LONGHORN BOARD GAME REVIEW In Longhorn , two players compete to collect the most cattle in a 3 x 3 location grid. But be careful, collect too many of one breed and you won't be able to sell them at the end of the game. The game ends when there are no more moves allowed. The cattle you have at the end of the game, as well as any gold nuggets you manage to steal along the way, will give you your points in the game. HOW TO PREPARE THE BATCH A Longhorn only takes a minute or two to prepare. Players first choose which rogue they want. Will you choose the evil Jesse the Artist Byrd or the mean and disgusting Eagle Perkins?  Arrange the location tiles randomly in a 3 x 3 grid. Shuffle the square action tokens and place one in each location. If a Sheriff Badge token is randomly selected, it must be placed on the Nugget Hill location. Mix up the cattle parts and randomly place a certain number of them on each location tile according to the number found in the lower left corner of each location. For example, Red River Valley should always start with 4 cows, while Nugget Hill should always start with 6. Flip a two-sided robber token like a coin, and whichever side of the robber comes up gets to go first (say, Eagle Perkins for this example). Then the opposing player representing Jesse Byrd the Artist will place the outlaw token anywhere with 4 cattle (Dagger Flat, Kid Copper Ranch, Red River Valley, and Cherokee Spring).  Below you can see the preparations for the game and its readiness for the party. GAME TURN The first thing a player does in his turn is to steal cattle. Choose a color and take each cattle figure of that color from the current location and place it in front of you. These cattle will form the player's herd, the value of which will be calculated at the end of the game. If a player selects the last cattle from a location, he must pick up an action token and perform its action. After that, the player must move the robber token to the number of cells equal to the number of cows they just milked. Movement: Must be orthogonal You cannot move over a tile on the field more than once per turn. You cannot end on an empty space, but empty spaces can be passed. If all the fields where the player can move are empty, then the game is over and the counting of points begins. After the robber token is moved, the player flips it over to indicate that it is the next player's turn. ACTION TOKENS There are 7 different action tokens in the game: Gold nuggets - cost from 200 to 500 USD. They are counted at the end of the game. Branded Iron - Discard this token and take all cattle of 1 color from 1 location orthogonal to the outlaw token. Epidemic - Discard this token and remove all remaining livestock of the same color from the field. This will make all cattle of that color unnecessary at the end of the game. Sheriff – If a player is forced to take this token, you are captured and lose the game immediately. Snake Oil - Discard this token and immediately take another turn. Ambush. Discard the token and take either a random gold nugget token or 2 cattle of the same color from your opponent. Rattlesnake - Your herd is in a panic. Choose one cow of each color from your herd and place it on any space orthogonal to the snake token. END OF THE GAME  The game ends when one of the following conditions occurs: If a player must take the Sheriff's action token, they immediately lose the game. If one of the players manages to collect 9 cows of the same color, he immediately wins the game. All locations located by the number of squares determined by the last livestock raid are empty. CALCULATION OF THE VALUE OF THE HERD To determine the value of a player's herd: Each cow in his herd will earn the robber $100 for each cow of the same color still on the playing field! Each player also adds up the value of the gold nuggets in front of him. The player with the most money wins! WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE GAME The artwork in this game is fantastic: Vincent Dutre's work is simply incredible. It's obvious that Bruno Catala respects his work enough to put Vincent's name on the cover of the game. The colors are bright and rich with the oranges and browns of the desert and the beautiful blue sky. Text and icons are clear and easy to read without getting in the way of the illustrations. The game pieces are made of strong cardboard with a nice paper coating. The cattle pieces are well done and their colors are easy to distinguish. The outlaw token is thick and wide, easy to pick up and move around. The game is fast and once you read the rules carefully, you can play without any problems. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE I picked up the Longhorn based on a website recommendation. I've played it a few times with my 10-year-old daughter, and while it's moderately enjoyable to play, it mostly failed me. I generally like games with the mancala mechanism, but Longhorn seems odd to me. You can move in multiple directions, but since the field is only 3 x 3, it's hard to make good choices about where you end up. I like the variety of resources, knowing that there is a balance between taking too much and leaving enough so that the ones you do take are valuable at the end of the game. But since there are really only 8-12 moves, it feels like the game is over too quickly. CONCLUSIONS  Longhorn is actually the smaller, older brother of the critically acclaimed Five Tribes. I think Longhorn could have been something bigger than what it was…but then it became the five tribes…so I guess that's saying something...

