I've had my eye on Lands of Galzyr for a long time. Basically, it's an advanced book-game like Sleeping Gods and Tales of the Arabian Nights. You just don't need to flip through the pages of a thick volume here - one click in the online application is enough for the text to appear on the screen. The gameplay is very similar: you move around the map and immerse yourself in various stories. Many other story-driven games can't decide which is more important to them: gameplay or story. Lands of Galzyr stands out in this regard because it focuses entirely on story, strongly rejecting many board game elements. There are no complex combat mechanics here. There is no possibility to create various characters. There are no complex combinations, no complex rules. From a logical point of view, it sounds terrible, but in practice it turns out to be a very easy to lay out and assemble board with a living world full of exciting adventures, from which I cannot tear myself away. The absence of complex mechanics and the application perfectly integrated into the game removes almost all obstacles between you and the story being told. The closest analog to Lands of Galzyr is the game books, but Lands of Galzyr has more freedom of action. A whole world opens up for you to explore. THE WORLD OF GALZIR The gameplay is extremely simple: you move your character (an anthropomorphic animal) to a couple of cells and then read a few paragraphs of text describing what adventure your character got into. Periodically, you need to pass checks on the dice. Here, in fact, are all the main mechanics. But the strength of Lands of Galzyr (as in the previous game from Snowdale Design - Dawn of the Peacemakers) is a well-developed setting and an exciting narrative that makes you get attached to the fictional world and keep playing again and again. It is very interesting to read here. Immersion in the story is also facilitated by the application, which removes the typical for similar games from the need to tediously flip pages until you find the desired paragraph. Here, nothing distracts you from the story. The Lands of Galzyr setting is very elaborate, since this is not the first game about what is happening in the world of Daimyria; there were others before her, starting with Dale of Merchants, one of the best deckbuilders in the world. As in other Daimyria games, here each species of animal has its own character and distinctive features; this is evident in every character you meet in Lands of Galzyr. Not only do you help them, but you also unwittingly become attached to them. QUEST SYSTEM Although Daimyria is open world, the presence of quest mechanics makes it steep like the characters in Darling I Shrunk the Children. You always have a quest or an indication of where to go. On the one hand, you won't have to wander around aimlessly. On the other hand, it prevents you from freely exploring the world and seeing all its sights. Which is disappointing considering how big the setting is here. However, apart from this point, I can name only one drawback of Lands of Galzyr: weak character development. The fact is that it has a leveling cap that you reach pretty early in the game. After that, you continue to pump, but you almost never exceed the ceiling. So, while the adventures themselves are amazing, your character usually doesn't change at all after them. Sure, Lands of Galzyr emphasizes an awesome story, but I still would have liked to see more character development. THE WORLD IS CHANGING As a reward for completed quests, you receive various rewards depending on its result. Some of the rewards are new quests that are placed at the bottom of the quest deck. After a few games these quests will hit the mountain and you can take them. So from game to game the world around you changes a little under the influence of the decisions you make and the dice you roll. It is also worth noting the mechanics of time - days and months. Each game comes in a new month, and each game round is a new day of the week. I'm not sure yet if this affects the story from the app in any way, but it adds a sense of time passing, which is atmospheric. In general, Lands of Galzyr is a beautiful board of its kind, which took the risk to bet purely on a great plot and did not lose. Most likely, its simple rules and slick gameplay will attract you, as it did me, and you will not be able to tear yourself away from the adventures of the inhabitants of Galzir...

 On your turn in The Castles of Tuscany, you lay out region cards, disrupt and lay out region token tiles, or spend cards to place region tokens on your personal board. For this, you get an immediate bonus based on the color of that token and a point if you finish filling an area of that color. Cards and tiles have eight suits, and to place a tile you need to spend two cards of the same suit, with two cards of any suit acting as jokers. So to place a blue tile, you need to spend two blue cards, a blue card and a matching pair of cards - or any two matching pairs of cards. The eight available region tiles are randomly selected and replaced randomly from the player's personal tile supply. You may or may not flip the color your opponent wants! When someone has placed a third of their tiles, players score points by adding all of their current green points to the secondary red track. This step will happen again when someone places the second third of their tiles again, and again when someone places all of their tiles. This means that the points you score in the first third of the game will be added to your total points three times, so don't be lazy. You start the game with one of five bonus actions, and each time you place a red city tile on your regional board, you change your bonus action to another. These tiles allow you to use more cards, have more tile rooms in reserve, or modify certain color bonuses. These tiles give you ways to customize (customize) your building capabilities.  Your starting layout affects your possible further growth and bonuses, although at the same time you are dependent on the randomness of cards and tile flips and, of course, not the random actions of your opponent. In this game, you will not be able to win with any special plan, because the tiles you need may not drop or, worse, the opponents may take them from you, forcing you to choose a different path to victory. Players also compete for color bonuses, being rewarded if all color areas on the board are covered. These bonuses are given to the first and second players. But the trick is that there won't be enough tiles for everyone to cover every color, so you'll have to keep track of who takes what. Your starting layout also affects this matchup, and if possible you can finish one color and then the other, getting a double color bonus for doing so. In five of our games, the player who was ahead in the first third of the game remained the winner until the end of the game, but in our sixth game, this no longer happened. And I think it's because we've gotten better at both building our own game engines and understanding who wants what and thus keeping someone from scoring and complicating those early points...

