Note: This review is written after two three-player games in competitive mode. Other modes did not play. In the first game, the bare base was played, in the second - in the base together with kickstarter extras. goals The "Ancient Creatures" and "Black Powder" add-ons were not used. BRIEF REVIEW MECHANICS  There's a lot to The Great Wall, but the core of the game is the worker placement mechanic. The field is divided into an administrative zone, where players send their workers to activate actions, and a battle zone, where players build wall sections and/or barricades, and send archers, infantry, and cavalry to fight the horde. Foot soldiers can also be placed in an administrative area as overseers and will produce resources for their owners during the income phase. The number of available actions and received bonuses depend on the player's chosen command cards (they are revealed simultaneously). There's something in common with rock-paper-scissors: some command cards give their owners extra goodies if other players pick certain cards (say, if you pick a Despotism card, you can place an extra worker if other players pick a card "Economy"). Some locations of the administrative zone are activated if there is at least one worker on them, and to activate others, they need to be completely filled with workers. So, in addition to everything, you will have to try to predict the plans of other players here. Each player has his general and 2 or more advisors. Advisors can either be kept drunk, which gives additional opportunities, or put under the general so that he receives additional icons and his ability is strengthened. Victory Points in The Great Wall are honors awarded for building fortifications, defeating hordes, general effects, advisors, and tactics cards, as well as three artifact cards that give extra points in the end-game SP tally. The latter are especially important. Players can also gain tokens of dishonor (they give penalties if..

ABOUT THE GOOD PLOT  The plot of "Familiars" is without exaggeration very charming. I will not spoil it; I will only say that you play as four charming familiars, who one fine day fell to the duty of protecting a little girl. While this game doesn't have as many funny moments as The Lost Seas (also a Plaid Hat Games game, I just love it!), Familiars is closer to Disney / Pixar / Studio Ghibli in spirit. In the course of the game, relationships are gradually built between the characters, and the plot unfolds relatively slowly, which allows you to fully enjoy the surrounding world and setting. The plot is rather a saga; there is a feeling that a lot of time passes in the new chapters, and the characters develop - especially the children who grow up. In addition, during the game, the plot will branch out depending on what important decision you make.  Each of the four familiars is a full-fledged individual. They are reminiscent of the sidekicks to the Disney heroes we all know and love so well, only now they have become the heroes of their own story. The plot of the game will pay a lot of attention to each of the familiars. You are probably interested in the question, can "Familiars" come to a group of adults? Yes, they can. My company really liked the plot, and I personally liked the solo games. Although marketing and reviewers say the game is perfect for a younger audience, that doesn't mean it's all pink ponies and rainbows. There are darker, tense moments in the plot. Of course, the quality of the storyline is a very subjective criterion, and you may not like the same thing as me. If you prefer serious dark stories, then this game is definitely not for you; although "Familiars" has serious moments, overall it is a light fairy tale. I can't go into too much detail without spoilers, so I'll just add that it's basically like a Pixar or Studio Ghibli movie, just a little more mature. VOCATIONAL TRAINING In most decks that emphasize..

INTRODUCTION I recently completed Terminator Genisys: Rise of the Resistance's 7 mission campaign. The review is based on a solo playthrough with two characters: John Connor and the Sentinel (a reprogrammed T-800... hi Arnold). There will be minor campaign spoilers in places, such as describing the objectives of some missions. CUBES To begin with, the game uses three types of dice: Action Dice: 4 regular D6s of the player's chosen color of blue, red, white, or yellow. They are cast at the start of a character's turn and are distributed across action slots. Attack Dice (see photo below): 4 custom dice that characters use to attack enemies and vice versa. 1 hit on two faces, a terminator skull on two faces, a double hit on one face, and a fist-symbol of Resistance on the last face of a hit (required to activate special abilities). Reinforcement Dice: 2 regular D6s, which you use to check if new Skynet units will appear on the field. GAME PROCESS  Terminator Genisys: Rise of the Resistance is a cooperative tactical game with a campaign mode and a dice placement mechanic for 1-4 players. Each round you choose in which order to activate the characters. This is important because of the enemy activation mechanic (more on that below). Here is the sequence of moves: Roll 4 action dice. Distribute the dice to the slots on your character card, weapon cards, equipment cards, and your class to activate the corresponding actions. Roll the dice and check whether enemy reinforcements will appear on the field. Activate enemies targeting you. Activate the boss, if there is one. First you roll 4 dice for your character. Their number does not change from mission to mission. Some abilities allow you to borrow dice from other characters, but as a rule, there are only 4 of them. However, as you progress through the campaign, you'll have new options for where to place your dice, and this is the main way you level up your character. At the start, the..