 Labyrinth: The War on Terror is a strategic wargame (although the game also has a lot of politics), which takes place in modern times. Designed for 1-2 players. In the duel, one player plays for the United States, and the other plays for Islamic extremists, between whom an extremely asymmetric confrontation is played out. In the solo version, the player plays for the United States against Table II controlled extremists. Usually, a duel takes about 90 minutes: that's how long it takes to completely scroll through the deck, as soon as the players get used to it and start to understand the cards well. However, the length of the game can be changed by playing until the deck is rolled twice or three times. Each additional scroll adds about 60 minutes. However, the final may come earlier if one of the parties fulfills the winning condition. Solo parts take a bit longer, but at least getting to know the part table is faster.  At the start, 4 layout options are available, each of which reflects a certain era in the US war on terrorism. Most likely, the option "Let's go!" (Let's Roll), in which the action takes place after September 11, when the world community does not yet have a clear position, and other countries are waiting for how the United States will react. There are also post-Operation Enduring Freedom and post-Operation Iraqi Freedom options in which other countries have a stronger stance. There is also an alternate history version in which Albert Gore became president in 2000. The layout is no different from the "Let's Go!" option, but the US has different views on the methods of combating terrorism. Usually I describe the rules in fine detail, but this time I will limit myself to general information.  The countries on the map are divided into Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Muslim countries take one of three possible positions toward the United States: allied, neutral, or hostile. The U.S. can only station troops in allied countries, so if the U.S. wants to attack or suppress terrorist cells in a certain country, it must first secure an alliance with it. Also, Muslim countries have one of three possible governments: good, normal, or bad (again, from the US perspective). These indicators reflect the degree of stability of the country's ruling regime and their ability to independently fight terrorism. So even if a country is hostile to the US, it is in the US's best interest to have a good (effective) government because it reduces the global influence of terrorists. As for non-Muslim countries, their views on methods of combating terrorism play an important role: they can be soft or hard. If the views of most of the world community contradict those of the US, then the US receives penalties for every attempt to influence the governments of other countries. The engine in the card game. Players can use the cards in their hand to either play the corresponding event or to use the operation points (GO) indicated on the card to perform one of the available actions. Some events are positive for the US, others for terrorists, others are neutral and can bring both profit and loss to both. If you put a card on the GO, and this card has a profile event for the opponent, then the event will still be played automatically. Each map can bring 1-3 GO. After receiving GO, the player can spend them on one of the available actions. Let's move on to one of the genius inventions of the game, which provides a balanced asymmetry. Each type of government in Muslim countries has a certain "price": 1 for good, 2 for normal, 3 for bad. To take action in a country, the US must play a cost card no less than the cost of the government; that is, to act in a country with a good government, you need a card with a price of at least 1, and with a bad government - a price of 3. Therefore, it is easier for the US to act in countries with good governments. Terrorists can play a card with any cost to perform an action in the country, and receive as many actions as the GO indicated on the card. For example, a card at the cost of 1 GO allows you to recruit one cell, and at the cost of 3 GO - up to three cells. However, the success of terrorist actions is not guaranteed; with each action they roll a D6. If the number rolled is less than or equal to the stability level of the government, then the action is successful. Otherwise, it will fail, and GO will still be wasted. Thus, it is more difficult for terrorists to operate in countries with good governments and easier in countries with normal and bad governments.  There is another level of stability - the rule of Islamists. Countries under Islamist rule are always considered hostile to the US, and terrorist actions in these countries are automatically successful without a die roll. The US cannot take any action in these countries other than to attempt regime change: essentially sending troops to install a US-friendly government there. However, this is a risky tactic because it ties up a lot of troops, requires resources and action, and the operation is often delayed until the US can establish a stable government in the country. The US has three victory conditions: economic, political and military victory. Each Muslim country has a resource level from 1 to 3 that reflects the value of the country, from its culture to its oil reserves. USA instantly wins economically if Muslim countries with good governments have a total of 12+ resources. The US wins politically if the 15+ Muslim countries have normal or good governments (the region stabilizes enough that terrorism is eliminated). The US wins militarily if not a single cell of terrorists remains on the map. Terrorists also have three victory conditions. For an economic victory, it is necessary that the Muslim countries under the control of the Islamists have 6+ resources, political - that the reputation of the USA is at level 1 and that 15+ Muslim countries have a bad or Islamist government (the region is so destabilized, and the attitude of the world community towards the USA is so negative , that the US can do nothing more). An analogue of a military victory requires a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction on the territory of the United States. SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE Bringing real events into the game is a potential problem. Not only that some are indignant (and many tabletop players like to be indignant), but also the historical reliability is always in question, since in any game there will be elements of an alternative history in one way or another - otherwise the game will not work. However, September 11 is still fresh in my mind, this is a sensitive topic. And the very thought of playing Labyrinth, not to mention getting a fan from it (especially when you're playing as terrorists and trying to use weapons of mass destruction on the US), requires a certain abstraction from reality. That said, I'm amazed and delighted that there are both people willing to make games about these themes, and people willing to play them. I'm also impressed by the fact that the game is unbiased. I don't mean to say that the game puts the US and terrorists on the same moral level; it does not. However, Labyrinth takes an unbiased view of US politics. The player can choose a tough approach to the fight against terrorism in the spirit of neoconservatives and find out the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy. Or maybe it's softer in the spirit of the left, and find out the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy as well. Labyrinth does not argue that brute force is good and diplomacy is bad. As well as vice versa. Instead, the game perfectly conveys the pros and cons of both approaches. There is also a fascinating story during the game, but the narrative, in my opinion, is felt more when playing for the USA. The terrorist player rather acts according to the situation; it may be atmospheric in its own way, but it doesn't compare to the US game. When the world community changes its mind and prefers soft methods, the hard methods of the US can lead to the collapse of its diplomacy and reputation. What should the United States do: try to restore the damaged prestige? Don't give a damn about politics and continue to bend your line despite the general disdain? Events help a lot in the story that is being made, but still the main elements of the narrative are the reputation of the United States and the attitude of the world community to terrorism. DIFFICULTY OF LEARNING The rules are structured like a typical wargame: rule 4.6.3.2 sends you to rule 6.2.5. In general, there is nothing wrong with this, but some people find it difficult to digest such rules. On the other hand, the rule book explains all the rules in minute detail. While there are tons of rules questions on BGG, most of the answers are in the rulebook if you read carefully. But it seems that not all players can overcome these rules. I understand them, especially if you play solo. Table II is frighteningly complex, and I'm always not 100% sure I've interpreted each action correctly. However, thanks to this, the game's AI is surprisingly refined and powerful; Once you've mastered the rules, Labyrinth turns into a great solo game. Personally, I have only one complaint about the rule book - their structure. I must have turned out to be a bad wargamer, but even with clear content, I struggle to find some points. For example, information on what to do at the end of a turn is placed against the logic of information on what to do on your turn. However, these are trifles. The main thing is that everything is in the rule book. COMPONENTS  The components are of excellent quality, especially by the standards of GMT games. Not that they're usually terrible, but not that good. The cards are also of high quality: they are dense and will last a long time. Overall, I have no complaints about the components. There is even..

