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KAHUNA REVIEW  Kahuna is a Polynesian themed territory control game that consists of 3 rounds. The action takes place in an archipelago consisting of 12 islands, and you fight to control more islands than your opponent. Each island is connected to each other by 3 to 6 bridges. Players gain control of an island by owning most of its bridges. Gaining majority control of an island causes all of your opponents' bridges on that island to be destroyed. PREPARATION FOR THE GAME To start the game, each player is dealt 3 cards (hand limit 5 cards). An additional 3 cards are placed on the table face up, and the remaining cards form a drawing pile.GAME PROCESS On their turn, each player draws as many cards as they wish, with each card representing a separate island in the chain. They will place a bridge token connecting this island to another. Bridges can also be destroyed by playing 2 cards from the same island or 2 cards connecting the bridge they want to destroy. The player then draws one of the face up cards or a card from the top of the deck to indicate that their turn is complete. At the end of the first round, the player with the most islands gets 1 point. At the end of round 2, the player with the most islands gets 2 points. Finally, at the end of Round 3, the player with the most islands subtracts the opposing player's number of islands from their number and adds that number to their total score. The player with the most points wins. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT KAHUNA First, let's talk about quality. The box is sturdy, bright and with the nice compact square box that many Kosmos games are known for. The insert keeps everything tight and strong. Each player receives a set of solid black or white wooden pieces (25 bridge tokens and 10 majority tokens). The parts are sturdy and should last many games. A total of 24 cards with a nice matte finish and thick that are not difficult to shuffle. Finally, the board is sturdy and just the right size to be placed on a table between two people. The rules are well laid out with plenty of full color illustrations to cover any questions you may have. The cards have icons in each corner that correspond to the icons on the field. It helps to navigate the maps to find the islands more easily. In addition, the island whose card you have will be highlighted in red. The gameplay is intense and quite competitive; this is not a two-player solitaire. At some point in the game, you will get your hands dirty; by directly attacking your opponent, taking cards you know they need, or destroying one of their bridges, causing their advantage to collapse or your advantage to strengthen. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE If you are dealt cards that are close together on the field, it is much easier to lock down 1, 2 or even 3 islands within the first few turns. It's not a sure win, but it sure makes it easier to get that first point. Due to the application of a unique scoring mechanism, this makes it difficult to win the overall game. FINAL IMPRESSIONS  Kahuna is simply one of my favorite games. It is very tactical, as capturing one island can cause cascading effects by destroying your opponents' bridges. You have to think more in terms of web connections rather than linear progressions. It is quite common to be significantly behind, but it will not work to take the lead in just one or two moves. There are enough options to avoid randomness, but few enough to avoid analysis paralysis. If you like games for two, then Kahuna should definitely be in your collection. ..

DICE BAZAAR GAME REVIEW Dice Bazaar is a visual treat. Filled with great colors, friendly shapes and characters, and blocks...lots and lots of blocks. In Dice Bazaar, players compete to buy products from a vendor by rolling dice and matching their values to the corresponding dice under each product. Products found in the bazaar are spices, teapots, ceramics and precious stones. Each product card displays a number of points and a special ability that players can "spend" on their next turn. The sum of each card's points is roughly equal to how difficult it is to acquire. Spices only require 2 matching dice and gems require 5. HOW TO PLAY DICE BAZAAR Players roll dice of their color at the start of their turn and can either purchase the item by matching the correct number (and face) of the dice, or by "putting" the dice on the field for use in the next turn. When a product card is purchased, the player will take that card and then roll all dice found under that product. Dice previously deposited by opponents that no longer match the new dealer's dice should be removed. Each product card has a special ability that can be activated by discarding that card, which is points. This ability allows you to change the face of any die already rolled and place it on the product card with the next highest value. So by spending the 1 point card you get from buying a spice card, you can set any value to one of your dice and place it under the teapot. By spending a teapot card, you can set the die to any value and place it under the pottery product card, etc.  The game ends when any two products are completely sold out in the Bazaar. Players add up the total points of their remaining product cards, and the player with the most points wins. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT DICE BAZAAR The artwork is just beautiful and the colors are gorgeous and vibrant. The game has very clear iconography and the rules are well laid out and easy to read. The game says it's for ages 6 and up, but I'd bet a 4-year-old would have no problem playing this game. The dice are 16 mm in size, so they fit well in the hand and have a certain weight. The gameplay is engaging, but not deep or complex. Special abilities on product cards help alleviate the pure luck aspect of a game like Roll For It.  Dice Bazaar is very easy to play with easy to learn rules on just one sheet. Me and my friends played the game for 5 games after opening the box. There was only one time when we had to seek clarification on the rules. I asked on Twitter (have you lost points from traded cards) and got a reply within 10 minutes. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE It's a try-your-luck dice game. This means that the gameplay is almost entirely dictated by your luck. The special abilities on the product cards help, but the randomness is still there. While not strictly a criticism, it would be cool to see some variation in the special abilities, with each card in the product stack offering a different ability, or with each product ability being a variation on the others. This will increase the strategy as you will have to choose whether you want to buy that particular version of the card or wait for someone else to pick it up. The game starts with the player counting 3 times on the Spice, Teapot, and Pottery cards and the player counting 2 times on the Gem cards. Since it is much easier to get products that only require 2 or 3 dice, it would be nice to increase the number of cards on these cards so that the gameplay is not distorted. IMPRESSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS The author spends a lot of time on his designs, and it shows. The box and accessories are very pleasing to the eye. If you're looking for a simple game to play with friends, kids, or people new to board games, then you can't go wrong with Dice Bazaar. If you're a heavy gamer, you might not find anything to suit your needs...