REVIEW OF CASTLE RAVENLOFT Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft is a simple cooperative dungeon crawler. GAME PROCESS  Each Castle Ravenloft mission has its own victory conditions. You read the layout instructions, choose your heroes, put them on the starting tile and you can start. Each character has its own parameters and special ability, as well as power cards that give additional unique opportunities. Character parameters are armor, HP, speed and the power of the second breath (healing surge). If the character's HP is zero at the start of the turn, then he is forced to use a second breath charge after gaining the appropriate amount of HP. In total, the heroes have two charges of second breath for the entire party. On your turn, you can move and attack, attack and move, or move twice. When attacking, you choose one of the power cards, roll a die and add the bonus from that card to the result. If the total is equal to or greater than the opponent's armor level, then you have dealt damage to them. When you defeat a monster, you receive the number of experience points indicated on the card, as well as a treasure card (they give additional special abilities). Experience can be spent on avoiding contact with monsters, as well as leveling up the character to the second if you are lucky enough to roll a 20 on the die when attacking. When you finish a move on the edge of a tile that is not adjacent to a wall, you automatically explore it. When exploring, you place a new tile on the field, draw a monster card and place its figure on the new tile. After your turn ends, the enemies phase begins. If you didn't research on your turn, you'll have to draw a contact card, and they don't bode well. You then activate one of the enemy cards and follow the instructions that describe the monster's behavior. Victory occurs when the victory conditions of the mission are fulfilled. Defeat occurs if the character has 0 HP and no second breath..

REVIEW  Chronicles of Avel is a cooperative family game that resembles a dungeon crawler at the beginning of the game, and a tower defense towards the end. The goal of the game is to defeat all the monsters before they reach the castle. During the game, the heroes travel through the lands of Abel, trying to earn gold and equipment to become stronger, as well as erect obstacles in the way of monsters. Most often, gold and upgrades are given as a reward for defeating monsters. Players will have to work together to develop an optimal strategy to fight against monsters. Time is ticking: after a certain number of moves, the Black Moon will descend, the Beast will appear on the map, and all the monsters on the field will start storming the castle. If the players properly prepared for this, set traps, sealed the spawn points, strengthened the castle with protective walls and pumped, then they have a good chance to save their kingdom.  The party is divided into two acts. In the first, players take turns moving their heroes around the map, exploring terrain, fighting monsters, and spending gold and actions on upgrades. In the second, after the rise of the Black Moon, the game turns into castle defense: the movement of monsters serves as a timer, and the gameplay focuses more on battles. Although the game is divided into acts, there is no sense of artificial separation. The timer in the game is the phases of the moon, which gives a feeling of increasing threat. This forces players to act efficiently and not delay to prepare as best as possible for the second stage. The first stage, which takes up most of the game, has quite a lot of monster fights, so the fact that the second stage consists of almost only fights does not seem surprising; it is the logical conclusion unfolding in the first act of the story.  Heroes start in the castle and from there begin to explore the map, tile by tile. At the same time, the tiles are turned over, revealing monster..

 In this article, I want to talk about a dozen of the most interesting and rated novelties among Euro table games. These are mostly games released in English in 2022 and have high ratings on BGG. BITOKU  Score: 7.91. Difficulty: 3.7. Game time: 2 hours  Hardcore euro on the theme of Japanese mythology. Exploits the most popular Euromechanic of recent times: a mixture of worker posting and card drawing. "Bitoku" has a good design and an interesting setting - the action takes place in the world of yokai (mythical Japanese creatures). When you first get acquainted with the game, you will be amazed by the huge field with many components. For the entire game, the player will have to play only 12 cards and display 12 worker cubes. At the same time, you can fight for lake treasures, collect income-generating crystals in crystal caves, travel along the winding path of mits and collect pairs from mits and dragonflies, move the spirit marker of the bitoku set, make pilgrimages on the path of enlightenment, cross the river and take the hills of Hikaru , get stone spirits - ivakur from the Garden of Stones, build buildings in the magical forest, play vision cards, etc. The number of move options is huge, so the game risks dragging on for several hours. However, you soon realize that despite the many options, the game is not that difficult, since it is devoid of any tricky combinations and is a banal euro point salad.  BRAZIL: IMPERIAL  Score: 7.75. Difficulty: 3.0. Game time: 1 hour 30 minutes   Complex euro game. First of all, it is worth noting that the game is very encyclopedic: the great politicians, soldiers, scientists, figures of Brazil are mentioned on the cards and tokens, as well as phenomena related to this country. Like the history of the Brazilian Empire, we will go through the various stages of the country's formation. Initially, our task will be the construction of plantations, land research. Then the development of..

 To begin with, I must warn you about several features of Frostpunk: The Board Game. First, the game is difficult. Very difficult. This is not a bug, but a feature. After a dozen games, I realized that I always had ways to get out of a sticky situation at hand - I just didn't notice them in time. You just need to learn to play better. Second, the game is very dark. I was not very pleased to read about children freezing to death. Others may be affected by cannibalism or other unpleasant acts to which people may descend in a hopeless situation. In my opinion, the author should be praised for beautifully transferring the gloomy atmosphere of the computer game to the table, but keep in mind. BRIEF REVIEW AND WHY BUY THIS GAME This game stands alone in my collection of 300 boards. She is absolutely unique. Complicated, heavy, time-consuming and desk-space-intensive, but I love it. Perhaps, of all my games, it most deserves a ten. After her, "Twilight of the Empire" is the closest to the top ten, since the party in "Twilight" is a whole event. So far, Frostpunk is the only co-op that has surpassed Spirit Island for me. If you want a challenge, want a beautifully beautiful and highly replayable delight that tells exciting stories and beats you mercilessly, then Frostpunk is for you. IS THE GAME WORTH ITS PRICE? I purchased the deluxe all-in and it was definitely worth it. However, I've become a big fan of the game, so if you're on a tight budget, it might be worth sticking with the Frostlanders add-on. All other add-ons only slightly improve the game and add more atmosphere to an already excellent game. Is the game worth the time spent mastering the game and long games? In my opinion, yes. Even if your friends aren't interested in Frostpunk, it's great to play solo, and each game will be memorable for a long time. Of course, if the game does not start and you constantly lose without understanding why, then Frostpunk will cause you only..