GHOST STORIES GAME REVIEW  Ghost Stories is a co-op horror game where you work together with your teammates to defeat one or more incarnations of Wu-Feng and the many ghosts that come before him. Each player takes on the role of a Taoist monk who must stop the wave of evil ghosts and save the village.  Ghost Stories is developed by Antoine Bosa and published by Repos Production . GAME PROCESS  Ghost Stories is a game about battles. You want to clear as many ghosts as possible each turn to avoid being destroyed. Whenever it's a player's turn, he or she can move one square around the village to perform an action. You can do two things: Ask the villagers for help. All village tiles give you benefits such as removing ghosts and moving ghosts to better positions. Try to exorcise the ghosts by rolling the dice. You are trying to match the colors/icons on the ghost card. You can also use Tao Tokens to help yourself if you have a bad roll or if you need more successes. You can also use your monk's special ability each turn, which can allow you to move in a special way or maybe even give you an extra die to use when fighting ghosts. You also get a Yin-Yang token, which allows you to use a village tile without being on it, or to return a village tile that was previously destroyed.  At the start of your turn, each ghost on the field is activated, and then a new ghost appears. That's why it's so important to get ghosts off the field as quickly as possible each turn. Ghosts can have abilities that activate immediately when they appear, abilities that activate when your turn begins, and some even have abilities that activate when you banish them. You win if you can deal with Wu Feng, who is near the bottom of the ghost deck. You lose if all priests die, if three village tiles become destroyed, or if the last ghost card in the deck is put into play. PROS OF THE GAME  Ghost Stories has some great components, especially the ghost cards. Each card is rich in detail and they blend in very well with the player boards and village tiles. The monk figures look fantastic too! Almost everyone in my company believes that Ghost Stories has one of the best designs in the world of board games. There have been several board games that have tried to cover this theme, but I don't think any of them have done it as well as Ghost Stories. Designer Antoine Bosa deserves a lot of credit for making the horror theme popular in this game. Everything from the villagers to the ghosts themselves give this game the feel of an authentic Chinese ghost story. Ghost Stories have insane replayability. The village field is placed randomly at the beginning of the game, and now you never know which ghosts will appear during each game. The relatively short game length makes Ghost Stories a great addition to any type of board game night. It's also great for those who like a high-energy game that seems to just fly by rather than crawl. Ghost Stories plays surprisingly well as a two-player game. It's great for any number of players, but it's one of those rare co-op games that plays just as well with two players as it does with a full complement of players. You can use only two characters and get help from the other two, or you can take two characters each. CONS One thing that might put people off Ghost Stories at first is how difficult it is. Even on the "easiest" level, it's quite possible to lose five out of six games. With each turn, new  ghosts appear, defeating them can be extremely difficult, and it can be a little frustrating. That being said, when you get those rare wins, it just... feels... AWESOME! You can definitely get unlucky with the dice and ghosts that drop every turn. Some ghosts are much harder to deal with than others, so if you encounter a couple of them early or at the wrong time, your chances of victory will be greatly reduced. CONCLUSIONS Ghost Stories really stands out with its vibrant theme, amazing map art, and challenging co-op gameplay. If you're into the horror genre—or even if you're not—this co-op game is a must-buy for any board game fan. Even if you keep losing, you'll keep coming back to try and save this village! This is still one of my group's favorite co-op board games, even after many, many times. If you enjoy the base game, I highly recommend checking out the Ghost Stories: White Moon expansion. This gives Ghost Stories even more replayability as you now have to save the villagers while dealing with all those ghosts...