 Note : the game is complex and it is not easy to describe it in words. However, I will try to do a review as it is worth it. If you're interested in Hegemony, I'd highly recommend taking a look at Heavy Cardboard's recent stream showing the main gameplay elements; this is better to see with your own eyes than in text format. So, let's begin. Hegemony (or more precisely, Hegemony: Lead You Class to Victory) is a new kickstarter project from Hegemonic Project Games, a company new to the market, created specifically for the launch of Hegemony. According to the Kickstarter page, the company has a lofty goal to "create flooring that inspires people and helps them learn more about the world around them." In particular, Hegemony tries to connect the world of board games with politics and economics.  It cannot be said that this is the first attempt of its kind; there are already a lot of political and/or economic issues. However, Hegemony differs in that the players are asymmetric factions competing with each other within the same state, and not just abstract competitors (say, merchant guilds or political parties). Players take on the roles of the working class, middle class, capitalists, or the state itself. A couple of games from Leder Games are mentioned here: "Root" and "Vast" - also asymmetrical games with active interaction between factions. You can partially mention the games of the COIN series, but in Hegemony there is no direct conflict, unlike the examples listed above. The struggle is political and competitive. Each group tries to become the most successful by gaining the most victory points.  The methods of achieving victory vary greatly. The working class seeks to consume goods and form trade unions. The middle class also tends to consume goods, but they also get rewards for owning companies and exporting goods. Capitalists get almost all the rewards for accumulating capital.  As for the state, it seeks to please everyone; its method of obtaining PO depends on its reputation (legitimacy) in the eyes of other factions, with only the two lowest reputations of the three being considered. All factions can also gain PO by promoting national policies that are beneficial to them. And this is where the game turns from just a complex economic euro into something special. The field has a policy scale with seven tracks that change the rules of the game. For example, one of the tracks determines the minimum wage that companies are forced to pay. Another determines the amount of taxes; yes, there are taxes in the game and they have to be calculated every round. Actually, most players will have to calculate two types of taxes: on their business and on their income. The third controls foreign trade, including the fee (or lack thereof) for imports when buying goods from a foreign market. Other tracks determine how many state-owned companies can be in the game, how much the state takes for health care and education (these are the resources that the middle and working class consume for social security, as well as to change the quantitative and qualitative composition of their workforce). There is even an immigration track that determines how often new workers appear in the game.  All of these mechanics may seem like a scary cracker, but in practice they are the main source of conflict in the game. Take, for example, the painful issue of public health care. As a rule, the player for the working class wants to achieve cheap or free health care, because he needs it for PO and for the growth of the worker population. Capitalists naturally want to make it expensive: partly because cheap health care is financed by high taxes for capitalists, and partly in order to make more profit on the domestic market from their private health care. The middle class may support the former or the latter depending on whether it seeks to sell or buy health care services. As for the state... it's not easy here. If health care is cheap, the government gets more revenue through taxes and also gets a PO every time someone buys health care from them. But if it becomes too cheap, the state can go bankrupt or waste all the resources that may be needed in the event of a crisis. And it all boils down to a basic production-consumption engine: you send workers to various businesses, and they produce goods. However, the basic engine also has its own nuances, due to which strategies are formed.  Yes, the game does not limit you to the standard "1 worker = 1 action". Each player has a hand of 8 cards and they take turns playing one card for each of the 5 game rounds. When played, they either activate the special action listed on the card, or discard it to play a standard action: open a business, place some workers, arrange a vote to change one of the aforementioned policy tracks. A total of 6 actions can be played per round, leaving 2 cards for the next round. Also, only two of the four factions have workers, and only three of the four factions regularly do business.  Capitalists have the most productive businesses. They can also mechanize them to further increase production. However, they do not have their own workers, so they have to rely on middle or working class workers. Capitalists have several ways to temporarily "freeze" the worker in the business they want, but otherwise they are forced to compete with the businesses of the middle class and the state. The middle class has both workers and businesses. The latter are not as productive as capitalists, but do not depend on other players: owner-employees do not demand payment and control their own production. They can also hire workers from the working class, but it is not easy for them to offer competitive wages. Also, middle-class workers can work for the business of capitalists or the state. Public businesses are less efficient than the private sector, but instead offer higher wages, so it's easier for them to hire workers. However, the state can open a maximum of 3 businesses unless it achieves changes on the relevant policy track. In addition, it is very difficult for the state to expand business without risking bankruptcy (in which case the IMF comes in and changes all policies, which can have a devastating effect). In my experience, the state is constantly at risk of bankruptcy. As for the working class, they don't have their own businesses (apart from cooperative farms, which can only be brought into play with an action card - more on that below). Therefore, they have to work for the rest of the factions to make a living. However, they will prefer the job that offers the most favorable conditions. In addition, the working class has the means to force the rest to raise wages (through strikes) and to achieve full employment (through demonstrations).  All this usually leads to a situation where the middle and working class compete for well-paid jobs for the state and at the same time are forced to cooperate to prevent the capitalists from getting far ahead with their most efficient production. The state is trying to produce more resources, which are necessary to solve crises and increase its reputation (legitimacy), but if you make ineffective moves, you can go bankrupt. The middle class and capitalists also have reasons to cooperate, for example, to achieve lower taxes, and the middle and working classes to jointly reduce immigration (unlike capitalists who seek to achieve a regular influx of easily exploited workers). In this aspect, Hegemony is most similar to COIN: alliances are also formed and destroyed during the game - depending on the situation on the field and the balance of power between the players.  The game also has fierce competition for resources. Capitalists can (and often do) sell goods on the foreign market, removing them from the game. This can be very profitable, but requires action. Capitalists can also put them up for sale to other factions; then the buyer will spend the purchase action. The working class needs to consume welfare-enhancing goods, but as the population grows (and it's growing fast), it becomes more and more expensive. In addition, at the end of each round, the level of well-being drops slightly, so more and more funds will have to be invested to maintain well-being. The middle class can both sell goods and consume, but with less efficiency (they produce fewer goods, and their level of well-being falls twice as fast).  The state does not consume goods, but it is interested in a stable flow of goods from other factions for its own well-being. To do this, you can either suggest that others buy cheap or free medical services and/or education, or spend goods on crisis solutions, which can bring many programs. Each round of the game, two event cards appear; if the crises pointed to them are not allowed, it will undermine the legitimacy of the state, which promises less influence and less software. The game also has fierce competition for policy tracks. If the indicator on the track is "correct" (corresponds to the interests of the faction), it will bring it VP at the end of the game. Also, POs give a proposal and successful voting. Voting is done by drawing cubes from a bag, and the player can spend to get more cubes in the bag (hello, 1960: Making of a President). However, if all 4 players participate in the vote, things get a little more complicated: before the dice are drawn, each player must announce whether they are going to vote "for" or "against". Players can also make bets blindly by spending an influence resource; the results are summarized by the results drawn from the bag. Moreover, the state can influence the voting results only by spending influence — it does not have voting cubes. The winning side's cubes are reset, as are any spent influence, and the loser's cubes are returned to the bag, balancing out the effect of randomness..