“HANNNNNNNNN!!!!”  This is one of my favorite moments from my favorite Star Trek movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Kirk (William Shatner) grits his teeth and yells from the bridge of the Enterprise at his old nemesis Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban, who sadly isn't nominated for an Oscar for his work here). As a teenager, I was stuck watching Star Trek the other day. You know who else is a Star Trek fan? Peter B. Hoffgaard, designer of the new CGE game Starship Captains. From the cover, to the Enterprise-like player fields, to easter eggs like the mission called "Roddenberries," everything about Starship Captains screams "play this if you like Star Trek." As an addict, I was delighted to play this game. CITY  Starship Captains puts players in control of Enterprise-like ships that work together in a faction known as the Co-op (partly because I assume the Federation has been taken over!). Newly promoted to captain, each player leads a small team of specialists from around the universe. These specialists are your employees and you will place them in various departments of your ship and your technical board to perform actions. (However, I won't call this a worker placement game, since these spaces are available to all players on their various ships, and then spaces are vacated at the end of each turn.) Your workers are cadets (gray figures that represent unskilled workers who can only do repairs after the first hire) and ensigns. Flags are specialized by color: red flags control the ship, yellow flags coordinate weapons systems, and blue flags are your technical experts. Starship Captains' shared main field presents a galaxy with a slightly larger selection of field locations, designed for just four players. (The flip side is for 1-3 players.) Using one crew member to perform an action, each turn allows players to activate a compartment (known simply as a room) or complete a mission on the planet where their ship is currently docked. Starship Captains is easy to learn thanks to the color coding of the actions (and symbols for each action to help with accessibility) and the simplicity of the moves. You'll take a crew member from the "readiness room"—the ship's bridge, in one of my favorite parts of the game's production—and do something to activate the room for many of your turns. Yellow and Red are very simple actions available so that you always have the option to take out any pirates on routes related to your current location or move. The main blue action is technology research, and the volatility of the technology market is the best feature of the game. Taking the tech from the eight card market costs nothing, and the tech is added to a tech board with six available slots. During gameplay, adding tech gives you three different options: Omega technologies are late game scoring conditions, only three of them are available at the beginning of the game Technician rooms can later be activated as regular rooms by the appropriate crew member, and each of these unique cards gives your team better options than the four basic rooms you have on the bridge of your ship. Ability techs are permanent powers that activate during gameplay To start the game, four of the six slots on this tech field are unavailable because they're damaged (your promotion to captain only gave you a "freshly repaired" ship, according  to the manual), so you'll have to spend some of your damage-removing actions on it on board and from the cargo space of the ship. The cargo area is used to store pirate tokens you've defeated in previous turns (perhaps prisoners being brought back to Co-op HQ?) as well as artifact tokens that can be used to activate crewless rooms. TECHNOLOGIES WITHOUT THE TECHNOLOGY TREE The tech panel is my favorite part of Starship Captains because it changes the course of every game. It's interesting to try to capture the Omega techs to increase the results in the endgame. Having room options can be key. Some cards break the idea that only red flags can control a ship, so in the game when I added a Jump Drive card to my field, it gave me more options for my yellow flags. Ability techniques enhance all other actions, so combining some of them resulted in different approaches to missions. Missions are the heart of the game. If you're not doing actions while you're on the move, you're doing missions—there's always at least five missions scattered around the universe to choose from. Flying to the planet before anyone else arrives ensures that the player will have first priority after completing this mission. As the main action of the turn, you will have to assign crew members to a mission (never more than one of the three colors of the game's flag) and attempt to complete them. If you have a crew member color that matches the color of the mission line, you will receive a reward (and possibly a penalty) for that line. For example, a mission may require a red flag and a yellow flag. You can use the cadet and the yellow flag to complete the mission, but you will only get the bonus for the yellow line. This also means that you will avoid any punishments that may correspond to the red part of the mission. Making the missions so easy to do—in terms of learning how to do them—is what made Starship Captains enjoyable. All actions are clear. This is aided by stellar player aids, which reminded me a lot of the aids included in Lost Ruins of Arnak, another CGE product. Almost everything in Starship Captains is covered in the player help, including crew definitions, medal options, and all the iconography shown on maps and faction routes. FORWARD, BUT NOT SO BRAVELY I would argue that games like Starship Captains, like First Rat, and other very accessible recent developments are fantastic ways to introduce gamers to the hobby. The concepts of Starship Captains are easy to understand, but there is still a lot for experienced gamers to enjoy at first, trying to lower the min/max of each turn. Playtime matched the information on the side of the box: my first solo game took 30 minutes, and that was because I had to keep going back to what each icon on the solo cards would do. (Solo? That's fine. Use it as a learning tool and then move on.) My next two three-player games took 75 minutes and 60 minutes. My only two-player game took an hour, including training. For someone new to gaming, I could see a three-player game lasting 90 minutes; with experienced gamers changing moves quickly, the entire journey will take less than an hour. The production is mostly winning. The best tactile part of the game comes when you have to slide your team members around a small indented wheel at the top of the player board. Even better, this wheel only fits crew members. Try to slide a meeple android around that wheel and it won't fit, a reminder that the androids—the feral workers—should be discarded during missions. I love it! The moves are fast, so the downtime is small. The player's help has everything you need. It's fun to plan a move, as the game is definitely a mission competition, but there are still plenty of fallback options if another player beats you to the most coveted planet. Medals allow players to train any of their cadets or ensigns of a different color; pay three medals and you can upgrade an ensign to a commander, allowing the commander to perform double actions or order a crew member of the same color from the waiting area to your ship's readiness room. IT'S A POINT CALCULATION AT THE END Now, as much as I love Starship Captains, I have to admit that I've already played it. After three multiplayer games and four solo games (I was able to do two of those solo games during a recent lunch hour), I've seen everything Starship Captains has to show me until the expansion content arrives in a year or two. (CGE hasn't confirmed this, but let's just say I have a sneaking suspicion.) The first two rounds of the game usually look the same because you won't have many ensigns to work with yet. All players follow the same tactic I do when looking at the board: if there's a 6 or 7 point mission in range, I'll move my ship there and complete it next turn. (Seven points is the maximum for any one mission.) The topic interested me, but the gameplay is less impressive. It's always nice, but never exciting. You can have a turn where you do a mission that pushes you to maybe two different tracks and those separate bumps will get you one repair and a medal. That's fine, but you'd be looking at another player swinging their fist at the end of such a move. Replayability is limited, so guide your expectations accordingly. I enjoyed the first two installments much more than the last two. I was more intrigued by the scoring in Starship Captains. The game manual has some fun text for each specific possible score from 21 to 75. 0-20 sums it up with something like "you're terrible at board games" and I agree - it feels like it's almost impossible to score below 25. The lowest score I've seen is 28 points, but the highest score in seven games is 39. Those worries about points go further. The game's faction tracks, which are pretty boring to begin with, offer a way to level up and trigger in-game events, events that are pretty minor. In this game, it's almost impossible to go at least one track at a time, and I've only seen this happen when players specifically do missions just to go up one track. But there is a bonus of 5 points available to any player who goes around the same track twice. I don't know how you can go up the same lane twice in the short four-round format of this game. Another example: each player has five commander's rings available. These rings mean you've been promoted. The highest total number of commanders I've seen promoted by one player is three. In this game, one player had a technology..