 Red Rising by Stonemaier Games combines the adventure and fun of a book series with the strategy and challenges of a board game. But was it possible to adapt the novels as well as create a fun game that would appeal to both readers and others? We will discuss! WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT?  Red Rising is a combo-based card game based on Piers Brown's Red Rising series and inspired by the Fantasy Realms card game. In this game, you start with a hand of 5 cards. On your turn, you will select one of your draw cards into a zone on the field, activating that card's draw advantage. You can then draw a top card from another spot on the board or deck into your hand and benefit from those spots. Location benefits allow players to advance their ship on the fleet track, gain helium tokens, gain a sovereignty token (this also activates your personal player/house ability), or place an influence token on the Institute. Each card in the game features a unique character from the novels in one of 11 suits. Cards have their own base value and scoring conditions at the end of the game. Endgame scoring conditions require players to have certain named characters or card types in hand for those points to count. This means that a card with a base value of 10 can be worth a lot more than the endgame if the player can get the cards to activate their extra point potential. COMPLETION OF THE GAME  Red Rising ends when any combination of players meets all three of the following conditions, or when a single player meets two of the following conditions: Player has 7+ Helium Tokens, Player has 7+ Institute Influence, Player has reached or exceeded 7 on Fleet Path. When this happens, players will finish taking turns, activate all endgame abilities, and then tally the final scores. Players earn points from the total value of the cards in their hand, their position on the fleet track, the number of helium tokens, the presence of a sovereignty token, and their influence. The player with the most points wins. MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE GAME Playing Red Rising was an interesting experiment to see if knowing the book series would benefit both of them in terms of their enjoyment of the game or their ability to succeed. A friend of mine has read the entire Red Rising series. I don't myself. I don't think it's particularly necessary to read the novels before sitting down to play the game. Either way, you might want to read them eventually. It's hard not to imagine what kind of relationships and alliances the characters must have with each other when you see which cards score high (or low!) when they're in the hand of another certain character. It was interesting to see a friend notice how the events of the book were embodied in the game or how the characters he considered his favorites were represented through the artwork. Every card in the game is unique and there are a LOT of cards. 112 to be exact. Not only does this mean your game has more replayability, but it also makes it harder to match certain cards together - there are so many in the deck that you might not get what you need! Thematically, for a series about a social hierarchy system where characters from different factions must work with or against each other to gain or maintain power and influence, this was a great game mechanic to tie it all together. COMBINATION Although I haven't read the novels, Red Rising isn't just based on the books. By the way, it is also based on one of my favorite card games: Fantasy Realms. When I say favorites, I mean favorites. For me, Fantasy Realms is a card game of the highest order that always leaves me excited about it after every play, and I think it's a card game that everyone should own. Red Rising copies the card mechanics of Fantasy Realms. Just like in Fantasy Realms, each card in Red Rising has a base point potential, as well as a higher point potential depending on whether it can be combined with a specific card or card type. So throughout the game, you'll be discarding cards from your hand to pick up other cards that you think will work better with what you have in hand. This can create such a fun tension for the players. You're constantly having to decide which card you're willing to part with in order to hopefully get an even better card and increase your points potential. This is a game of patience. Know when to hold the card and when to let it go. Force yourself to be patient enough to wait for a particular map to be revealed and to be able to change it to a new plan before you are caught off guard. TOO MANY EVENTS While creating all these combos is fun and incredibly satisfying when they work well, the problem with Red Rising is that it takes a Fantasy Realms flavor, executes it beautifully with its 112 character cards….but then confuses everything with a confusing game that takes too long. Games last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on how long your teammates have to agonize over which cards they want. The best part about Red Rising is that it is inspired by Fantasy Realms. But every time I play Red Rising, I wish I was playing Fantasy Realms instead. This little deck packs a bigger strategic punch and does it in half the game time or less! Fantasy Realms is extremely simple, and I think that's really where Red Rising goes wrong. All the deployment actions, location bonuses, helium tokens, fleet track, special abilities, etc. just drag the game out, detracting from the real fun. Red Rising is just a bit bloated. When trying to incorporate so many elements of the book (characters, card suits/factions, fleets, etc.) into the game, it ended up overshadowing the best part of it. Even trying to put together a hand full of combo cards is a bit of a drain because the game drags on for so long that jeez if you can't put together a decent hand then what have you been doing?? CONCLUSIONS  Red Rising isn't a great game, but it's not bad either. It's just a good game. Inspired by Fantasy Realms, Red Rising just makes me wish I'd picked up Fantasy Realms instead. The fun of creating combos with character cards drowns out all the extras that drag the game out too long.  Red Rising is a perfectly decent IP game and, as my friend says, a good implementation of the books. I have no hesitation in recommending it to romance fans. While you don't have to read the novels to enjoy the game, you'll definitely appreciate the little nuances and hints to the story woven into the game's theme and design. While I don't think it will stay in our collection forever, I'm very happy that Red Rising is raising the bar for what players should expect from IP games in the future. I hope more publishers feel confident in creating top-tier strategy games for this audience...

PLOT  Witchbound is a game about becoming a witch. Coven Cove has been witch-free for over a century, and you will be the first witch in a long time. Will you be able to complete your story path to the end, become a witch and help the island? I will not spoil the prologue, but describe the story part of the game as a whole. Unlike decks like Middara, Tainted Grail, and Stars of Akarios, where you're greeted with sheets of art around every corner and every interaction, Witchbound is less expansive and more like Legend of Zelda and old PC RPGs. You have clues, interact with them and get a mini-story. More on this below in the Mechanics section. Just keep in mind that you won't have to read a ton of text in this solo game. Witchbound has an elaborate plot, but it moves pretty quickly. Whether this is a plus or a minus compared to other solo adventure decks is up to you. GAME MECHANICS The mechanics are perfectly integrated with the plot. They are very light. You interact with surrounding objects of interest, as well as local NPCs, and that's it. Witchbound also has mini-games that I didn't get to play, but overall the mechanics are very simple.  How does it work? For example, you use the basic action "explore" on a bird's nest. This action is number 1. Near the bird's nest is number 59. You combine them to get 159 and read the corresponding paragraph in the mini-story book. Or, alternatively, you can apply the bird's nest sling with the number 7 and read paragraph 759. Interaction with NPCs is arranged similarly. Only you don't use a slingshot on them, but lines like "hello", strike up a conversation and get dialogue, a bit of story and maybe a new quest. As the game progresses, you will acquire new lines, so it makes sense to go back and talk to people you already know about new topics.  