 I have to admit that I am not indifferent to games in the skirmish genre. Since Super Fantasy Brawl came out on Kickstarter, I was ready to play it a lot. I tried playing Warhammer Underworlds for a while and enjoyed it, but was put off by the sheer number of deck options and not having anyone on hand to play competitive matches. Underworlds was definitely an entry-level game for Games Workshop, but Unmatched and Funkoverse are entry-level games for everyone and are great for offering a card or cube skirmish. Super Fantasy Brawl retains the entry-level feel while adding a bit more depth in the long run. The game uses a clever card system with small decks of six cards for each hero. So let's grab our champions and dive into the game. I LOVE WHEN YOU ARE CONSTANTLY IN A STRUGGLE First of all, let me state up front that I have the Kickstarter kit, but I have reworked this review for the main box. The main differences are a lot more champions and component upgrades. While the neoprene mats and plastic tokens are nice to have, the cardboard counterparts are durable and look great. The miniatures set – a purely aesthetic update – will also be available at retail separately. Just remember my greed when looking at the photos! The retail edition includes 6 champions, with three more available as separate sets. The great thing about this is, firstly, the extremely reasonable price and also the variety in the box. Many other games in the skirmish genre only give a "small" idea of the full gameplay, and therefore you will have to purchase new characters for the full experience. Super Fantasy Brawl is different. The games are played in a 3 champion vs. 3 champion format, so you get the full game in the base box. Surprisingly, the variety in the game is quite large. This is due to the fact that each champion is an individual, and not part of a faction or "squad" that he is supposed to represent. So you'll need time to try all the combos the base box offers, and even adding one new champion will add a lot of variety! A FIGHT IS POSSIBLE WITH ME Now that we've made sure you're getting a more than decent price, let's dive into the mechanics. There are some really good moments here that really take Super Fantasy Brawl to the next level. First, each champion receives a deck of six cards. This deck is divided into two cards of each of the three suits: red, yellow, and blue. Red symbolizes destruction, yellow - creation, blue - manipulation. Each player has a token of each color, which he flips over to take actions on his turn, and sometimes off-turn. The main use of the token is to play a card of the appropriate suit, giving you a total of up to three actions per turn. A token of any color can be used to move 2 steps, and each token has one step and a specific action. For example, red allows you to move once and deal one unblockable damage. There are about a dozen key terms, but they are easy to learn and fully explained at the end of the rules. After one game you will know and learn most of them. Most cards will allow you to attack or buff a friend or foe!  But it is not only about beating your opponents as hard as possible. With a well-thought-out goal system, positioning will be extremely important. At the beginning of the game, two targets appear, and then, after each player takes their turn, they move down the row one place - and another is added. As you move down, their value will vary between 0 and 2 victory points. You can also earn a point by defeating an opponent's champion. It only takes 5 points to win, so you can set up some massive combos, but you have to hit the objective early in your turn to win! This means that the other player has a whole turn to try to disrupt your plans. In one game, the two goals were "have at least two of your champions in trap hexes" and "have at least two champions leveled up". My opponent was determined to win the game because at the start of his next turn he would still have one of those objectives! A single character attack would have been enough for me to knock out one of his leveled champions and bring him back to normal, but they weren't even close to the mark. Looking through my cards, I noticed that I could sneak through an opposing champion, picking him up along the way and dropping him next to another champion with attack cards. The day was saved! Or at least their victory was delayed. This has happened at least once in every game of Super Fantasy Brawl I've played. Combinations like these make for battle stories you'll tell anyone who will listen and remember long after the plastic and cardboard have been put away. PLAY HOW YOU WANT Figuring out how each champion works is pretty simple, as each has just 6 cards and a specific style. Once you get to know some cards, you'll be using keywords like "planning" (putting a card from your hand to the top of the deck) and burning the deck to get the cards and combos you need. While there is success in shuffling these cards, you always know the card you need is nearby. After that, the battle is determined by the characteristics of the cards. This is where your off move comes into play. Each champion has one "reaction" card that can be played for any champion your opponent attacks. She can cancel damage, deal damage, resurrect you, and more. The downside is that you still have to flip a token of the appropriate color, giving you one less action on your turn. Losing one action is not always serious, but it can completely destroy your plans. Super Fantasy Brawl is a game where you will never feel like you lost. Even if you lose 4:0, you always have a chance to turn the situation around. Champions also differ from each other. This creates a great synergy that you can discover for yourself. Do you have a slow tank? Use one of the powerful heroes to launch the ego across the battlefield alongside the enemy! But remember that you must be focused on achieving goals by the beginning of your next turn! CONCLUSIONS I have a bit of a crush on Super Fantasy Brawl. It's not just one of the best skirmish games I've played, it's one of the best games I've played. The gameplay is straightforward and fun, and I discover new synergies or potential combos every time I play. Each new champion increases variety because it can be added to any team. The game only has one arena, but I haven't gotten bored of it yet. Maybe it's because you spend most of your time bouncing off walls and statues, dealing extra damage to your opponents. The new arena will likely require a new set of objective cards as well, which isn't such an unappealing prospect, but it's definitely not needed in the short to medium term. Super Fantasy Brawl is all about champions and what you can do with them. It's worth a look even if you haven't played skirmish before, and while some may be disappointed that the Kickstarter update is hard to come by, it's worth remembering that the game's price is really good considering what's in the box: from components to the gameplay itself!..