 I got to know the game even before localization, thanks to a friend who loves new things. Then the game seemed pleasant, vaguely reminiscent of "Seasons", but it ended too quickly. As a result, the game left me unimpressed. Next is localization, a nice price, pre-order. While all this was going on, we were already playing with the first dop. And I began to feel worse about the game. Wild randomness of the release of cards without a draft, chaos from 4 players, nothing is clear, and already someone announces 10 points, the end. As a result, I already got my Ukrainian box, played a couple of games and it was still not the same, but it was better because there were three games. The game, as before, seemed uncontrollable, excessively short, if someone got a better card, then there was no way to win back. The box went on the shelf to await a better fate. And so we sat down with a girl to play a duel... We played, reread the rules and found a miracle mode to two victories. They played again - and their eyes lit up. You play the second game on the same components, and maybe the third. And all this is one complete party. Here we realized that we like the game and we want to play it (yes, yes, we like to play dozens of times in the same box). It was the dops that came out. They bought dopes and gave the box to friends to play.  And so six months passed, the long-awaited vacation came, and the decision of what to take with me pointed to such a cherished box. Basically we played 6 games to two wins, that's about 20-22 games in 10 days. Perhaps, without playing the game, you will not understand anything at all from my impression-thought. Tezovo: this is a very crisis card game-race, where you literally build a resource engine on 8 cards, have almost complete open information and plan the game in the preparation stage. The game is extremely replayable: 64 artifact cards, of which 16 are added to the game; 18 monuments, of which only 7 come out; 18 places of strength, from which 4 come out; add to this 18 unique magicians (some are definitely useful, some are situational). The only home rule we use is to give out 3 mages at the start instead of 2. And finally, the preface ends, the recipe for a good game begins. So, how to prepare the game: for two; up to two wins; up to 13 points; full minced meat; with the restriction of monuments and places of power; with a draft A little more about the recipe: With two, you clearly understand what place of strength the opponent seeks. You can select early, attack at the right time, during the draft stage of the second party, select the best synergies with the mage. For two, the game becomes tighter, however, this is to the benefit of many games. Almost every duel game benefits from playing multiple matches to determine the winner. Especially on the same components. Here you will have to demonstrate not the dexterity of a light hand in the draft, but the ability to squeeze the maximum out of the existing one. Timely sacrifice a strong card for resources and understand when it is "timely". 13 points is 4-5 rounds (with only one game ending in the fourth round), here you have time to enjoy your engine, unlike the 10 points that were in the base. Dopa cards add great replayability, new strategies, and all-important gems (a new resource and recruitment method). Power points create party vector and crisis because you have to play through one of them. The restriction on monuments limits the collection of gold and organizes a certain race for them. Draft is the king of this game. Already at the first stage of the draft, you only know each other from the first card. And starting with the second, conduct an open draft, where it is clear from the first moves what your opponent is aiming for. And the main thing is to understand what you are aiming for!  The combinations are incredible, cards that you initially thought were frankly weak can drag you out the game in certain conditions. And incredibly Imbo cards cannot be played on the table at all. The game is a masterpiece if you are willing to play and play it. The components in it are excellent, and there is enough space in the box to save the process and continue another match with the same components. In total, I have 30+ games under my belt, and the game never ceases to amaze. Lehmann is a genius, Gaga is handsome, brought, arcana is top. ..

