REVIEW In the game, you are the citizens of Squalls End saving the Cat Islands and must save as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vash arrives. Each cat comes in a unique shape and belongs to a family, you have to find a way to fit them all on your boat while keeping the families together. GAME PROCESS  Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw consists of 7 rounds where you try to save as many cats as possible, learn lessons and collect treasures. At the beginning of the game, a 3x4 grid is formed from cards from the cat deck and cards from the lesson deck according to a predetermined pattern. Once the grid is prepared, all players can make moves at the same time and must choose one of the four columns of cards. Players can reveal their chosen cards in any order. There are two different types of cards in the game: The openings on your boat are drawn as polymino shapes. Cats are always drawn in the specified color and you try to form large groups of cats (families) because they score a lot of points at the end of the game. Oshaks are wild cats and you can choose the color. Finally, there are treasures, they help you fill your boat. Rare treasures are also worth points at the end of the game. Discoveries are always drawn next to each other, and the first discovery you draw can be anywhere. Lesson cards show different scoring conditions. If you choose a lesson card, you can check that specific lesson on your lesson sheet to activate this scoring condition at the end of the game. Each player has a slightly different boat layout with treasure cards and rats. Treasure cards allow you to get treasures if they are covered by a cat of the correct color, and rats score negative points at the end of the game if they are still not covered. You can also activate special abilities as listed on the boat sheet, but only once per round and only 3 in the entire game. After round 7, you tally up your points and the player with the most points is..

REVIEW Life in the forest is a lot of fun, at least while the sun is shining and the leaves are on the trees. However, these days do not last forever, and long before the weather begins to change, the wise animals begin to harvest for the long, cold winter. You will be spending many months huddled in your hole, and you want to make it as cozy as possible. A nice bowl of soup, a comfortable rocking chair, toys and games will help the dark winter days pass quickly. In Creature Comforts, you spend the spring, summer, and fall gathering various goods from the forest and spending them on items that will make your home more inviting while the world outside is covered in a layer of snow. Each round you send family members to different locations to get supplies. If they fall short of their goal, they will learn a lesson and be better prepared next time. The family that created the most comfortable den wins. GAME PROCESS A game of Creature Comforts lasts for 8 rounds (or months) and you go through 3 seasons: Spring, Summer and Fall. At the beginning of the round, a new Traveler opens. You can visit the Traveler by placing one of your workers there to perform a powerful action only available this round. After that, all players roll their dice from two families (of their player's color) and they can send their workers to different locations on the main board. When everyone has finished, the current starting player rolls a family die (4 white dice). Now the players take turns distributing all the dice (4 white dice + 2 family dice) to their workers. Some jobs require certain values or sequences to activate. If they have fully met the requirements for the cube, they can take a work action and return it to their personal tablet. Workers that cannot be activated give you a Lesson Learned token that can be used on your next turn to increase or decrease the value of the die. Worker actions include upgrading buildings, gathering/converting resources,..

 The space business is finally booming. The stars contain countless different races, all of which have one thing in common: everyone needs something. And it doesn't matter if it's bananas, snow, a pile of slime or electronics. This is the time to buy a spaceship with a large enough cargo space and set off. And you can count on it - you will have your own ship, as well as the desire for profit. All this awaits us in the board game Merchant of Venus , created in 1988 by Richard Hamblen and full of stars and adventures. But in 2012, a completely new version was created, adapted for modern players by Robert A. Kouba. As if the contents of the box weren't enough, the publishing company Fantasy Flight Games decided to combine both games (old and new) into one box and let players choose which one to play! All this with illustrations by Henning Ludwigsen. On the cover of this large and heavy box, we see a strange alien entity simply selecting something from some cosmic catalog. We actually find ourselves a little bit in his skin (well, is it skin after all?) because once you open the box, there are too many different impressions. The main and most important is clearly the field. This time it is double-sided precisely so that you can play both the original and the new version. The map in any case shows us a part of the galaxy with various planetary systems. They are all connected in different ways by lines of space routes and have many symbols used to quantify space travel.  The game also includes a set of boxes for each player (made of hard paper). It has two indicators (laser and shields), as well as a place to lay out dice and various improvements. You'll probably be looking for miniature boats (and you'll find them with plastic stands) and then cards. They'll introduce us to the pilots as well as the actual races (first contact cards), but missions, encounters, and rewards are also part of this two-size pack. You should also not miss the flow of..