Release year: 2019. Number of players: 1-6. Game time: 30-90 minutes. (Note: This review covers the first edition of the game.)  Let's start with the components. The box here is just huge. It is even bigger than "Gloomy Harbour"; only the complete edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse can match it in size in our collection. It takes up an entire shelf in the rack. Overall, one of the biggest board game boxes out there. It is also thick, strong, beautifully illustrated, and also shiny and pleasant to the touch.  Inside, you'll find plenty of components that more than justify their price tag. The quality of the cards varies from fair to very good. All the illustrations are great. The colors are bright and cheerful. The minks of the cube heroes are high-quality, with elaborate details. My friend painted the cubes; in decoration they look simply luxurious. The playing fields are clear and nicely illustrated. Overall, the components deserve the highest praise - they are stunning.  Let's go to the actual game. In terms of gameplay, Quodd Heroes is much worse, in my opinion. To begin with, we bought the game in German, skipping the kickstarter. I've downloaded the English rules, so it shouldn't be a problem, right? Here are just a few points in the rulebook that are described differently and contradict each other in different languages. Even more frustrating, the two rulebooks included are not very well structured and leave many questions. Many ambiguous points are not explained in any way, so you will have to spend time looking for answers on BGG (however, you must give credit to the developer: he is active on the forums and answers questions in detail). But there are still many questions, and most likely you will have to resort to home rules. Because of this, there is much more downtime between turns.  The mechanics of Quodd Heroes are very interesting. You can roll your cube hero in any perpendicular direction: it will move there and turn a new face up. Each facet has its own ability (and they can be improved during the game). Planning a move is basically thinking about what you're going to do when you land a certain face up and how to get there.   From the closest analogues, RoboRally immediately comes to mind - a rather chaotic and random game. Quodd Heroes tries to get even more chaotic with a reduced playing field that encourages or even forces cubes to crash into other cubes. When your cube crashes into another cube, it triggers a certain effect, depending on the game mode and objectives. However, this slows down the game every time. Usually players plan where their cube will move and how it will apply its face, but because many playing fields are very tight, crashing into someone else's cube destroys all their plans and forces them to rethink their move, and this process is slow. And this leads to a very large and very annoying downtime - with the aforementioned rules issues in mind. Let's move on to game balance. It is simply not there. This game was clearly not designed with balance in mind. Depending on the map/mission chosen, the character's power can vary from "obscenely broken" to "presumably incompetent". From what I understand, the developer thinks that Quodd Heroes doesn't need balance because it's a gameplay fan, which I disagree with. Enhancement cards also make their chaotic contribution, ranging in power from "moderately useful" to "crazy broken" (for example, I got an enhancement that allows me to flip my cube to any limit once per turn - a ridiculously overpowered ability). And here are the maps of events. Some negative events can spoil the entire game for certain characters, while others can be easily ignored. So, winning in this game depends primarily on luck.  Quodd Heroes is a game about pure chaos and luck, but not in the good sense of the word. I could understand such an abundance of randomness if the game was aimed at a children's audience, but it is too difficult for children (no wonder the box says age 14+) and at the same time too slow for such a chaotic process. Judging by the quality of the components, the developer tried very hard. You can say he put his soul into the game. I have friends who enjoyed Quodd Heroes, and the game will definitely gain its niche audience. But personally, I gave her a chance more than once in a different company, and she definitely did not suit me. Overall score on the BGG scale: 3/10 - bad game: probably won't play again. VIDEO REVIEWS ..

WAS THE GAME GOOD? If you've played Slay the Spire, you're probably wondering how this famous PC game can be brought to the table. You must be skeptical, and I used to be. Slay the Spire has card copying, tons of math, tons of upgrades, and tons of effects that are tracked every round. Implementation of all this on the table will bury any project. Fortunately, the authors noticed this problem in time and in their cash simplified the gameplay as much as possible, while preserving the basics of STS. I will give several examples.  All the numerical values of STS:TBG are greatly reduced so that basic arithmetic is enough for the game. Actually, everything has become easier in the board game: regular battles take fewer rounds, events are resolved faster. The authors also noted that constantly counting the number of cards in a hand in a crowd is not fan-friendly, and removed the hand limit. Double-layered block and energy tracks on the tablets make it easy to track and modify current readings. There are fewer status effect cards, and burns and slime are the same card; only one half is used at a time, depending on the conditions of the current battle. In general, the feelings about the changes are positive. Characters have also been rebalanced and licked. The Armadillo's starting Bash is very useful due to the hanging of vulnerability tokens that double the damage of the next attack and reset. In tabletop StS, almost all effects will not have to be memorized from round to round; vulnerabilities, weaknesses, etc. are reset after the first use. The Silent creates sharpening tokens that can be spent at any time to deal 1 damage: a great way to get rid of the class's overabundance of cards. Defect Orbs are now non-rotating: you can activate any orb from any slot, which makes gameplay easier and at the same time forces you to make more interesting decisions. The Watcher isn't left out, either: a rack of rage deals 1 damage if you keep that rack at the end of your turn.  