 There are 31 millennia in the yard. Thanks to the godlike Emperor of Mankind and his demigod-like clone-son primarchs, humanity spread across the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Their goal is to unite all people under the banner of the Imperium. After some time, the emperor decides to return to Terra (Earth) and appoints his beloved son Horus as the new head of the Crusade. However, after the newly appointed "Master of War" is grievously wounded in battle, he succumbs to the temptation of Chaos. Chaos convinces Horus that his father abandoned the campaign to become a god. Horus, allied with some of the Primarchs and the forces of Chaos, returns to Terra, intending to overthrow the Emperor and become the ruler of the Imperium. Brother goes to brother...  The action of the game "Horus Heresy" begins at the moment when Horus and his forces arrive in the orbit of Terra. Here is a dueling wargame with card-based mechanics from Fantasy Flight Games. To win, the Imperium player must either kill Horus, take control of all four spaceports, or hold out until the initiative track reaches the "Imperial Victory" mark. The traitor player wins by either killing the emperor or taking control of all four spaceports. In appearance, the game is simply gorgeous. Plastic miniatures on detachable bases (which also serve to indicate their rank - from 1 to 4) represent various units: tanks, demonic hordes, space marines, chaos space marines, etc. In addition, both sides have heroes - the leaders of the game. Unfortunately, they are represented by cardboard boxes like those in Arkham Horror. It would be great if these god-like entities towered over the other units... well, that's a small problem.  The illustrations and design are very atmospheric and not overwhelming at the same time. The rulebook is well laid out; it is especially pleasing to have an excellent glossary, table of contents and numerous examples. It is not perfect - we had a few questions, but there are very few unclear points. No wonder they still haven't released the FAQ from the game. Most of the field is occupied by a map of the area around the imperial palace. There's also a hero health track on the field, Horus' ship Vengeful Spirit, and a couple of other items that I'll talk about in more detail later. Three-dimensional plastic houses are placed in the corresponding holes on the playing field. They depict various fortifications and, of course, the emperor's palace. They look great, but in practice it is very inconvenient to place units in them: there is not much space, plus the surface is not completely flat. Because of this, the units often topple over and sometimes fall out. This is very annoying during large battles: it is not easy to place troops in places not intended for them (or rather, ill-conceived). Didn't expect this from Fantasy Flight Games.  The game mechanics are based on the initiative track (TI). It not only serves as a timer and determines turn order, but also has strategic value. So, the initiative is in the hands of the player whose marker is closer to the "start" cell. Every action he takes, including drawing order cards from his hand, requires spending a certain number of Action Points (AP). Each OD spent moves the player's marker 1 space along the track until he overtakes the opponent's marker, after which the initiative passes to him. At the same time, in those areas of the map where there are troops of both sides, the "battle for control over the territory" begins. There is also a check for exceeding the number limit and the execution of special actions if the player's marker has passed the corresponding phases on the track. The initiative track is a brilliant find. By controlling TI, you can limit your opponent's actions... the reverse is also true. Another great feature of the game is the strategic map. It looks like a miniature copy of the main map, only divided into large zones - regions. Players can place order cards on the region to draw. At the same time, the cards will touch only the zones corresponding to the selected region. The advantage of drawing cards from the strategy card is that they are always only worth 1 VP, not as much as the card says. In addition, on the strategic map, you can cover the opponent's cards by moving them to the bottom of the stack, as well as bluffing (placing an order in a region that you do not need at all). After the initial set-up, the traitor player begins the assault on Terra by repeatedly drawing several cards from the bombardment deck. The first cycle means the seduction of part of the imperial troops - army units and tank units. If there is an imperial eagle symbol in the corner of the drawn card, then nothing happens, but if there is a Chaos star, then the unit goes to the side of the traitors. Then the gray stand is replaced by a black one so that the units do not get confused. The next cycle represents a powerful orbital bombardment from the Horus fleet in Terra's orbit. The traitor player chooses a zone, decides whether to use point or chaotic bombardment, after which the damage is distributed among the units present there, and nearby fortifications may become unusable. Very interesting and exciting mechanics that allow you to immediately feel yourself in the shoes of commanders-in-chief. Not only affects the future strategy of both sides, but also adds replayability. Battles are fought on special maps; each player has his own combat deck. Each card displays the strength of its attack (0-4 damage) and defense (0-3 shields), as well as the cost of canceling the card's special effect by another player (also in shields). I'm a big fan of another action card game, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. But in "Horus Heresy" battles are even more interesting, because here there is more thematic (the presence of certain units can trigger special effects) and here players can react to the actions of the opponent during the battle. For example, if the active player (defendant chooses who will be active in the first phase of the battle) plays a card that has a special effect, then the passive player must decide what is more profitable: sacrifice useful cards to cancel it, or suffer the resulting penalty and save shields to absorb damage . Here (as well as, for example, Magic or Cosmic Encounter) you can often hear much more emotional shouts during the course of the game than in dice-based combat games. Completely different feelings; the stakes for both players are much higher in terms of the importance of short-term planning, luck, and the willingness to make strategic sacrifices. Very exciting. There are also difficult tactical decisions. Units attack, move, and occasionally do both, according to the order cards that are played. At the same time, both the units and the zone to which they are going to move are activated and receive the corresponding token. Such units cannot receive new orders until the TI has an update phase or until certain cards are played on the strategic map. Therefore, you need to plan your movement and attack in advance, as orders can take units out of the game for several turns. In addition, the scenario book and deck of event cards add depth and replayability to the game.  Overall, I really like Horus Heresy. It not only immerses you in the atmosphere of an epic mythological clash of titans, but also boasts a beautiful gameplay: atmospheric and strategic. Yes, I almost forgot - there are no victory points here, cheers! Kish, Europhiles! All the elements of "Horus Heresy" fit together perfectly. Very thoughtful design. A worthy addition to both the shelf and the gaming table...