 The roll-and-write genre has seen a real revival in recent years, though it has largely failed to capture my attention. Something about the bland rows of empty squares and the lack of setting, let alone an integrated theme, gives the genre more mystery than personality. When I first heard about an upcoming pinball game called Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade from designer Jeff Engelstein, I was convinced. How can pinball be transferred to pen and paper? I had no idea, but I knew I needed to find out.  WizKids kindly released a free to print and play game from Super-Skill just as the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, leading to my first foray into the wide world of pnp. I printed the Carniball field on my black and white printer, decorated it with colored pencils and took the dice. At the start of my first game, I was impressed with how the system managed to create a sense of fluidity and movement reminiscent of real pinball. I was curious to see what the rest of the game had to offer and was looking forward to the full release.  The basic system of Super-Skill is that players roll a pair of dice and move their pinball to new areas on the table depending on the outcome they choose. Each time the ball moves, new objectives and features become available as others close, providing an ever-changing landscape of micro-decisions. Not knowing what might happen next, there is a sense of excitement as the ball soars off the flipper and up through the spins. The game balances this uncertainty with enough control over the ball's path to keep your brain thinking tactically and strategically. Once the rules are mastered, the game even manages to capture a sense of reflexivity as players intuitively react to the frantic movements of the ball around the pin.  Rulesets for each of the four included tablets provide a unique and themed experience. Here's a quick overview of what each pin has to offer: 1. At the unusual Carniball table, players juggle between..

 In Ali Baba, you try to collect sets of treasures that give you points. There are 10 different types of treasures, 6 of each, and they stack up in a pyramid like mahjong tiles. Only those that are not covered by other tiles will be opened. The pyramid consists of only 54 tiles, 6 are returned (closed) back to the box. On your turn, you take a tile, use its special abilities, and unlock tiles as you unlock them.  If you have 1 ring at the end of the game, it will give you one point, but if you have 6, it will give you 21 points. There are 6 colors for each treasure, each color has a special ability. For example, if you take a pink tile, you get 5 points, take a green tile and get another adjacent tile on your turn, take a yellow tile and get a tile from your opponent, a white tile allows you to protect a certain object or color on the field until you again your turn, while blue tiles give you points for each tile you've opened by taking a tile, and brown tiles give you points for each type of treasure you already own. So when you take a brown lamp and now have 3 lamps, you get 6 points (that's 2 for each treasure of the type you own).  It's a family game and at first I thought it wouldn't interest me, I thought I was just lucky. And while it's of course also very important to take tiles of the right color at the right time, sometimes you have to take a tile that won't give you many points, but will make your opponent lose a lot. There are 2 options for advanced players that I haven't played yet, but I suggest playing one of them instead of the regular game. In a normal game, 6 tiles are returned to the box, so if you're unlucky, you're trying to complete a set, some of which have been returned to the box. To avoid this, you can completely remove 1 treasure type and everyone will know that the game will have 6 of each of the 9 treasures, making the game more tactical. Another option is to place the 6 tiles that will go into the box next to the..

 In Keep The Heroes Out, like many other co-op games, you have to put out the fires all over the field until they spread and your brave heroes come to an end. However, in this case, you are the arsonist (if you are playing a certain monster), and the heroes are your enemies who are trying to clear your treasury. Keep The Heroes Out is a deckbuilder in which you play mainly with a starting deck of 10 cards; adding more than 1-2 new cards to the deck is a rarity. And only representatives of the lower races need it; with real monsters (like a dragon) the deck works great from the start. GAME PROCESS Your monsters roam the dungeon, attack heroes, set traps, create items in certain rooms, and move those items to other rooms to exchange them for new cards and improve your deck.  After each turn of the monster clan (the faction controlled by the player), 2, 4 or 6 heroes are dropped into the dungeon rooms, depending on the difficulty level. They activate their abilities, move to rooms with chests and rummage through them. If the heroes surround your main treasury, then you lose. Basically, heroes are wandering snacks that you need to eat (eliminate) between rounds. If they are allowed to accumulate, the situation will get out of control. The more heroes, the more dangerous they are, as freshly fired heroes activate already exhausted (like) heroes, and a snowball occurs. Each room of the dungeon has a small treasure chest that the heroes can get lost in (unless you breathe fire on them) if there are enough of them. When they are dissected, negative events are activated, the effects of which vary from "it doesn't matter" to "if you don't have a dragon, you've lost." Players must optimally manage their actions. Which is better: move and attack the hero? Summon new monsters? Spend 4-5 action cards and add a new card to the deck, but lose the game (because you're not playing a dragon)? You will have to make difficult decisions (including when..

TRAILS OF TUCANA BOARD GAME REVIEW  In Trails of Tucana, each player is given a map sheet that shows villages, landmarks, and different types of terrain. The goal is to connect as many villages and sights as possible. To begin, you take a cooking card. This map shows where the villages are located on the map. The first player draws a red letter in village 1 and then draws clockwise. So that each player has a different map configuration, each subsequent player draws the first letter one village further. Each turn you always take 2 cards from the pile. These cards show the types of terrain. Now all players can simultaneously draw a route from one type of terrain to another. Routes can be drawn anywhere and they do not have to be adjacent. If you associate a landmark with a village, you can circle it on the right side of the sheet. If you cross the 2nd landmark, you can immediately draw a route of your choice. The first round ends when only 1 card remains in the deck. At the end of each round, the landmark symbols are added up. You get points for the corresponding round. Thus, for each point of interest circled in 1 round, you get more points. At the end of the 2nd round, you add up again all points of landmarks and points of connected villages. If you are the first to connect two villages with the same letters, you will also receive bonus points. The one with the most points at the end wins! There are 2 options: Isla Petit and Isla Grande. The only difference is that Isla Grande is bigger and is played in 3 rounds. There are also 3 landmarks of each type instead of 2. Isla Grande takes a bit longer to play. IMPRESSION Trails of Tucana is a short but very interesting game. You can start playing very quickly because the rules are clear and simple. The theme is very fun and so is the feel of the game. If you like to build networks, this is definitely an interesting addition to the collection. Don't expect this to be a huge game with tons of..