There are a lot of interesting and convenient changes, so I will limit myself to listing a few more. The Golden Ticket card is waiting for its time in the reward deck; if you draw it, there is a chance to get a rare card. Thanks to this mechanic, rare cards are relatively few in your deck, but it's so nice when you get the chance to get them. As for the travel map, it's simplified compared to the original, but you still have to make a lot of difficult decisions: fight more or sit back and relax by the fire, what's more important - the shop or the events. The game is balanced with a reduced number of key points. And I really liked that the behavior of the enemy and the activation of relics each round is determined by the roll of the dice. At first the randomness put me off, but later I realized how much it speeds up the gameplay. Thanks to this mechanic, the battles are fast - and you will not have time to get bored. I will answer my own question: the authors did a great job. STS:TBG is similar to the original, but at the same time polished and simplified, which is necessary for the deck. It is immediately clear that the authors put a lot of effort into balancing the game and smoothing out the rough edges. WHY PLAY SLAY THE SPIRE BOARD WHEN YOU HAVE COMPUTER  I come across this question all the time. I will try to explain as a player what attracts me to STS:TBG (given that I am not in the habit of keeping many games of similar mechanics and genres). In short, there is a very well-thought-out cooperative mode. STS:TBG is designed primarily for playing with friends. The same event is played out for all players, but everyone can choose the outcome at their discretion. This already shows that the game is perfectly protected against alpha players: no one can know the optimal choice in every event for every player, it depends on your deck and its proportions. The shops are full of relics and potions. You can plunk down some gold and buy some awesome (and expensive) heirlooms together. The choice between buying cards for yourself personally and helping your friends is not easy. By the way, about potions: they can be freely exchanged between battles and thus support the laggards. But cooperation is most clearly manifested in battles. Each player has a row of enemies to attack (or otherwise harass) each round, but can attack not only them, but any enemy in any row. Thanks to this, a completely viable strategy is emerging to amicably overwhelm one of the enemies in the first turn, before he has time to do something. And decisions about who to knock out, how to defend, whether to use abilities or simply maximize damage, cause discussions at the table. Additionally, many cards have abilities useful for co-op, including Defend+. When upgraded, this card gives 2 units of block to any player. It's great when the entire team's efforts save a player who was ready to die (and if one player dies, everyone loses). There are also effects that allow you to buff allies, increase their defense and even change places. Therefore, during battles, you have something to talk about, and defeating tough enemies and bosses with joint efforts is very exciting. WHAT MAKES THE GAME STAND OUT FROM OTHER COOPERATIVES?  One of the advantages of STS:TBG is that players get used to it almost instantly if they have played the PC version. All you have to do is help them with the layout and stacking of the decks, pull out the starting Neow's Blessing and immediately start the first battle. You won't have to explain how campfire recreation, bosses, elites, and more work; the gameplay is quite close to the original. This is a big advantage of STS:TBG, unlike some Dark Souls, the gameplay of which has almost nothing in common with the computer version. And even if players are new to Slay the Spire, the rules are simple and easy to learn as long as there is at least one experienced player in the group. Another big plus of desktop STS is the ability to discuss one of my favorite games with friends. Although I actively play the original, I do not have the opportunity to discuss what is happening with my friends. The tabletop is another matter; we sit around the table for hours at a time discussing different strategies for deck building and Spire kills. Each event brings something new to your strategy, and seeing why your friends chose a particular outcome is interesting and rewarding. Discussions where it is better to go are also very exciting, and divide the players conventionally into maniacs (let's kill three elites) and pacifists (let's go through the events). In battles, you can reminisce about your computer games ("Wow, I hate that Jaw Worm so much!") or discuss preparations for the upcoming boss. Overall fun. And another plus of STS: TBG is a campaign that can be completed in one evening. Games of this kind already exist (such as Too Many Bones and Townsfolk Tussle), but they are few and far between. I liked both Too Many Bones and Townsfolk Tussle, but the fights there are pretty boring. STS:TBG, on the other hand, is simple, fast and provides many opportunities to pump up the character with the help of upgrades, trophy cards and relics. CONCLUSIONS  While I don't usually like kickstarters (especially ones that attract people at the expense of a franchise) and co-op (I prefer to play with friends), as well as games that last more than 2 hours, Slay The Spire: The Board Game charmed me. Knowing the franchise here makes it dramatically easier to get into the game and attract newcomers. Co-op mode is surprisingly interactive; players discuss almost every move. And even though the games aren't fast, I can't tear myself away, checking the available card upgrades or wondering which way to go next. True, the layout takes too much time for my taste, but this is not a problem in a large company. In general, STS:TBG is a great co-op, unlike any other and even different from the computer original. I highly recommend trying it...

 I first tried Vampire Empire three or four years ago. During this time, I had time to play, is it time to write a review? Still, a card duel in the original tin packaging from White Goblin Games, with the bluffing mechanic as one of the main ones, plus the necessary protectors for the cards put in the box by the publisher and stylish woodcut drawings - why is it not talked about at all in our country? Such an original game has clearly not received the attention it deserves. We are correcting. WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT? Vampires lived in the Middle Ages - this is a known fact. They hid under the guise of people and could be at any level of the state society at that time - they could be knights, servants, blacksmiths, and the most sophisticated became monks, skilfully avoiding encounters with crosses and holy water. People did not like vampires, because they are much stronger, more agile and even more immortal, despite their confrontation with everything divine. And they are as handsome as Robert Pattinson. So, there were more people, vampires are cooler, there are not enough horses and girls for everyone - only one race must survive, so two players in Vampire Empire will be engaged in the total extermination of representatives of the opposing side. And all this is on the cards, everyone has their deck in their hands and go ahead. GAME COMPONENTS Separately, I would like to note the design - it is not only stylish and gloomy in the medieval-vampire style, but also very functional. The woodcuts and color play fit perfectly with the game's theme and mechanics. Strictly, simply and clearly. For example, vampires are the same cards as humans, but turned shirt-side up, that is, you take a card from the protector and turn it over to the other side, which shows the same character, but in the form of a vampire. It is still the same, only with the addition of red color to the picture in the right places. Very original in this design, a real unusual design idea. Most of the components of the game are cards. 