 I have mixed feelings about Clank. When I wrote about it before, my opinions ranged from "newbie-friendly and thoughtful deckbuilding hybrid" to "threadbare mechanics, too many turns wasted." I haven't played the other games in the series: Clank! In! Space!, Clank from legacy and add-ons. Of the games from this author, Paul Dennen, I was much more attracted to Dune: Empire. That's why Clank! Catacombs reminded me of reuniting with an old friend - or rather, an acquaintance - who has become a lot cooler over the years. Although maybe I just changed. Already after five minutes it became obvious that the old friend, as before, is a little strange and strange.  If you've played Clank, you'll get the hang of it quickly; at the heart of its Clank! Catacombs is practically the same game. You are a thief breaking into a tomb to steal as much treasure as possible (good thing you have a bottomless sack) before the local dragon turns you into toast. This is a game about stealthy movement through the catacombs ... well, implemented quite abstractly. It's just that certain actions - for example, beating a skeleton or a runner with catacombs - cause a noise that adds the corresponding dice to the dragon's bag. Periodically, you pull a few cubes from the bag and someone can get hurt. Little by little, the wounds accumulate (well, besides the dragon in the catacombs, there are other dangers). Some thieves successfully escape with the loot, others are less fortunate. And some die at the very exit, which is almost as profitable as escaping alive. After all, why do you need legs if you're rich? Clank has some pretty exciting mechanics: a mix of try-your-luck with deckbuilding, which can seem strange and random, but at the same time is very addicting. Unlike most deckbuilders, here your deck randomly inflates as you find companions, treasures, magic books, and all the junk you bought on the market simply because there was a free action and there was nothing else to do. There are very few ways to clear your deck, so the trash cards you start with will likely stick with you for the rest of your adventure. Sometimes it's annoying, especially at the start, when, with bad timing, you can drop a bucket into the depths of Moria and wake up a scaly lair just because you stood very noisily in place. However, this is Clank. All its pros and cons have been preserved.  With one exception - by card. A beautifully thought out map. The map represents Clank! Catacombs are catacombs, and definitely deserve a special mention and an exclamation point. The idea is generally simple: you do not lay out a ready-made map, but gradually explore the tomb, opening tile by tile. Each tile has eight tunnels that loop around each other, bend in unexpected directions, or lead down deeper into the catacombs. There are also blocked tunnels that can be opened with the help of another innovation - the unlocking of a resource useful for moving. You will also encounter monsters that will bite you if you do not kill them. In addition to empty rooms, you will come across a variety of treasures: from small ones that give minor bonuses to large ones that need to be extracted from the chest with the help of picks, and dungeon prisoners that make it easier to find new loot. The game also has rooms that reset your movement points, markets where you can buy goods, portals for fast travel. In general, the effect is impressive. In the original Clank, everything was pretty much the same, but with a fixed map, you quickly found optimal routes, safe tunnels, and places to avoid. Here you are wandering in the dark. You can walk through a tunnel for a long time and then get stuck, you can encounter three monsters, although you expected to meet only one, you can wander into the deepest catacombs in search of a portal. And now you have finally found the desired tile! The dragon is getting closer. You are bleeding. You haven't been to the market for a long time. You can jump into the portal right now... but there's some valuable loot waiting for you just around the corner. One more step down that corridor and you'll have enough treasure to win. After all, everything will work out for you, right?  I'm not sure what happened: whether Clank improved or I softened and grew to love this random mix of deckbuilding and hand management. Certainly, the innovations make Clank more interesting. I would even say that you should look at deckbuilding in a new way. On a fixed map, it was easy to find yourself in a crazy situation where you were dropped cards with no movement. In the new Clan, this is also possible, but the role of randomness has decreased. You are fighting on several fronts at the same time: with your trash deck, with the map, with the prospect of having a valuable artifact snatched from under your nose, even with your own greed. Please note that for the artifacts that give the most points, you will have to climb into the deepest tunnels. Previously, for a safe return to the surface, it was necessary to monitor how many cells there were before the exit, and also hope for the mercy of randomness. Now there is a new layer of strategy - tangled deep tunnels: how to move through them in the optimal way to push a pile of treasures and return to a safe place before the dragon roasts you all? And then someone puts a card on the market that forces everyone to return the tile where they are. The labyrinth rearranged itself. Your plans are ruined. And yet it is so thematic that there is no point in getting upset about it. Altered dungeons are fun. Clank has always tried to be a fun game, but it has failed in the past. Overall, as I said before, Clank! Catacombs is very similar to the controversial original from 2016. Almost the same types of cards, the same dependence of your health on the noise you make, the same gameplay. But I prefer to lay out Clank! Catacombs. Not sure if it beats the original head on, but it's more fleshed out and with more interesting dungeon exploration. Looks like Dennen can do more than just Dune...

 Note: I've played quite a few dungeon crawlers, including Descent 2 , Imperial Assault , Jaws of the Lion , Warhammer Quest , Silver Tower , and Blackstone Fortress . I invested in the first Massive Darkness , but it didn't appear on the table very often - the game seemed too dark and full of fiddling - so I ended up selling it. I liked the intended gameplay and setting changes of the sequel, so I invested in Massive Darkness: Hellscape and recently received the box. GAME PROCESS  So far I've played 3 missions not counting the intro scenario: the first with 2 characters, the second and third with 3. I've tried 4 of the 6 base classes (rogue, paladin, wizard and berserker). The game consists of a chain of independent scenarios, slightly connected by the plot. No leveling is saved between scenarios (the Heavenfall app does add a campaign mode, but I haven't tried it yet). The map is built from two-sided tiles; the description of each scenario indicates which tiles to use, where the starting mobs, spawn points, doors, treasure chests and monster portals are located. If you played "Zombicide", the layout is quite similar and the gameplay is partially similar. There are 9 scenarios in the base (plus a very easy training mission) + a few more kickstarter goals. Each game round consists of an action phase, an enemy phase, a leveling phase, and a darkness phase. During the action phase, heroes have 3 action points available, which can be spent on movement, attacks, exchanges, and special actions. Then comes the phase of enemy actions; they each have 3 action points. After that, if the heroes have gained enough experience, they can level up their characters, which increases the HP/mana reserves and gives a new skill (the level of the dungeon can also be leveled, making the enemies more dangerous). At the end of the round, the darkness counter moves, and if it stops at certain divisions, some events will occur. COMBAT  The combat here is similar to the first "Massive Darkness" . Players collect a set of dice depending on the available equipment and the location (in the dark/in the light). The enemy then adds their defense dice to the set based on their defense score and the number of minions accompanying them (in the case of the mob leader), after which all dice are rolled. Symbols of swords - hits, symbols of shields on the defense cube - a block of losses. Roll results can be modified by skills, spells, and/or enemy abilities. Taking damage from the crowd first takes minions (which weakens their available dice pool) one by one until only the leader is left. He's basically the weakest of the mob because he won't get any bonus dice when fighting you head-to-head. Melee attacks hit targets in the same zone as you, magic attacks hit targets in the same or adjacent zone, and ranged attacks hit no closer than an adjacent zone, but with an unlimited maximum radius (if you have line of sight).  