Even in the game you will meet contacts: challenges that can sometimes be avoided, and sometimes have to be overcome. The mechanics are the same: apply something to the encountered contact, combine the numbers and read the result. DIFFICULTY OF THE GAME I think it's clear that Witchbound is a frivolous deck. It has mini-games that I haven't had a chance to try out and that most likely use different mechanics than the basic "add two numbers", but overall Witchbound is a simple and beginner-friendly game. Once you've mastered the basic mechanics, there shouldn't be any difficulties. As a result, you won't forget the rules between games. And during the game you will be given quests, so you will always know where you are and what you are going to do. SOLO MODE Please note that this is a solo game. You can play it as a party, like most solo games, making decisions together, but it's single-player and you only control one character. WHO IS WITCHBOUND FOR? I thought about this question during my party. Personally, Witchbound reminds me of Legend of Zelda, Point & Click games, Little Witch Academia anime, and Roll Player Adventures at the same time. Plus simple mechanics and a pinch of plot. A little more reminiscent of Legacy of Dragonholt.  Who is the game for? In my opinion, for RPG fans who want to play RPG solo, when there is no company nearby, and they don't want to turn on the computer. And for solo players who want a story-driven game without the fuss of layouts and components. Witchbound builds quickly, so it's perfect for those looking to play something like Stars of Akarios, Middara, or Oathsworn, only simpler. MINI-REVIEW The Witchbound prologue turned out to be very fan-friendly. I really like the simple mechanics and atmosphere of the game; this allowed me to play with the creator of the game from discord without any problems. He sent me pictures, and I chose what to interact with. Personally, for me, Witchbound is exactly what I look for in solo decks: a game that can be easily played live (on my Malts and Meeples channel). There is almost no need to explain the rules, it unfolds almost instantly. Exactly that. The only problem I noticed (even in the short prologue) was that I had to skip a lot. If you follow the plot directly, you will constantly flip the book from one scene to another, to the third, etc. Or re-read dialogues to get some goodies. However, since this is a solo game, I just skipped the dialogues and went straight to the bun when I needed it for a quest, for example. Not that it's a huge drawback, but in my opinion, as the game goes on, you'll have to flip from one page to another, to a third, etc. more often to get to the place you need for the quest. Or remember how to get where, and immediately open the right page by "teleporting". ..

PORT ROYAL GAME REVIEW AND IMPRESSIONS  Alexander Pfister is a rock star in my house. All of his games (so far) have been huge hits, and Great Western Trail remains my wife's all-time favorite. Port Royal, a game I didn't know existed (or was erased from my memory after I saw the unpleasant Clemens Franz artwork of the old edition). The game was re-released as Big Box and with a bunch of additions. Each game we started adding new elements to diversify the game and it quickly became our de facto placeholder game that lasts under 30 minutes without ANY preparation/assembly. In short, she always makes us laugh in the face of our opponent's suffering. Isn't that why we play games?  In this theme-less game, you basically have to buy cards, and the first to 12 points wins. It's that simple! But the 'try your luck' element is where this game really shines. On your turn, you reveal as many cards from the deck as you want, but if there are duplicate colored ship cards, you lose! Your opponent has a chance to buy a card from your pool if they pay you 1 coin, which is an added incentive for you to flip even more cards. Many of the "crew" cards have special abilities that make your game unique, and some help you avoid crashes by dropping duplicate cards.  The layout and graphics are very nice and thematically sophisticated with a diverse range of ethnicities represented, and even though the types of crew cards are limited, the artwork varies a lot so you'll never get cards that look exactly the same.  Since the game only consists of cards and a compact box, you can literally play anywhere. We've taken this game on picnics, played it in the backyard, on our game table, and we'll take this game everywhere for fun!  We HIGHLY recommend this game if you like a fast-paced filler card game. ..

 Who does not know Sagrada Familia? As a former art and design student, I always wanted to visit this amazing work of art and admire it from a different vantage point than just a computer monitor. With Sagrada, I feel like I managed to get at least a little closer to that. Sagrada is a small puzzle game where you as an artist compete with other artists to create the best stained glass window for the Sagrada Familia. I already liked the theme of the game and couldn't wait to play it. GAME OVERVIEW Preparing the Sagrada for the party is quite easy. Randomly deal each player a personal dale face card along with two stained glass template cards and one player square. Each player chooses one side of the stained glass card and places it inside the player space. Then give each player the same number of favor tokens as the difficulty number on the stained glass pattern card. Then place the circular track with the players' score markers in the center of the table. Also place three random tool cards and public objective cards face up on the table. Finally, place all the cubes in the bag. Now you are ready to create your stained glass window.  The game lasts ten rounds. At the beginning of each round, a player takes two dice for each player and one additional dice from the bag and rolls them. For two players, it will be, for example, five cubes. Then, moving clockwise, each player can choose three options. You can take one die from the table and place it on your stained glass window, you can pay to use a tool card. The tool cards can help you finish the stained glass window by, for example, changing the blocks. Note that if the card already has a service token, you must pay two tokens. Finally, you can do nothing. Each action is absolutely optional. If you don't see a die or card you can or want to use, simply pass the turn and the next player can take their turn. The first move will go clockwise starting with the player who took the dice, the second move of the round will go counter-clockwise. After each player has made two moves (or missed), place the last die and possibly any remaining dice on the circular track. The next player can take dice from the bag to repeat the process. When placing the cubes on the stained glass window, you need to follow some placement rules. The first cube in the game must be placed in one of the corners or edges of your stained glass window. Every second cube must also be next to the previously placed cube. If you have a color or a specific number in your box, you can only place that number or color on that spot on the player's field. Finally, a die can never be placed orthogonally next to a die of the same color or value. This means that you cannot place a red cube next to another red cube, you can only place it diagonally. They cannot touch each other's sides.  If the round is over, the game ends and the final scoring begins. To calculate your points, use the back of the track where you placed the unused dice and tally up the points from the remaining public objectives, private objectives and services. A private objective will give you the color you must place in your stained glass to get points, while public objectives will often ask for pairs or specific values, such as pairs of values three and four. For each empty space in the window, you lose one victory point. The player with the most victory points is the best artist and wins the game. DESIGN AND DEPTH OF THE GAME Sagrada is a game that takes surprisingly more thought than I first thought. The rules of restricting the placement of cubes make this much more difficult and you get a lot of fun with how your stained glass window is created. You also won't know who wins until the end, due to personal and shared goals.  The game looks great on the table, and if you can, play it only by candlelight. Since the cubes are transparent, the light can really play with the colors, giving you a little extra coziness, or so we think. The quality of the components is quite good and there is plenty of opportunity to play multiple games in a row as all the stained glass challenges are two-sided. They also vary in difficulty, so if you want more challenges, you can choose a more difficult window to create. IMPRESSION  Sagrada is an easy logical thinking puzzle game where you have to build your own stained glass window. With each cube you select, your window becomes a little more colorful, and with 90 cubes and plenty of window patterns to choose from, this game will be different every time. The rules are simple but challenging and you can choose your own difficulty level. We think this game is a lot of fun with two or more players. ..

