8 years old - this game is perfect...

 "Zooloretto" does not let go. Point. I don't stop liking this unimaginative game at all... On the shelf there are untried "Dracula" and "Shadows of Camelot", recently "Warcraft" came with an add-on, and I want to play "Zooloretto". If anyone doesn't know, Zooloretto is a game about a zoo. In it, players act as managers of their own zoo, buy animals, build stalls and new enclosures, in short, do everything to earn victory points. As one of my friends likes to repeat: "Everything is like in life." "Zooloretto" is not really an original game. The author (the well-known Comrade Shakht) reimagined his most successful brainchild - the game "Coloretto" - in a new way: threw the hell out of abstraction, added money to the game, replaced colored cards with tokens with animals, and voila! We had to come up with a new name... Before us is a game that looks great, with simple rules, high dynamism, low competitiveness. In short, a find for the family. "Professional" boardgamers perceived the game as recycled material, saying that "Coloretto" is pure gameplay, leavened on interesting mechanics, and "Zooloretto" is purely a money-making game. But! This game has one great feature - it is not abstract at all. For me personally, this is the main reason why I prefer to collect animals rather than pieces of colored cardboard. Any action in this game is closely related to the setting and is logical. Money brings a very light economic aspect to the game in addition to the tactical one, and add-ons provide a fan. Appendix one: Tokens of Podlanka. Finally you can make abominations! These are nine tokens of problems that play in the zoos of rivals and close places for animals in enclosures, prohibit the construction of stalls and break the roof of the reserve, forcing to spend on major repairs. I like to make abominations! Appendix Two: Mission Maps. Loudly shouted, of course, about the mission. Simply, at the beginning of the game, each player receives a card on which it is indicated for which animals the player will receive more points, and for which he will not receive at all. Only 5 animal species out of 8 are shown on the maps, which makes players compete harder for them. At the beginning of the game, these cards create a light atmosphere of the game "Mafia", everyone is thinking about who will collect the giraffes you need, and who will push the useless pandas, for which you will not get points anyway. But you can throw these pandas into your spare! They don't give a minus for them either! Supplement three: "Zooloretto XXL". It is the simplest. Just doubles the number of tokens. However, there is another side to such a sharp increase. There are too many animals! Now the reserve is swelling like yeast, and you have to buy a large aviary without fail, although this does not save the situation much. zoos of the world stand, apparently, empty cells) and cut off glasses for it. However, the course is not very profitable. 6 points for the first serve, 5 for the second, 4 for the rest. Other additions somehow did not work for me. Scatters of mini-addons from one Super Animal tile, such as King Kong, Christmas Reindeer, and other fabulous fauna, have a common drawback: they give a big advantage to whoever acquired that animal. "Zooloretto Exotic" introduces a new system of visitors to the game, which, as if from another game, was torn off. "Aqualoretto" (Shacht knows how to invent names) is the same thing, but filled with lappet. In our gaming group, which consists of girls, the game went with a bang! Fewer than two or three games in a row are played extremely rarely, since the duration of the game is 15-20 minutes. The number of jokes and pranks at the table is off the charts. The game is recommended to everyone who does not like complicated rules, as well as to all animal lovers. PS The most frequent phrase during the parties: "Buy an elephant!"..

 Rune Age is distinguished by a high level of interaction between players and aggression (up to the elimination of the player), asymmetric factions and different game scenarios. The scenario shown on The Realms of Terrinoth reduced the game to an "arms race" in which the goal was to accumulate enough power to destroy the main enemy, the dragon lord card that lies in the center of the table from the start and has a power of 18. The west was mentioned and mentioned. a co-op scenario in which "trouble" is thrown into the deck of events, and players must work together to counter that deck. Scenarios also determine the cards available to players; yes, in the scenario played out at the event, there were only 3 different neutral cards available to players. SCHEDULE The basic set of the game features four factions - the same as in Runewars. Each faction has its own unique set of stacks of cards that a player playing as a faction can buy into their deck, and they are unique. Most of the faction's special cards are troops. In addition, each faction is matched with one card representing the kingdom itself, which has 20 stamina. Also, each faction has its own stack of so-called fortresses - they give players points of influence. Common deck cards can be bought by all players. These include gold cards and neutral cards; the second includes various tactics that can affect the player's turn or battle, as well as neutral troops. The city maps represent the various cities of the Terrinoth universe (Vinevale, Frostgate, etc.). Cities have defense levels at their disposal and can be captured by players. Once a city is captured, it is positioned in front of the player who captured it and can rotate 90° (like resources in collectible card games) to grant them influence points to purchase cards. The Event Deck provides unique instant events and enemy cards that come into play and can be attacked by players. Most of the enemy cards when defeated bring artifacts to the winner - they provide the player with additional game opportunities. All players receive starting cards according to their faction. Thus, the human faction receives maps of troops of four types: infantry, archers, knights and siege towers. Their prices are 1, 2, 3, and 4 gold, respectively, and their power is 1, 2, 3, and 4. In addition, there are 3 fortress cards available to the human faction, each of which can be purchased and placed in front of you by spending 4 gold or capturing with battles (with a total strength of 2). A captured or purchased fortress earns 1 point of influence. All army cards, in addition to price and power, have special game features that are used in battle. CONDITIONS OF VICTORY Any game in Rune Age begins by choosing a scenario, depending on which the victory conditions change, for example, to destroy a dragon lord whose power is equal to 18. In addition, it is possible to win by destroying the kingdom cards of all opposing players - the player whose kingdom