 Tindaya is a cooperative survival game... but with a few unusual twists. Your task is to ensure that at the end of each era all tribes remain alive and do not meet the conditions of general defeat. In this case, there is a final calculation of victory points, which determines whether you won (in cooperative mode) or who exactly is the winner (in competitive mode). WHERE ARE WE? Canary Islands, XV century. The Izegem tribes live quietly for themselves, farming, fishing and herding, traveling the ocean and learning new professions, carefully using the island's limited resources. Settlements grow into villages. The sage seeks new knowledge and tries to appease the gods. But their way of life is destroyed by the arrival of evil Spanish conquistadors, who kill the locals and seize the islands. There are 8 Canary Islands in total. Each island has a volcano, dense forests, a wide coast and high mountains. Perfect for growing crops, raising pigs, fishing or grazing goats. Build a new home for your expanding tribe and feed the new residents. Explore the islands and meet new people. Spanish conquistadors begin to populate beautiful islands and build fortresses. TIME TO PLAN Your little tribe of 3 commoners and two nobles must plan their lives. The main thing for them is that the gods remain satisfied. Gods are capricious and only give certain types of food, animals or resources in each era. As an alternative, human sacrifices can be made; who would miss a few conquistadors? If the gods remain displeased, their level of anger will rise, promising cataclysms and even the complete destruction of the islands. Life in constant fear, survival - this is the essence of the game. Each member of the tribe must have food and shelter, but an excess is dangerous: excesses also anger the gods. Seers Tibiabin and Tamonante can come to the rescue. They reveal the future of Tindai: where the gods will arrange a cataclysm and in what way; at which islands..

GAME OVERVIEW In Chickens, each player becomes a farmer who tries to create a harmonious yard with different breeds of chickens. Choose carefully which chickens you place next to each other, because not every group will be scored at the end of the game!  During the game, players will place cards in front of them in a 4×3 grid. You start the game with 4 cards in your hand, and the first thing you do on your turn is draw 2 new cards. They can come from the central draw deck or from any other player's reset. You now have 6 cards, one of which you place in your yard and the other to the discard pile. Pretty simple, don't you think?  But there's a catch: you can't freely place cards next to each other unless they're of the same breed. If you place cards of different suits next to each other, their value must be exactly 1 more or less than the cards that were played next to them. It turns what might seem like a somewhat simple card game at first glance into a rather complex and addictive puzzle game.  Once all players have filled their yard, the game ends and points are awarded: each egg in your largest continuous group of 1 species is worth 1 point, and if your rooster is in another group, you also get points for eggs in that group. You get extra points for medals for your chickens and completed objectives, and the player with the most points is declared the best chicken scout!  Chickens is a fun yet challenging puzzle game that is easy to learn and simple to play! We were very surprised by the depth and strategy of this little card game! If you are looking for a mysterious abstract filler, then this is the game for you!..

 In this co-op, you play as students of a wizarding academy who have just started learning magic. Sometimes it works as expected, sometimes it causes unforeseen consequences. Each student has his own unique ability. Use your magical knowledge (or lack thereof) wisely to successfully protect the academy from demons, trolls, demons, fires, and floods. COMPONENTS  There is a lot of everything in the box, no wonder it weighs more than 2 kg. Inside are two playing fields, two rulebooks, 41 miniatures, 14 thick double-sided room tiles, 143 cards, 7 character cards, and 246 tokens. There is also a plastic insert with inserts for cards and room tiles. Miniatures and other cardboard lie in one large recess. Considering the number of tokens, they must be distributed in bags to speed up the preparation for the game. Fortunately, the kit comes with 15 pieces. The miniatures are well done and add atmosphere to the game. Demons, it's true, are very small compared to the figures of players, trolls, demons and guards, but that's how it was intended, I guess. RULES  What is unusual is that there are two rulebooks here: the main one plus the grimoire. Mainly described are preparation for the game, room properties, cards and character cards. It also briefly mentions glyphs (required for spellcasting), threats, and mana, all of which you'll see in the first game. But the most important thing is that with the help of this book you will play an introductory game, which has fewer rules, but it helps a lot to get used to the gameplay. And finally, here are the differences in the rules between the introductory party and the traditional parties. Grimoire describes creatures, threats, properties of cards and room tiles in detail. There are also described scenarios (10 of them in total), which are divided into ordinary and expert levels. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why the rules were split in two. Did it go well? Well... mediocre. Sometimes it's..