 Cubitos is a cube racing game by John D. Clare released in 2021. I recently had a chance to play it a few times and wanted to share my thoughts. GAME PROCESS In Cubitos , players start with nine basic dice (of two types) and roll the dice simultaneously, keeping any dice that show coins or feet. Players can then re-roll any blank faces, but risk burning if no new non-blank faces are rolled. If a player has less than three dice in his active zone from previous rolls and "rollovers", he is in the safe zone and is allowed to continue re-rolling until at least three dice are placed in his active zone. If a player loses, they will not be able to take actions in the current round, but they will be able to move one space up the fan track, which will yield coins and/or hand tokens that will allow players to roll additional dice each round. They have the added advantage of being able to put any dice from their roll zone (those rolled as blank results that round) into their discard zone. The other players' dice that failed must remain in their roll zone and will be rolled again in the next round. This allows players who are knocked out to cycle through their lower value dice and return the higher quality dice to the roll zone more quickly. After each player decides to stop or a player has lost, they enter the running phase together. Any player who rolled the sword symbols on their red dice compares the rolled swords and the winner gets the bonus but has to sacrifice the red die. Because of this, it is likely that different players will win this advantage in subsequent rounds. After matching the red dice, players simultaneously use their feet to move around the racetrack, possibly collecting power-ups depending on where they stopped, and use coins to buy new dice into their reset zone.  Each game has eight new types of dice that can be purchased. Each color of the die has seven cards with different abilities corresponding to it, and one of each is chosen during preparation. This means that the game has a large number of variations with an almost infinite number of combinations. Hints show which symbols appear on each face and what actions are actually performed when certain faces fall.  In the next round, players will use the remaining dice in their rolling area and then choose which dice to add to reach their "hand limit", which starts at 9 but will increase as players move up the fan track and as they fall behind on the racetrack. All dice will be rolled and a new round will begin. The game ends when one player crosses the finish line, and the player who advances further past the finish line wins, as it is possible for more than one player to cross the finish line in one round. Of course, the actions you can take are varied and I won't cover them in detail here. You can choose dice from the game, protect yourself from potential crashes by spending shields, set dice faces to whatever you want, get other dice for free, and more. IMPRESSION Anyone can play this game. The rules are relatively simple and can be learned in ten minutes. That being said, I think this is more of a gamer than meets the eye. A big part of strategy is analyzing the eight dice/abilities available in each game and being able to visualize what combinations will work well together. After that, it's all about executing the plan and maybe a little luck along the way. I wanted to like this game, but it seems like I'm missing something. Pros: Anyone can learn and play the game in 45-60 minutes. This is a good option for the whole family or for a group of experienced gamers. Looks great on the table. You will definitely have situations where people come to your table asking about the game with all the cool, non-standard dice and racetrack. There are so many different games to play. I'm not a math geek, but I'm guessing there are literally millions of combinations of dice abilities that can be used, and there are several racetracks that can be used. Each game will be completely different. Rolling a bunch of dice each round is really fun. The game becomes very intense when you know your odds are low, but you just need one more value to execute your plan for the round. Cons: I don't think the racing mechanic is adequate, as an extra pair of dice usually won't have much of an impact in the late game when someone else is moving 12-15 spaces a round. The game had a snowball problem: if you set up the "correct" dice pool early and the other players don't, the game can only be successful for one player, meaning the game can be broken. Every game I've played has been different, with one player winning by about 15 holes, and a few rounds into the game, it's pretty clear who that player is going to be. It's not a long game, so it's definitely not the end of the world, but the last few rounds felt like a formality. There is no way to influence the plans of other players. The only competitive similarity is in the red dice, but they shift back and forth from round to round, so winning or losing this battle has no effect. The game gives you extra dice to try to catch up, but the game feels like a race where no player can affect what the other player is doing. Everyone picks up at different speeds, but there aren't any lying cops to hit, other than obstacles (which are just as likely to happen to players behind as to players in front). It sucks to burn out. Of course, this allows you to fine-tune your dice pool a little better in the next round and move up the fan track, but our games only lasted 10-12 rounds. Skipping a whole round of action and buying dice is paralyzing. This ties in with my first objection, about the snowball effect. This can be especially frustrating because a breakup can come out of nowhere. You can roll 7 or 8 dice and still lose. Making the "right" move and still ending up with a dead round isn't very good. It's a small gripe, but the fan track felt redundant. I know some dice interact with this, but I found it didn't help at all. I'd rather be at a racetrack where I can pick dice or get coins to buy something right now than get credits later. My games weren't enough to make the fan track investment really pay off. How easy is it to learn the game? 4/5 This game takes about 10 minutes to learn and maybe 40-45 minutes per game. I've played with 3 and 4 players and the game time is about the same since players almost always take actions at the same time. How easy is it to play the game *well*? That's a bit of a different story, and it depends on how well you know deckbuilding and can interpret the optimal buying sequence. Will it be easy to find players? 4/5 I don't see why not! The design is attractive, the game looks great on the table and does not drag. People like to throw piles of dice. Is the game worth your time? 3/5 The good news is that the game doesn't take that long. So, in terms of "time spent", you haven't lost much by trying the game even if you don't like it. The bad news is that I don't think it's that helpful. Part of the reward for learning and playing is looking around the table and seeing smiles on faces, regardless of the score or score. With Cubitos, I just see a lot of frustration and confusion about how one player got so much better. Instead of trying again, I see people wanting to pack up and move on to something else. How much fun is it to lose? 2/5 It is difficult. I usually don't mind losing. The fact that the loss is so obvious and I've yet to see a way to affect the game past half (or so) just makes the back half of the game a bit pointless. What worries me is the fact that you see how much you are losing and how unlikely you are to catch up. Of course, you can push your luck a bit more to try to do a few more actions each round than the leaders, but that will likely lead to a corkscrew. I have no particular desire to review it. Overall 5/10 *I think one of the best ways to judge a game is to think about how much fun it is to lose. The goal is to have fun whether I win or lose!..