card has lost all 20 stamina points and is out of the game (this game moment is being clarified and is not the truth). FLOW OF THE GAME  There are three types of resources in the game: gold, influence and power (the ability to fight) - all of them are represented on cards. Cards are purchased by spending the required resources and then either go into the player's discard pile, which is later transformed into their new deck, or are laid out in front of the player, ready for action. During his turn, a player can spend gold or influence to buy new cards, or start a battle to capture a card. Gold is spent as in other similar games: the player simply discards gold cards from his hand and acquires new cards for the amount of their value. Influence is carried out by the cards lying in front of the player. They are not mixed in the player's deck, but are returned by 90° as payment for the purchase of cards. The third possible action is to declare a battle by playing troops from your hand. At the end of any player's turn, everyone adds five cards from their decks to their hand. This allows you to enter the battle as a defender without being helpless on your next turn. BATTLE Battle works like this. A player declares a battle during his turn and first states his objective, which can be a neutral city laid out at the start of the game, a neutral city already captured by another player, an event map showing an enemy (including the main enemy - scenario objectives), or a kingdom another player. In all cases, the battle is the same, but only at the end of the battle with the event card, an additional loss step is performed. The player who announced the attack is considered the attacker. He starts the battle by laying out a troop or tactic card from his hand. If the target is a neutral card, the player simply continues laying out cards until they want to stop, or until the power of the laid cards exceeds the defense level of the attacked card. If another player controls a card, players take turns laying down one card until both save. After saving, the player can no longer lay out cards; if one player saved, the other player can lay out as many cards as he wants. Maps of troops and tactics also use their game capabilities. Once the winner of the battle is determined, all cards are discarded into the hosts' discard piles. In a battle against a neutral enemy, a die is rolled to determine the player's losses. Two faces of the cube are empty, three - with one depicted army, and one - with two. The dropped edge dictates how many troop cards the player will be forced to destroy before calculating the final strength of the opposing sides. A few words about the abilities of the cards. Having played a pawn, the player reveals the top card of his deck, and if it is another pawn, he can take it into his hand, otherwise discards it or returns it to the top of the deck. The archer's ability allows you to force the opponent to discard one troop card (from those already laid out on the table for the battle). The ability of the knight allows you to reveal the top card of your deck, and if its power level is 3 or less, take it into your hand, and if it is more, discard it. A siege tower allows you to discard cards from your hand and add +2 strength for each of them for the duration of this battle. The undead faction has more interesting actions, for example, resurrection: such troops, entering the game, allow the player to find a card with the ability of resurrection in his discard pile and put it into battle. Other factions have cards that can "injure" themselves to gain extra power or allow the host to draw more cards during battle. A few words about the terms "drop", "wound" and "destroy". When discarding a card, the player simply places it in their discard pile. When destroying a card, the player returns it to the purchase pile from which it was purchased — including the card leaves the player's deck. If a card is destroyed during battle, it no longer adds power to the host. Therefore, troops that can destroy other people's cards are very valuable. Wound (this only happens in battle) a card, the player turns it 90 ° to indicate that it is wounded - the card still adds its power to the host's total power for that battle, but after the battle it is not reset, but destroyed. Tactics cards can be played during turn and battle. For example, Battle Cry and Forced March. The first is a combat tactic and gives +1 power for each friendly troop participating in the battle. Forced March allows you to destroy one card from your hand to draw two cards from your deck. Such cards are bought by spending influence. MISCELLANEOUS NEUTRAL TROOPS A neutral demon army has been spotted in the game. It costs 6 units of influence, has a power of 5 (the strongest of the observed troops). Additionally, a demon cannot be destroyed during battle unless it is first wounded. A very useful ability to battle with enemies (event cards). EVENTS DECK The deck of events is formed before the game. The objective card starts the game already on the table - it was the main enemy (dragon lord) with a power of 18. At the end of each round, before the first player starts a new round, a new event deck card is drawn. During the familiarization game, the first artifact from the event deck appeared, which was laid out according to the text in front of the player sitting to the right of the first player. It gave the player an additional unit of +1 influence. The following events turned out to be enemies that, when defeated, left the player as artifacts that give additional points of gold or influence. Near the end of the game, an instant event appeared, which turned out to be an enemy and attacked each of the four players in turn. His power was 12 points, and the player had to exceed them by playing cards from his hand. Any points not absorbed were converted into damage to the player's kingdom map. Yes, the eyewitness (and author of the original note) who had no combat cards in his hand took all 12 damage, reducing his kingdom's durability from 20 to 8 all at once! THE FINAL BATTLE The people won. At the beginning of the last turn, the player had one gold card, Battle Cry and 3 Forced March in their hand. After playing Forced March, the player destroyed the gold card and got two infantry. After playing a second Forced March, I killed one infantryman and got a infantryman and a demon. The third Forced March destroyed the footman and allowed for a second demon and a knight. People at that point already had an artifact that gives +3 might in battle with the scenario objective, so the player started the final battle by playing a demon (+5 might), a demon (+5), a knight (+3), taking from the top of the deck into a pawn's hand, a pawn (+1), revealing and discarding a gold card from the top of the deck, and a Battle Cry (+4) that gave 21 power with the artifact. Since..