Enemies use their weapons when attacking (it can be both melee and ranged). Their rolls are similar to player rolls, except they don't use the shadow cube and mana symbols. In general, the fighting game is now straightforward, although there are a few flaws. First, many skills and abilities are activated strictly in certain situations. There are basically three keywords that are used: attack, defense, and combat, followed by a number (almost always 1) that indicates how many times the ability can be used. Attack skills work only when the hero or enemies attack, defense, respectively, when they are attacked. The concept of "combat" is poorly defined in the rules; I understood that skills with this keyword can be used both offensively and defensively. You don't immediately get used to what skills you can use someday - especially considering that there are still a lot of nuances in the game. Second, when attacking, the heroes roll all their dice (attack, defense, shadow if they are in a shadow area, and the enemies' dice), after which roll modifiers are applied. In which order is determined by the player. Finally, all sword symbols are counted, shield symbols are subtracted from them, and monsters receive the remaining damage (minions receive damage before leaders). In my opinion, the phase of calculating modifiers can become quite hemorrhoids when you have to take into account several factors at once. For example, if I play a wizard in the shadow zone attacking a mob of fiends with 1 leader and 2 minions, he rolls his attack die (1 yellow) and a shadow die (purple), and the mob rolls a defense die (1 blue) and two minions (black). Let's say there are 2 swords, a shadow symbol on the purple die (allowing the wizard to activate an attack spell of his choice without spending mana), 1 shield on the defense die, and claw and scratch symbols on the black dice. The shadow symbol allows the wizard to cast a fire spell for free, which adds 2 more swords and a burning token. In the modifier calculation phase, the wizard will have to factor in the claw symbol, which in this situation detonates the fiend and deals damage to the wizard, then the scratch symbol, which deals additional damage to the wizard. The wizard then casts a shadow symbol to increase his attack. Now it's 4 swords against 1 shield, so 3 damage. The second devil is killed. And finally, the wizard places a burning token on the crowd. Now imagine having to do that in every fight. Very frozen. CHARACTERS  The authors worked on making the character classes very different from each other. Each of the six classes has its own unique mechanics. Berserker uses wounds to fuel his traits: the more damage he takes, the more he can do. The wizard has a spell amulet that determines which spell is currently available, which is returned when the spell is canceled or when a unit of mana is spent. Gets a manageable cooldown. The Rogue has a pouch of ability tokens; it draws 3 at the start of the turn and can be used in combos with actions. The paladin has auras that can be cast on zones to buff or heal those in that zone. The tracker has a push-your-luck mechanic: he draws as many shot cards as he wants, trying to get no more than 7 arrow symbols in total - if more, then instead of a shot of enormous power, he will get a stun. And the shaman has peti and a table of elements that strengthen spells. All the classes feel very different and I enjoyed getting to know each of them. For kickstarter purposes, there are also additional characters: a monk, a necromancer, a mechanic and a bard. I haven't tried them yet. ENEMIES  Enemies are divided into three types: mobs, traveling monsters, and bosses. Mobs spawn at specific spawn points, either at the start of the game or as an effect from the darkness track. Each mob consists of one leader and minions equal to the number of players. Mobs will be filled with weapons as well as loot tokens. Weapons determine the type of attack available to them. Roaming monsters are stronger than mobs. They appear either as a card effect or as a track of darkness. They don't have weapons, but they drop more than loot. Bosses appear according to the scenario, usually in the final battle. How each boss acts is determined by his deck of cards. The two base bosses behave very differently. Also, mobs and traveling monsters level up with players, becoming more dangerous. LOOT  There is a lot of loot in this game. Maybe too much. Dozens of loot cards in three types (common, rare and epic) plus monster items. Fortunately, there is no limit to the number of items that can be carried; my heroes ran with a dozen items. Most of the loot can be used by any class, although of course there are also class-specific ones. You can also forge a random item of a higher level from junk items by spending 3 items of the same level and a forging action. The problem is that the result may not be optimal for your class, so whether it is worth the risk of spending an action and three items is another question. I also cannot fail to note such an innovation as the bag of the month. At the start, there are 15 tokens in the bag: 10 regular loot and 5 rare. When you find a treasure in a room or take it from an enemy, you draw random tokens from the bag. Over the course of the scenario, new rare and epic loot tokens will be added to the bag - due to advancing the darkness track or other effects. So over time, the chances of finding good loot increase. There are also sets of items; if you collect them, you will receive additional bonuses. However, in my games I've never come close to collecting a set because there's so much varied loot. COMPONENTS  Typical CMON quality: great artwork, cool miniatures, and overall solid quality. Interestingly, the darkness track and boss cards are quite thin, but the class-specific components are as thick as the tokens. In general, there are a lot of tokens here: HP, mana, spawn points, forges, doors, pillars, portals, fire, ice plus special class ones. You will definitely need an organizer to make folding and folding easier. As for the cards... more cards. Monster cards for mobs, roaming monsters and their items of three levels (six in Heavensfall), door cards, loot cards of three levels, class skill cards. A card holder or plenty of free table space for multiple decks is desirable.  The rulebook is quite decently laid out. There is an alphabetical index, so finding the right points and keywords in general will not be difficult, but some of the rules that are often found are quite difficult to dig up. On the back is a note about the order of the move, and it is not detailed enough; hopefully an improved fan version will be released soon. The first few games we had to consult the rulebook a lot. REPLAYABILITY Replayability is enough. Many scenarios, different combinations of classes, random mob spawns... In general, you will explore the..