40 cards for each of the two decks (humans and vampires):  9 double-sided character cards and their protectors:  Taking pictures of this game is quite problematic, because all the components are made in dark colors and glare. A few all kinds of tokens: GAME PROCESS At the beginning of the game, with the help of tokens, three vampires are randomly selected from the nine inhabitants of the castle. They are known only to the vampire player. The human player knows only two random people (also determined by tokens), the remaining four will have to be calculated (as well as the three ghouls). Then, players take turns taking actions, playing cards drawn from their personal deck from their hand. The human's goal is to uncover the three vampires and soak them. The vampire's goal is to kill all six people, or to occupy the castle with all his vampires. The castle is the central part of the table, where three cards from the character deck are always laid out.  The main action in Vampire Empire is battles, which are flipping cards in a battle consisting of a maximum of two rounds. In the first, the attacker says which character in the castle is attacking which character in the castle, after which he lays out from his hand at least one card of the corresponding color (each man has his own color) with some numerical value. (There are only three colors - three characters per color). The defense must be waved away by cards of equal or greater value. After that, the second round begins and the attacker and the one who is defending can throw more cards into the mix. As a result, the winner is determined and the attacked character can be cut from the party. Actually, the result of the game is determined by such fights: six people will be killed - the vampires will win, and vice versa - the victory will go to humans if they can kill three bloodsuckers. The former have a numerical advantage, however, the latter have an element of surprise and the unknown, plus the vampire deck has powerful attacking cards that only work if the vampire has revealed itself.  But it's pointless to attack everyone in a row - a vampire knows his followers and he knows who needs to be killed, but for a human player, holy water is a tool for a painless identity check (these are the cards). She can slap anyone, even a blacksmith, even a lord, and if that someone turns out to be a creature of the night, then she squirms, after which the fight will automatically begin (the water also has a numerical attack indicator). The mechanics of hidden roles in a two-player mob are very interestingly implemented at the expense of character tokens and the purpose of revealing personalities. But such originality was not enough for the author of Vampire Empire and he added another feature - so that the game does not drag on, the cards in the decks are finite, it is clear, but the fact that some cards can be sent to a special reset during the game and after the main deck ends , using them is at least interesting, because some wheel-building element also appears. The game is divided, as it were, into two parts - the battle with the base deck and the finishing touches of the one that will be released after the first part. EXPERIENCE FROM THE GAME There are many of them. I will probably start with the fact that the attitude towards the game and its perception changes with the increase in the number of games played. It takes very little time for thoughts like "what is this, where am I?" turned into a tense consideration of their moves and actions. Vampire Empire is quite a crisis if you have a high enough skill level. In the game, you always need to remember what cards the enemy may have (a card memo helps with this), think about what to put aside for discarding to scroll through the deck, and what to keep in your hands now for battles, try to outwit the enemy and discard less cards than him. Added to this is the bluff of the vampire player, who needs not only to kill all the people, but also not to betray his ghouls, because there are half as many enemies. In general, there is no space for confrontation, even if I rake, the board is very clinch in the sense that you interact so tightly with the opponent that there is not a single move (!) for a break - what is your turn, what is the opponent's turn, you are always involved in which battle . A game about careful hand management + deduction. These two skills, which in Vampire Empire can only be pumped by playing game after game. That is, in a crowd, a more experienced player will win over a weaker player much more often, because he understands much more clearly not only the general concept and picture of what is happening, but also sees the future benefit in the nuances and individual moves. Should you give the holy water now, or can you reveal the supposed vampire to her later? Like, what difference does it make to do it right now or in a turn? You will not have such a question literally after a few batches, when you learn to value each bottle for its weight in gold.  You can improve your gaming skills only through practice. Foresight and strategic thinking are also welcome, because one battle with a vampire in the game is not  the whole battle. Having confidently won one fight, you can beg for resources (weapon cards) and in the future you will simply give your wards to shreds, without having the appropriate items for battles in hand. Planning ahead is one of the key skills required for successful gaming. The game is very subtle, requiring good players to master the hand and overall strategy. There is also a lot of tactical component, you need to know and understand when to hold a card, and when to get rid of or play it. If you get rid of it too soon, a situation may arise when you will drive yourself into the red. The vampire player has more information at the beginning of the game, but has limited power until he reveals the vampires. At the beginning, a person is weaker, in a more vulnerable position, but gains a great advantage due to deduction and simply patience, stretching time.  There is tension in every discard, and every draw means something. Which ones to keep later, and which ones to just delete forever? Lots of player interaction with lots of options, making a relatively simple game the deepest. The fact that both factions have several different options for moves and strategies, as well as different objectives, increases the replayability factor even more. It's not weak for such a short game.  The rules of Vampire Empire are a bit more complicated than normal decks. Rather, they are very simple, but the training is a little more difficult than usual. The fact is that in the game you will really have to get used to the nuances, since the rules are non-standard, this is not another euro for the exchange of resources. However, most likely, after the first game, you will not make a mistake in what and how to do, you will only discover new facets. Asymmetry is very well presented in the game. Each side offers a unique feel when playing it and requires not only a different strategy, but also a different mindset. The vampire needs to throw the human off track by randomly aggressing and chipping away at enemy characters, while not being overly aggressive in order to save the right cards for defense in the late stages of the game. A human will usually proceed more cautiously, especially if none of the known allies are in the castle at the start. At first, he may feel at a disadvantage until the personalities of the characters are slowly revealed. The reset mechanic is also unique and interesting. The use of the second deck (consisting of the cards dropped into the special area) is often the key to victory, as the one who prepares best for the end game will effectively be the winner of all final battles. That..