ZOMBIE KIDZ GAME REVIEW In Zombie Kidz , players go to the scariest part of the cemetery to lock the gates and stop the zombie horde from spreading through the city. Work together to lock all the gates or destroy all the zombies in the graveyard to win. PREPARATION FOR THE GAME Preparing Zombie Kidz is very easy. Place the field in the center of the playing area. For a two-player game, use the side of the field with diagonal paths between the tombstones. For a 3-4 player game, use the side without diagonal paths. Place one zombie on each goal in the corners of the field, and place the remaining zombies within reach of all players. Place all 4 castle tokens on the side of the field. Have each player choose a character token and a plastic base, then place all of the character tokens on the red tombstone in the middle of the field. Select the first player and you are ready to go. GAME PROCESS The player's move consists of 4 possible actions, which are performed in the following order: PLACEMENT OF ZOMBIES At the beginning of his turn, the player must roll a die and determine if and where he will place the zombie. If the face of the die is black, red, blue, yellow, or green, place the zombie on the corresponding tombstone. If the face of the die is white, the players are lucky and no zombies are placed in that round.  Jeopardy : Any time a player should put a zombie on the field but can't, it's game over and the zombies have won. If placing a zombie causes the character token to take up the same amount of space as 3 zombies, then the zombies have won. MOVING Players can move along one path segment at a time. Players can also stay in their current location. The player could move from the red gravestone area to the green gravestone area in one move. If players use a board with diagonal paths, players can also move from a yellow tombstone to a green tombstone in one turn. If a tombstone is occupied by 3 or more zombies, players cannot move to it. ELIMINATE THE ZOMBIES Once the player has moved to the tombstone of their choice, they can destroy all the zombies that are there. CLOSE THE GATE If at any time 2 players are near the same gate, you can lock them by placing one of the lock tokens on the gate. Congratulations, you're that much closer to fending off the zombie onslaught. Note: When a player has eliminated a zombie or locked a gate, they cannot move their piece. Close all 4 gates or destroy all zombies on the field and you win! WHAT I WONDERED ABOUT THE GAME I bought this game on a whim. I didn't really know anything about it, and no one I knew had ever played it. But I am very glad I made this purchase. It is quite small, about the size of a paperback book. The illustrations are great…definitely kid-friendly and cartoony, with just a slight hint of grit that kids love. All characters are taken from different movies. The character of Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead, The Bride from Kill Bill, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and a combination of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and Neo from The Matrix. Component quality is good, with plastic bases for character parts. Unfortunately, the zombie pieces are lying flat on the board, but it's not that bad. The game is quite fast; in a 10-minute range with simple solutions for players. You roll a die and place a zombie on that color. The hardest part is deciding where to move when it's your turn. Do you try to eliminate all the zombies on the field or go for the goal? Offer options to your young players and see what they think. For younger kids like my 5 year old, he just wants to get rid of zombies. In several cases, he chose to defeat the zombies rather than go into a space with another player; losing the opportunity to close the gate...and that's absolutely cool. The game is so fast that even if you lose, it will only take you a few minutes. Prepare her and get back into battle! While the game is easy, there's enough of a balance between killing zombies and placing new zombies that you're constantly watching your remaining zombie tokens to make sure you don't run out. You can also make the game more difficult by removing 1 or more zombies from the stack. WHICH DISAPPOINTED ME The game really relies on luck through the dice roll, and in many cases your younger kids will make choices that you wouldn't. But that's fine… that's the nature of co-op games, right? Let your kids see the results of their choices by letting zombies eat their brains. The rules are a sheet of glossy paper folded several times. They could also use some TLC in the form of better graphic design and proofreading. Usable, but they could be better. FINAL IMPRESSIONS  Zombie Kidz is an ultra-light co-op game that's perfect for teaching your kids how to work together. It's small, portable, low-cost, and fits easily in a suitcase or travel bag. Zombie Kidz is a fun family game that deserves to be in your collection...