 Note: I'm more than halfway through one act. The parties consisted of both 2 and 3 participants. The number of ships was as follows:  2 players - 2 ships;  3 players - 3 ships;  2 players - 3 ships;  2 players - 4 ships. Our company considers itself to be quite experienced players and lovers of story games. We've gone through almost every known game with a campaign mode; "Gloomhaven", Descent, Middara, Etherfields, "Tainted Grail", 7th Continent, "Pandemic: Legacy", Clank Legacy, Aeon's End Legacy, card "Arkham Horror", Bardsung, Roll Player Adventures, Kingdom Death, " ».. . So, let's begin.  I really wanted to like Stars of Akarios . We were looking forward to the game and expected a lot from it. Similarities with "Gloomhaven" and 7th Continent were striking. And we, as I already mentioned, love story campaigns... However, after traveling with Akarios for 30-40 hours, we felt... tired. So the review will be critical. Critical, but not purely negative. Our first problem, like many other players, was the confusing rulebook. While she does a pretty good job of introducing the basic rules, her attention to detail is sorely lacking. Personally, I really didn't like that a lot of the basic pilot/ship skills weren't covered in the pilot/ship skills section (???). Just take a look at the BGG forum and the game's Facebook page to see how many questions arise about these skills, because the rulebook should answer those questions. I understand the desire to reduce the size of the rulebook (which is typical of many recent games), but it hurts the players. And with the description of the mechanics of exploring the surrounding world, things are even sadder. The rules of this section are just terrible. Due to unclear wording during the game, you have to interpret them according to the principle "well, it's more logical, probably" or based on experience. Case in point: Which skill checks can I retry and which can't I? We re-read the chapter several times, but still couldn't figure it out. The Akariosa rulebook is just as weird as the Akariosa world map. I still can't help but note the "push" and "pull" icons. Why is the first arrow pointing to the ship, and the second arrow pointing away from the ship?  The second problem is tracking progress in campaign mode. Additional tasks are thrown at you, story lines emerge here and there. What are we even doing here? You can get into the plot only if you make special marks on a piece of paper. Instead of dozens of copies of the pilots' tablets, it would be better if the authors put a large notebook in the box to track the progress of the campaign. There is almost no space on the available sheets. So much extra paper that will never be needed... Hardly a single player in the world will play the campaign 24 times. And if it passes, such an enthusiast can independently print the tablets he needs.  The third problem is the plot itself. I'll be honest: the plot here is... lousy, to say the least. It lacks descriptions. It is very lacking. I still have no idea what kind of humans/inhumans are on my crew. I don't know what a yur looks like. Is Captain Soma a man or a woman? And is a person at all? It is unknown. How many of us are here? How is everyday life on the ship? The script book feels kind of soulless, empty. I didn't feel drawn to the plot. I wasn't drawn to any of the characters. The Sparks vs Establishment showdown was interesting in theory, but even knowing that I work for Sparks, I have no idea who they are, who their boss is, or what she (or he?) looks like. And we joined Sparks essentially purely by accident, stumbling upon their base. This is probably what the characters wanted, but it doesn't cancel out the feeling of railiness. Of course, I didn't expect Akarios to be Middara or Despised Grail, but given the hype of a "story driven campaign" the result was... underwhelming. But maybe the mediocre plot is compensated by the great gameplay? What about game mechanics? They are not very good either.  Exploring the world around you is actually a walking simulator. All problems are solved with ease. Several times the game "pressed" us... but the pressure was very slow and gentle. We managed to easily complete all the tasks and move every location we visited. In places, there is interesting lore, but enjoying it is hindered by the already mentioned lack of descriptions and constant throwing here and there; the plot thread is lost very quickly, and you no longer understand who is who and what is where. What about space battles?  Well... There are some very interesting ideas there. In general, the battles did not leave the worst impression. But there are still complaints. Enemies make U-turns very often. On the one hand, it creates the atmosphere of a dog dump, but on the other hand, the enemies are like space balls, lobbing lasers from all directions. According to my feelings, I do not have the opportunity to "outwit" them due to competent positioning and evade the attack. I can position the ship to gain some advantage on my turn. However, the actions of enemies are completely uncontrollable. Enemies are too unpredictable. Most II decks have 16–20 cards. It's not so scary... if they had a certain consistency. And yes, according to feelings, there is no difference between a fight with a Synthetic or with a Ronin. They will all move, then either drain my random ability or crash into an asteroid. All enemies are similar. And the stupidity of AI is compensated by the fact that their parameters are much higher than ours. We cranked the difficulty slider all the way to "hard" and still didn't fail a single mission, except for one of the opening missions where we flew in the wrong direction and unsurprisingly lost. However, I'm not complaining about the lack of challenge; it's not so scary anymore. I complain about the game's overall balance; that enemy ships are made very strong to compensate for the randomness of their actions. Sometimes they'll randomly vanshot you with a +2 armor drop hit. Sometimes they will suddenly stun your entire crew. Sometimes they'll lock onto an asteroid or fire at you with the accuracy of Imperial stormtroopers, unable to find a target. This, in my opinion, is the main drawback of the game along with the weak plot and descriptive part; enemies are completely unpredictable. The progress and outcome of the battle depends almost 100% on the drawn AI cards. Even if you play like a god, get in the best position, cleverly maneuver through enemies and obstacles... only to draw an AI card that hits everyone within 3 hexes.  I still can't help but mention the immunities. Why do enemies have so many immunities? What's the point of getting a cool new gadget if it's useless against more than half the enemies you encounter? And they don't have immunities even with justifications like "oh, synthetic shields are immune to armor-piercing blows, of course." Just "this guy is elite, so he's immune to half our arsenal." It gets even worse if you play with 4 ships because more elite enemies will enter the field. And finally, modifier decks. We have to constantly shuffle them, which is a bit annoying. Is your stress level up? You need to add a miss card - shuffle the deck. Is your stress level down? You need to find this card, remove it from the deck and shuffle it again. As a result, changing the deck starts to become almost maddening, considering that the results are still extremely unpredictable because we are always shuffling it. Overall, navigation and moving ships around the map looks great. The atmosphere of the dog dump is also great. I really like the basic mechanics, the dice, the  upgrades... but once the enemies enter the field, everything goes to hell. In my opinion, the current rules would be more suitable for a PvP game. And in Akarios, it would not hurt to radically rework II decks and immunities. As a result, we turned in our last batch early because we just got bored. Not sure if we'll make it through the campaign; probably, we will, considering that we prefer not to quit halfway and that we have had nightmares (Etherfields, hehe-hehe). I should also note the abundance of typographical errors - from small mistakes to unsightly scripts (the same paragraph is repeated five times). Every few pages I had a typo.  