 Today, PC and console games sometimes delight us with turn-based tactical strategies, X-COM 2 and Phantom Doctrine were worthy projects, although they received their share of criticism from old-school gamers, the same was the case with X-COM Enemy Unknown (Within) and Wasteland 2. However, all the listed games, in addition to critics, have gained popularity among their audience of fans. But not all remakes of classic games were successful. Unfortunately, the Jagged Alliance game series is a prime example of this, after the release of the legendary second part back in 1999, with each new sequel, prequel or remake, JA hammers another nail in the cap of the game series. Therefore, fans of the original first two parts of the strategy can only turn to board games. To the great joy of fans and fans, the German company Underground Games with all rights from THQ Nordic released Jagged Alliance: The Board Game in June 2019. In this regard, I want to share my small review of this board game.  Jagged Alliance: The Board Game is a cooperative board game (1-4 people) of the American genre with wargame elements in a Modern War setting. Before us is a turn-based strategy in which players act as mercenaries from the AIM organization who overthrow dictators in fictional countries of the third world. Everything is like in a classic dungeon crawler: choose a campaign, scenario or skirmish, collect a game modular map, lay out cards, choose heroes, arrange miniatures, and go, De Oppresso Liber, free the oppressed.  Briefly about the gameplay. Players choose characters from 13 mercenaries, equip them with available equipment and begin the task. During his turn, the player performs an action with his mercenary (changing items in the inventory, exchanging items, retreating, moving, team actions or attacking) and ends his turn. Next comes the opponent's turn, which attacks the mercenary who has finished the turn according to his scheme (protocol), during the opponent's turn, the player can only defend himself. Then the next player is activated, accordingly, the opponent then plays his turn. When all players have made one turn, the dictator and his lieutenant enter their phase, who can counterattack, complicate the game additionally with their special abilities, missions and events.  Each mercenary has stamina, a special ability, and team skills that you can use during combat as well as when completing missions. For example, mercenary Kyle "Shadow" Simmons is a master of camouflage in the jungle, which gives him a huge advantage in locations dominated by forest terrain, and ancient Leon Anderson, due to his age, has the weakest stamina of the mercenaries, but he makes up for it with his leadership, veteran qualities and additional cells for partners.  All scenarios have certain tasks. Despite the fact that mostly the main tasks are the capture of the territory, there are also tasks with the search for liaison officers, pilots, convoys, escorts of civilians, etc. Naturally, all this is accompanied by various conditions. Somewhere you will have limited time and the task must be completed by night, somewhere the enemy will be helped by a dictator's officer, somewhere your mercenaries will be vulnerable due to the landscape of the scenario. The story will develop in Arulka's campaign as in the original JA2. If at some point the game seems easy to you, there are enough mechanics in it that you can use in the main gameplay, making it more difficult, more interesting... or you can introduce additional rules yourself. Now a few words about playing time. Each scenario or skirmish battle lasts 30-120 minutes, but it all depends on the players. For example, you can put all 17 modular cards on a table with experienced opponents, and such a skirmish can take 4 hours, or even more. The game currently has one campaign book - "The Arulco Campaign" - consisting of 12 scenarios. During the campaign, capturing civilian or military objects, players will receive additional bonuses by displaying special AIM cards on the global map of Arulco Island. Thus, a scenario won in the city of Omerta will give players an additional bonus in the form of supporting the rebels in subsequent scenarios, while the city of Drassen will provide income from silver mines. It is worth noting that the second book of campaigns should be released in the near future. "Campaign Metavir" will be free to download from the official website, a small bonus from the publisher. Now about the complete set of the game Jagged Alliance: The Game Board: Rulebook (40 pages). 1 script book (16 pages). 17 bilateral sectors. 13 AIM mercenary tablets 2 dictator tablets (1 single-sided, 1 double-sided). 1 Arulko card (double-sided). 1 game save envelope. 13 colored cubes. 70 wooden cubes. 22 miniatures: 6 redshirts, 3 snipers, 3 shieldmen, 3 blood cats, 1 tank, 6 AIM mercenaries 21 large maps: 5 enemy maps (4 double-sided), 16 mission maps. 255 small cards (44x67): 89 AIM cards, 104 item cards (3 decks), 18 event cards (3 decks), 8 Larry Roachburn behavior cards, 29 enemy appearance cards (4 decks), 7 lieutenant cards. 120 Cardboard Tokens: 20 Encounter Tokens, 16 State Tokens, 2 Mission Access Tokens, 2 Day/Night Tokens, 12 Object Tokens, 24 Resource Tokens, 2 Next Tokens, 16 Sniper & Tank Tokens, 8 Minis, 2 Tokens- counters, 4 threat tokens, 4 counter attack tokens.  The quality of the components is generally good, the mercenary tablets are made of thick cardboard, just like the Arulco modular maps. The miniatures are higher than average, they are recognizable, they have good detail, they are not made in the style of heroic scale, so they can be painted qualitatively by very "even" hands. The cards (I remind you, there are almost 300 of them) are standard, not quite thin, but not dense either, it is advisable to purchase card protectors.  Jagged Alliance: The Board Game - a game, as it seemed to me, with a low entry threshold, despite 40 pages of rules, the mechanics are still similar to similar games. But beginners will have to spend several hours studying the rules and delving into some subtleties of the game. In conclusion, I will say that fans of the Jagged Alliance series will get a unique board game of its kind, with nostalgia, a lot of game components, nice art and favorite characters. Of course, the game is primarily for fans of the JA series, and secondly for those who are tired of elves, dwarves, comic paratroopers, etc. fictional USEFUL LINKS Jagged Alliance: The Board Game on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/231553/jagged-alliance-board-game VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 The goal of the game in Horrified is to defeat all the monsters on the field. Your opponents can be Frankenstein's monster with his bride, a wolf man, Dracula, a mummy, an invisible man and an animal from the Black Lagoon. Each monster has its own unique abilities, and to defeat each of them you need to complete special tasks. On the easiest level of difficulty, you will face 2 monsters, on standard - 3, on the most difficult - 4.  At the start, players receive one of seven available heroes, as well as an advantage card. The hero card shows how many actions he can take per turn (most of them are 4), his special ability, and where he starts. An advantage card gives a one-time ability that can be used during any player's turn. A turn consists of a hero phase and a monster phase. After these two phases, the turn goes to the next player.  In the hero phase, you usually move around the field, collect items and use them in certain locations to gradually get closer to defeating the monsters. You can also move civilians around the map to keep them safe from monsters. Bringing a civilian to a safe location gives you an advantage card each time.  In the monster phase, you draw one monster card and follow the three-part instructions described there. First, the number at the top of the card indicates how many new items should be taken out of the bag and placed in the corresponding locations. Secondly, according to the event, either a new civilian will appear on the field, or a specific monster will be activated (if it is in the game). And finally, at the bottom of the map it is indicated whether any of the monsters in the game will move and attack.  