ONE NIGHT ULTIMATE WEREWOLF BOARD GAME REVIEW IS THIS A GAME AT ALL? This is the question we asked ourselves when One Night Ultimate Werewolf was first laid out on the table. Each of us was given a card that told us what roles we would play in a small village where werewolves are being hunted. We closed our eyes and listened to the very clear instructions that the free app gave us. Some of us, unbeknownst to others, fiddled with the cards according to the instructions. At this the night phase passed and day began, but we still remained in the dark.  What were we to do now? The goal was clear to all of us: we had five minutes to find and hang one of the two werewolves in our midst. Success will win all non-werewolf players, while failure will win werewolves. But how can we find players with werewolf cards? How could we possibly know our own cards after possibly messing with them? We were all familiar with games like The Resistance: Avalon, but there you knew exactly what your role was and could watch other players' actions to draw conclusions. We had nothing to work with in this game. Did they have Carefully and gradually we began to piece together the puzzle last night. Player A revealed that she was a seer and actually saw the werewolf card with player C. Player B revealed that she was a troublemaker and that she replaced player C's card with player D's card. The case seemed clear, player D was now a werewolf and we needed all you had to do was vote for him to win. But then Player D stated that he had robbed Player C and left his card there, so if the cards were swapped, Player C should still have the werewolf card. Player C strongly denied this, admitting that he did start as a werewolf, but claiming , that player B also started as a werewolf, not a troublemaker. So she couldn't switch cards, and so player B and player D must now be werewolves. What seemed like a simple game of deduction turned into a blame game as people began to accuse each other..

ORIFLAМME BOARD GAME REVIEW 3-5 players 15-30 minutes Designers: Adrian and Axel Esling Artist: Tomasz Jedrushek Publisher: Studio H Publisher in Ukraine Geekach Games The game is played during 6 rounds, each of which consists of 2 phases: During the programming phase, players choose a card from their hand and place it face down on the table. Cards can be played to the left or right of the row, but not between them. You can also place a card on top of one of the previously played cards. Once each player has placed a card, the resolution phase begins. For each card, starting with the first in a row, the owner decides whether he wants to reveal it or not. If he leaves a card face down, he puts one effect on it. When he reveals a card, he gains all influence on it and applies the effect. If the card is already open from the previous round, applying the effect is also mandatory.  Oriflame caught my attention by winning the prestigious French As d'Or last year. The extensive use of text on the cards put me off as this is a typical entry-level game that I would mostly play with my kids, so I'm very glad that Geekach Games decided to publish a Ukrainian version of this game. The game certainly relies on card effects, and they seem very well balanced: some cards will have more benefits if played early in the game, others should be kept hidden for as long as possible. For more experienced players, this game may seem too chaotic, as some cards may be removed before you can even activate them. Being able to play on top of previously played cards certainly adds an extra dimension, with hidden cards protected but also not activated. There's definitely plenty of opportunity for replayability, as you'll get a different 7-card combination from a 10-card deck each time.  Oriflame is definitely a good game for me and I really enjoyed playing it. It is also very portable and I can see it accompanying us on our future travels...

COBRA PAW BOARD GAME REVIEW  Cobra Paw is a tile grabbing skill game from Bananagrams that pits 2 to 6 opponents against each other in a tile grabbing frenzy. Each turn, two dice are rolled, and these dice determine which tile the players try to capture. The player who captured that tile becomes the next player to roll the dice, and so on until one player has collected a certain number of chips. COMPONENTS AND PREPARATION FOR THE GAME  Cobra Paw is packaged in an attractive orange box decorated with a ninja cat on the cover. Open the box and you'll find 21 double-sided tiles along with two large black cubes. This is it. Dice and tiles are covered with 6 unique symbols. All of these components are large, polished, and have a nice weight to them.  Preparation for the game is simple. Just turn the box upside down and dump everything on the table (make sure the tiles are face up and no tiles are on top of another), choose the first player and you're ready to play! TILES AND GAMEPLAY Cobra Paw is a very simple game. Each tile has two symbols that correspond to the symbols printed on the two dice. When rolling the dice, two symbols will be shown and players will try to be the first to place their fingertip on the tile that matches those symbols. The one who succeeds first takes the tile and places it on the table in front of him. Note that it is possible to steal chips from other people, so each player must protect what they have already collected!  The game continues until one player has collected the agreed number of tiles. The game offers 6 tiles for 3 to 6 player play and 8 tiles for two player play. Obviously, this can be changed if you want the game to last a little longer or last a little less. IMPRESSION As my friends and I walked around Gen Con, we must have passed the Bananagrams booth a hundred times. My eyes were on heavy Euros – deep, brain-burning games that took hours to play. It didn't even occur to me to stop and demonstrate..