I really wanted to love Stars of Akarios. The game has enough interesting ideas. The ship management and stress mechanics are just great in my opinion. The concept of the campaign with an emphasis on the plot and alternating exploration of the surrounding world in the spirit of the 7th Continent and space battles is also excellent. Ship upgrades and modifier decks like Gloomy Harbor are also interesting. But playing space battles or exploring the map is not interesting at all.  Together : great ideas, big ambitions, bad execution.  Rating - 5/10 . Most likely, I will force myself to finish the campaign. I definitely won't play a second time (unless a miracle happens, and Acts 2-3 will turn out to be superior). USEFUL LINKS Stars of Akarios on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/273910/stars-akarios VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 One of the most popular game mechanics of board games is the polymino (Tetris, Mosaic) mechanic. It consists in laying out figures of various shapes on the field. Most often, the goal is to place the tiles in such a way that they completely cover the entire field. Games with these game mechanics are usually well-suited for family gatherings and novice players. Girls often like this kind of mechanics, so these games are well suited for putting their significant other on the table. However, let's do without gender stereotypes, I'd rather talk about the best games with this mechanic. I will start, of course, with the most famous game of the genre - "Patchwork". The rules are simple: we take one of the three scrap tiles from the market and place it on the field. For large tiles, it is necessary to pay with buttons and loss of time, thanks to which the opponent can make several moves in a row. The goal is to fill most of the field, and ideally the entire field. The game is fast and simple, and it can be played in 15 minutes. Unfortunately, Patchwork can only be played by two people.  "Patchwork" was released in 2014, the author of the game was Uwe Rosenberg, famous for his large-scale Eurogames. Interestingly, Uwe originally came up with the "Patchwork" mechanic as an element for his next game, but he liked it so much that he decided to create a separate game. As a result, "Patchwork" became one of the most famous and popular board games. However, the low cost of the game contributed a lot to this.  "Bear Park" is another simple family game consisting entirely of "Tetris" mechanics. Up to 4 players can play it. During his turn, the player places a tile on the field, receiving other tiles in reserve based on which cells he closed. The player's field consists of sheets, and the earlier he fills the sheet, the more victory points he will receive. Victory points are also awarded for placing expensive tiles and completing objectives. The goals for each game are chosen differently, which ensures the variety of the game. The game is simple, played without tension, and a game for two lasts about 20 minutes.  Another short polymino relaxation game is the abstract "Project L" . However, it is very easy to fill out the field in it. The fact is that there are no complex-shaped "crakozabr" in this game, the figurines consist of a maximum of 4 cells. But the player can simultaneously fill up to 4 different fields. After filling the field, the player gets all the figures back - and one more that the field brings. In addition to the action of filling the figure, the player can improve the figure, get a new one, take another square from the market. It is worth noting the pleasant tactile sensations from the colorful glossy figures in the game, which fill the two-layer tablets. The game itself is simple, played quickly, the number of players is from 2 to 4.  I recommend Paris. City of Lights" . The uniqueness of the game is that the field where the players will place the figures is shared. And it is formed by the players themselves at the beginning of the game. However, there is no need to strive to fill it. Instead, players get points for placing figures next to lanterns. The points for a figure are equal to the figure's size multiplied by the number of adjacent lanterns - so one well-placed figure can yield most of the victory points. You should make your moves here, as in chess, based on how you would harm your opponent. This is achieved by placing your figure on common cells or drawing cards that give unique opportunities. The minus of the game is that it is only for two, and someone may not like the bland design of the game and large, but uninformative leaflets.  The novelty of polymino games is "Unknown Planet" . Here you need to place figurines in order to fill the field of the planet. In addition, each figure pumps two tracks. A total of 5 tracks: one works for victory points, another gives certain properties to the player, the third brings single-cell tokens to close holes. The most interesting red track, which allows you to move on the surface of the planet by an all-terrain vehicle that collects meteorites and rescue capsules. The gameplay becomes noticeably more complicated if you choose advanced planets and corporations instead of standard ones. For example, one planet prohibits placing tiles of certain types in each sector of the planet, and another requires throwing all tiles down, as in "Tetris" (the planet, by the way, is named after the creator of "Tetris" Oleksiy Pazhitnov). You can add to the game a module of random events that trigger every round. A plus is the possibility of playing with up to 6 people, while the time of playing with a large team does not increase much, since the progress of all players takes place simultaneously. The disadvantages are the weak interaction between players and the high price of the game.  My favorite polymino game is Cat Island. Added to the mechanics of placing cat pieces in this game are cards that players collect through the draft method. Some cards allow you to place cat tiles, others bring treasure, and still others are actually objective cards. The selected cards must be paid for in game currency - fish, which slightly compensates the players for success in the arrival of cards. Filling ship cabins with cat tiles is just one way to get points. Collecting cats of the same color touching each other brings much more victory points. "Cat Island" is a beautiful, simple family game. The disadvantage of the game is the high dependence on success: whether the desired color of cats will come to the market, or whether profitable cards of goals (lessons) will come into the hand. But this has its own plus, because anyone can win the game! There are also several additions to the game, but in my opinion, they are not mandatory.  In addition to the actual polymino games, there are many games that partially use this mechanic. For example, in the hardcore Euro zoo game Ark Nova , filling the zoo field with animal enclosures is an important element. In The Grand Show, a medium-difficulty Euro game with cards and dice, building a tent out of tiles is one of the three main actions. The player loses points for each unfilled section of the field at the end of the game. In the combined European game "Santa Maria", competent placement of tiles on the field is the key to victory. However, the field here is only 6 by 6 cells, so it is not the shape of the tiles that is more important, but what is drawn on them. Having mentioned "Santa Maria", I cannot but note that, despite the interesting gameplay, the game has ugly graphics...