After moving a monster, you first check if there is a hero or a civilian within its range. If so, you roll one or more attack dice. Faces with a hit symbol and a monster ability symbol promise unpleasant results. A civilian is removed from the game after being hit, and the terror level increases by one division. The hero can block the blow with items or absorb it, increase the level of horror by one division and move to the hospital. And the ability symbol activates the monster's special ability. To win, you need to defeat all the monsters. Defeat occurs when the fear level reaches 7 or when you need to draw a card from the monster deck and they have run out. PROS OF THE GAME Atmosphere is the main plus of the game for me. The setting of the game not only suits almost everyone, but also fits well with the mechanics of the game. Monsters, civilians, locations and even objects - all this is taken directly from the classic horrors from Universal. I like that each monster changes the game a bit, bringing something different, and that each combination of monsters on the field is a new puzzle that needs a different approach. Frankenstein and the bride are especially pleasing: you try to teach them to be human and at the same time try not to let them get together in the field so that they do not increase the horror. Horrified is very easy to learn and play. I had no problem teaching the game to someone who had never played board games. He pulled in after the first round. The game process is very smooth and not dizzying. You don't have to think about moves for a long time here, so everything flows quickly - and there is no downtime. All the components are beautiful, but the field is especially beautiful. Moreover, despite the many buildings and other drawings, all locations stand out and are not lost on the field. The rule book is simply excellent. CONS OF THE GAME I have nothing against the pick-up mechanic; yes, she is present in Black Orchestra and Freedom: The Underground Railroad co-ops, and looks very appropriate there. But, in my opinion, Horrified went too far with her. Of course, the position of heroes and monsters on the field matters, but my group has won many games by doing nothing but collecting items and bringing them to the right locations to defeat the monsters. We didn't even bother with rescuing civilians. There are almost no difficult decisions in Horrified. You can't predict where the monsters will move because their actions are dictated by cards drawn randomly at the end of your turn. Therefore, most of the game you just look for the necessary items or go to a location where they can be used. In my opinion, other Pandemic-inspired co-op games are more intense than Horrified, because you can predict with some degree of accuracy where trouble will be and try to put out any outbreaks in time. I found it strange that heroes can block monster attacks, but monsters attack heroes can't. In my opinion, it would be more interesting if the monsters had a way to dodge or parry your attack. Since all information in the game is open, there is a risk that your group will face an alpha player problem (where one player rules everything because he thinks he knows the best solutions). And another little thing: it's strange that the shirts of the hero cards are so inconspicuous. They wouldn't mind some illustrations, for example, from the box with the game. CONCLUSION  We didn't get Horrified. Although the game features my favorite Universal horror monsters and is beautifully illustrated, the gameplay is too monotonous for me, and even the games where we narrowly won were not very satisfying. Perhaps part of the problem is that we were expecting a tense rubilov with monsters, and we got a simple relaxing co-op. While I didn't enjoy Horrified, many others may find the game to be a hit. Especially for lovers of frivolous cooperatives. It has an interesting setting, and the game is very easy to learn, so Horrified is perfect for the role of gateway and/or family. USEFUL LINKS Horrified on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282524/horrified VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 Dwellings of Eldervale is a grand Euro with a heavy Ameri admixture. It is clear that the author tried to create a hit that used the best principles of boards, and in many ways he succeeded.  The main game mechanic is the banal exhibition of workers, but done in an unusual way. First, workers (after the first) are placed in locations only in the neighborhood of their other workers, which forces you to think over the plan of future moves in advance. Second, each worker has unique properties: wizards ignore the neighborhood rule, dragons fly and are strong in combat, warriors can start spreading immediately from battle, and villagers can be turned into houses. Transform in the literal sense, defying them from above the roof. Moreover, each of the 16 factions gives unique properties to units. Thirdly, the most interesting thing: often the display of workers starts battles - with monsters or rivals, or even with all of them at once. Battles in the game are made very gambling: players throw dice according to the amount of their strength, but the player whose one dice showed the greatest value wins. You can't reroll, so even a frail peasant has a chance to defeat a monster or an opponent's army. It's very intense and fun! Well, it's not fun for everyone - it's sad for the loser. However, the game is not push-your-luck: the reward for winning a battle is not so great, and the units of the loser will be returned to him for free. It is entirely possible to beat the game without winning a single battle. Cards are an important part of the game. They are interesting and diverse, in particular, there are many unpleasant surprises for opponents. Many cards are laid out on the table and later workers returning from the field can be placed there. By the way, a unique point: frequently obtained treasure tokens can not only be dropped for the specified reward, but also placed on the map by pumping its bonus. You can significantly strengthen some cards with spheres, although it is much more difficult to get spheres. Despite the randomness of dice and card output, the game remains a complex euro with a lot to think about. Yes, players receive victory points for their maps and settlements depending on how advanced they are in the element. By the way, you can advance in only 4 out of 8 elements, so it is worth acting in "non-core" elements only to cut the opponent. Another question of strategy is whether to put all the workers on the field or to perform the return action early. When "regrouping", the player can place any workers returning from the field on their cards, which gives powerful bonuses, especially if you buy several useful cards. However, there is a risk that evil rivals will kill your workers. They will also return to the player's supply, but without putting them on the cards. When reading the rules, it may seem that Dwellings of Eldervale is a game overloaded with rules and nuances. However, this is not the case: the rules in the game are of medium complexity, and it takes relatively little time to explain them. For example, there are only 6 types of locations, and their actions are simple: take cards, treasure tokens, hire a new employee, etc. The difficulty may only be the text on the maps for those who do not speak English well, as the game is not localized. I would like to note separately the excellent design of the game, detailed figures of monsters, convenient organizers and even the presence of sound design in the form of stands for monsters that make sounds. But it's in the deluxe edition.  In general, there are very few games that combine a mixture of Euro and American - only "Champions of Midgard" and "Above and Belove" come to mind. However, Dwellings of Eldervale is much bigger, more dynamic and more interesting than this game. For me, it is one of the best board games. I would like to stop at such sweet words, but since the article has not been paid for, I cannot but insert a spoonful of tar. Unfortunately, many players have limited impressions about the game and it will not suit everyone. Euro fans will cringe when their carefully planned strategy is overturned by one bad roll of the dice, and some will be put off by the aggressive interaction between players. American players, who have learned to withstand the variability of randomness, may find the game too difficult. I would recommend the game to those who like to think about strategy, but at the same time are ready to play as a fan and feel the excitement of cube battles. There are no direct analogues of the board, but the game reminded me of a mixture of "Champions of Midgard" and "Blood Rage". Anyone who likes these games should also like Dwellings. USEFUL LINKS Dwellings of Eldervale on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271055/dwellings-eldervale VIDEO REVIEWS ..