 Many draw parallels between "Cuba" and such games as "Puerto Rico" or "Struggle for the Galaxy". Indeed, the driving force of these games is the choice of character cards (roles, phases - the essence does not change from this). Let me remind you that in the basic "Cuba" players have five characters at their disposal: a worker (extraction of resources and products), trade (buying/selling goods), architect (construction of buildings), foreman (activation of buildings) and mayor (export of goods for victory points ). In each round, each player plays four characters from this list, and the remaining character after 4 rounds goes off to engage in politics, buy votes with the player's money and seek leadership in those same votes to be able to dispose of the four bills and decide which laws will be accepted by the government. , And which are rejected.  Addition "El President" adds one round of moves in each round. In addition to 4 of the 5 characters, each player must sooner or later use one of the available Cuban cards, taking it from the field for himself and performing a unique card action. At the beginning of the round, each Cuban is in a separate place on the field. A certain action of the president is tied to each such place. By taking the Cuban's card, the player crosses out one of the president's possible actions from the list in this way. At the end of the character phase, the presidential car drives along the boulevard and stops near the last card of the Cuban (the others have already been sorted by the players). After that, the president's action is performed, related to the place on the field where the card of the remaining unwanted Cuban is located. Cubans: dancer (player becomes the first player in the next round), musician (player receives 2 coins), day laborer (allows to immediately move the player's products from the yard to the warehouse), port master (replaces ships in the port), lawyer (activates one building per coin), revolutionary (the player receives a victory point).  Actions of the President: In the next round, two characters will go to the parliament. All bills are accepted, the phase of buying votes and voting is skipped. In the next round, it is allowed to move the worker figure before using the foreman. For a coin, each player can rebuild an already existing building into another, spending only the difference in resources. The leader loses 2 victory points. Each player takes a token of any product from the market.  In addition to all of the above, the El Presidente expansion includes several tokens for new buildings, ship maps, and bills. Among the latter, I would like to draw attention to a very strong law that should pull up the laggards. As long as this law is in effect, players will receive additional points at the end of each round. Everyone will receive the number of points equal to their current place on the victory points line: the leader will move up by 1 point, the third player - by 3... This method of pulling out the laggards was used back in Snow Tails. Thanks to this law and the fifth action of the president, the counting of points in the last game in "Cuba" revealed a striking equality: three out of four players scored the same number of points and the winner had to be determined by the amount of cash left at the disposal. In general, "Cuba" with the addition, despite a slightly higher difficulty, is somewhat more loyal to lagging players. Still, this game is not suitable for family leisure: too many rules, too much planning. However, if you sit down to the game to shake your brains, and not just to relax, if you are worried about the upcoming mental duel, where the main weapon will be a mixture of hard calculation, logic and cunning, then "Cuba" will not leave you indifferent...

 Uno is liked by absolutely everyone who played it - a proven fact! The rules are simple and easy to remember, and the games last 15-20 minutes. A deck for playing Uno contains only 108 cards. There are cards with the numbers 0 to 9 of four suits, as well as special cards: 8 "Take Two" cards, 8 "Back Move" cards, 8 "Skip a Move" cards, 4 "Order Color" cards, 4 "Order Color and take four." Each player is dealt 7 cards and the first card is placed for discard. The goal of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the cards in your hand. The winner gets points according to the cards remaining in the hands of the other players.  Each player in Uno discards one card during his turn in such a way that the discarded card matches the color or face value of the card discarded by the previous player. Special cards bring a lot of surprises to the game. For example, with the "Skip Turn" card, you force the next player to… you won't believe it… skip a turn! You can also change the direction of the move with the "Opposite" card, that is, if the move was transmitted clockwise, then the "Opposite" card changes the direction counterclockwise. By discarding a Take Two card, you can force the next player to take two cards and skip the turn. You can order the desired color using the "Order Color" card. Any suit can be used for this card. And the worst thing is the "Order a color and take four" card, using which you can both order the color you need and force the next player to take 4 cards! When one of the players has only one last card left in his hand, he must say "UNO!". If he forgot to do this, and one of the players noticed it, then he forgot to say the magical UNO! takes two cards from the deck. But be on the alert yourself, your opponents are watching the number of your cards, making sneaky plans and will also use special cards against you and each other in every possible way! "Uno" is a great game for the company! Parties fly by quickly and are full of joy and fun! And after each finished game, you want to play again and again! The game will not get boring and will appeal to different people, "from small to large"!..