REVIEW  1-4 players, 40 minutes  Designers: Aske Christiansen  Artist: Apollin Etienne  Publisher: Ludonaute  Publisher in Ukraine: Games7Days OUR HISTORY It's always interesting to know the winners of the Kennerspiel des Jahres and Spiel des Jahres, although the latter is awarded to lighter games that aren't always on our radar. Well, this year it was Living Forest that won the prestigious title of expert game of the year. Which, to be honest, was a bit surprising - considering its difficulty, Living Forest can't be classified as an expert game. But we've played this game quite a few times already and yes, we think it's really too easy for expert level. But we understood why she won the award and it was a great experience. Thematically, Living Forest is set in an enchanted forest (obviously) - the game is inspired by Japanese mythology, though I'm not entirely sure how much. Players embody spirits trying to save the forest from the threat of the Onibi, which in Japanese folklore is represented as a ghost that often appears as fire: that's why you always need to put out the fires that the Onibi lights. The design contributes to the thematic value of the game - the game looks extremely beautiful on the table, and the cards remind us of Medow (which is great). But that's where the similarities end, because we're dealing with completely different games. Living Forest has three win conditions: players must plant 12 different trees, collect 12 mystical flowers, or put out 12 fires. It's always the same number - 12. And that's great - it means we're dealing with a game that's very well balanced, but most importantly, it accurately defines the game's duration at around 45 minutes, which is perfect for this level of difficulty .  So, we already mentioned how balanced this game is - and it's true. No matter which path you choose, you have the same chance of winning if you play it right. Well, that's to be expected from a good game. And it's great that "Living Forest" lived up to... expectations. But let's dive deeper. Players cannot do without the help of forest inhabitants: animals depicted on the cards. Each player starts with the same set of cards, which is a strong indication that we are dealing with deck collecting. Thanks to the open draft, players will have the opportunity to attract new animals to their deck. It sounds simple - and it mostly is: the catch is that you really have to be careful which animals you recruit, as some don't get along so well with others. And that's because each card with animals shows several symbols (action in the game) - the more symbols of one species, the more powerful the action. We were a little afraid of this - it seemed that there was a lot of math waiting for us. But it turns out that's not the case - you just have to do some very simple additions and subtractions (some animals don't get along with others, remember?) to work out the total for each symbol. You may be wondering exactly how this works, because at some point you have to stop drawing cards. Well, that's where the hermit animals come in - they're usually stronger (bringing more symbols into play and often with positive balance), but the catch is that you have to stop drawing cards from your deck once you get three lone animals out. Of course, there are animals that counteract their effects (you can think of them as yin and yang), so if you're careful enough, you can purchase them from the "market". So it's a "lucky" component of the game (and that's a good thing, it's one of our favorite mechanics - plus, it feels that way here). And it's important to note that you have a limited number of actions per turn - two (different) if you stop before bringing in three lone animals, and only one if you're forced to stop. So sometimes you can try your luck, but it's worth noting that this means you'll be doing 50% less actions that will end.  So there are three ways to win the game, but there are 4 possible actions: you can advance around the rondel, put out fires, hire new animals or plant trees. However, there is a fifth symbol on the cards (a mystical flower, but it is not an action in itself). Well, let's start with the pan - it's represented by the spiral symbol: advancing here can be crucial - not only does it allow you to perform a bonus action that you don't have enough power for (or just want to do it again), but it also allows you to take one a victory token from opponents you defeat (which brings you one stop closer to victory). Additionally, there are sun symbols - these allow you to draw more animals into your deck - divided into three categories (of increasing value). It's possible to add more animals to your deck, but you also have to consider that Onibi lights a fire for every animal card drawn that round! This can be a good strategy to face your opponents, especially if they don't have enough power (symbols that add more than the total fire value) to put out these fires. And this brings us to the third action - symbols of water help extinguish fires. Once you reach 12 fires, you win (well, almost - but we'll talk about that). This is probably the most interesting part of the game, as it has a semi-cooperative aspect: if players don't have enough water to put out the fire, they have to draw Fire Dragons (Onibi creatures) into their deck. And they don't idle: aside from being lonely, they offer absolutely nothing in return, so you don't want them around when you draw cards. By the way, it's nice that the game offers fragment tokens as a means of discarding unnecessary cards. Last but not least, trees - every player starts with the same empty display. This is the place where the magic trees will be planted - this is the tile placement component. Each individual tree counts towards the win condition. Clever placement can also trigger some valuable bonuses (for completed lines and columns and closed corners) - there are only two bonus actions available (compared to the pan, which has many more options), but they are more powerful. Yes, strategy also plays a big role here. It's also worth noting that there are only a limited number of trees of each species available - buying more trees of the same species gives you double the benefits and disrupts your opponents' plans, even if you're nowhere near the 12 different trees you need. .  It's amazing how grounded the actions are - they influence each other and work together. So it's impossible to focus on one thing because you need a lot more to win. Take flowers for example - of course you can just buy animals with flower symbols. Of course you could, but you need more fire symbols to buy more powerful animals, and you also need flowers from other sources (like trees) because you can't just rely on the luck of the draw. Game mechanics form a well-oiled engine, and it shows. The simplicity of the action makes the game accessible to everyone (and makes it perfect for family game nights), but the difficulty lies in how you link and time your actions so that you can collect the right items before others. And last but not least, yes, it's the difficulty of the game that made it feel a little bland to us after a few plays. Of course, it's still pretty relaxing and we'd be happy to play it anytime. But once you get the hang of the puzzle, the action starts to feel a little too easy - I'm sure more players open up many more possibilities. Finally, the Living Forest remains an absolute gem for the money (you can find it for as little as €25-30) - maybe we'll even introduce it to our parents one day.....