Note : This review contains no plot spoilers. The review mentions the plot, but without specific details.  I will start, of course, with the appearance and components. The "Book of Miracles" can be called amazing without exaggeration. 3D elements are beautiful, strong and functional (more on that below). In addition to colorfully painted cardboard, there are also good miniatures and cubes. So at first glance, the game is very attractive, and it helps to immerse yourself in the story that is being told.  As for the basic mechanics, you can get used to it in a few moves. Heroes have essentially four options for action: move, interact with certain locations, fight enemies or use special abilities. Everything is very simple, moves do not take much time. However, the heroes need to act together and coordinate. Where to go, which enemy to attack, when to use a special ability are all important decisions; especially the use of sparks, which occur quite rarely. Moreover, the gameplay is not reduced to "go and kill enemies", and this is good considering that "The Book of Wonders" is intended to be played with children. Enemies often distract you from a truly important task, and you will not only have to deal with them, but also complete the task.  And they are very diverse. During the course of the campaign, you will encounter various tasks: from find-and-bring to sieges and battles with bosses. Each section feels unique, as it has its own special rules that, while not turning the gameplay upside down, add something fresh that keeps players interested. And three-dimensional elements are used very creatively; For example, the game has a challenge of dexterity, which delivers a lot of fan.  In total, the six-chapter campaign takes a moderate amount of time, so the interest in the game will most likely not die out in your game cell. There is leveling in the campaign, so you will have several options to improve your character, which are very cliche by the way (tank, berserker, marksman and healer). This helps to adjust them to your preferred play style. All of the mechanics listed above are easy to master, so the result is a simple and fan-friendly game for casuals and families.  However, there are, unfortunately, disadvantages that spoil the positive aspects described above. How critical they are to you is up to you. To begin with, a small nitpick: there are unclear points in the rules. What does "hero phase ends" mean? Can every character that hasn't descended yet be descended, or does the current round end immediately? "You need a spark to interact with this card" - do you need to spend it or just have it? We interpreted the rules in our own way, but an official explanation would not hurt. It is also worth noting that the parts (with the exception of the introductory section) took us 1.5-2 hours, which I feel is a bit excessive. Not sure if there are so many parents sitting around playing with small children. They may have to split their heads in two.  Another gripe is the unequal distribution of important skills between the four characters in the party. Personally, we thought that Ken and Sid were much stronger than Lara and Tina. Killing enemies, generating sparks, and supporting other characters are very valuable abilities, unlike Lara's and Tina's abilities, which feel very situational. More often than not, they couldn't do anything useful with the remaining actions, because either the other characters had already cleared all the enemies, or the interesting locations were too far away.  But there are also more serious disadvantages. First, the development of the plot.  The second serious drawback is the large amount of randomness. Battles are fought on dice, each dice has a 50% chance of success. You can roll one die per turn, two successes are required to defeat an average enemy. Only enemies do not roll dice, but deal damage automatically. This speeds up the gameplay a bit, but since the behavior of the enemies is dictated by the randomly drawn cards, situations often arise when the heroes lose consciousness without having time to do anything. And the special actions available at the expense of items and special rights are often extremely situational and sometimes completely useless. Often, a series of bad throws and bad cards radically changed the situation on the field and even led to defeat. If it happens once or twice, it can only be annoying, but when it happens regularly—your fate is decided by bad luck, not tactics—it's frustrating. Moreover, in each section there is at least one mechanic, clearly designed to help unlucky heroes; apparently, the authors noticed the problem, but did not do anything about it.  All in all, I'm not entirely sure what The Book of Wonders is trying to be: an interactive story with gameplay elements bolted on, or a dungeon crawler for kids with story elements? For the first one, the plot is weak, and replaying the campaign is unlikely to be interesting - it's all the same. For the second, there is obvious overproduction, and individual chapters are too long for young children to have the patience to sit through to the end. USEFUL LINKS Wonder Book on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/340237/wonder-book   VIDEO REVIEWS ..

Hello friends, We are glad to announce that already today we are getting the super hit Carcassonne in Ukrainian and the not-so-hit Code Names in pictures. Both games will be in the store after 19oo, but we are already opening the possibility to order these games in our online store. In addition, we received a lot of everything, please contact :)..

 If you've heard of Voidfall and aren't sure if it's worth picking up, I'll try to help you out with that dilemma. I immediately invested in the kickstarter campaign and already played about 25 test games. The main advantage of Voidfall: it is a game from Mindclash. The main downside of Voidfall: it's a Mindclash game. As for the game's components, they are of excellent quality, as expected from Mindclash. Plus additional goodies for invested bakers: the ability to replace several types of tokens with metal coins.  However, I will probably immediately go to the description of the shortcomings that may make you abandon the purchase. The main potential problem for a beginner is information overload. If the same company's in-development Septima is (from what I've heard) an attempt at a frivolous game, Voidfall is the exact opposite: an attempt at a Twilight of the Empire-level cosmic 4-X deck. In training mode, players are limited to 4 symmetrical factions that differ only in starting technologies, but in a full-fledged party of players, as many as 14 factions (Houses) are expected - and each of the 10 inactive in training mode has its own characteristics and its own style of play. Plus scenarios with different rules, plus two starting layouts for each House, plus up to 28 different technologies that can be mixed... all this can send a newbie into a stupor. Personally, for me, who fell in love with Mindclash games after buying Anachronism, this is not a problem, but this factor cannot be ignored.  Another potential problem is the cooperative mode. In some games, cooperative modes are easier than competitive ones. Everyone works together, so it becomes easier to seat a newcomer at the table: he does not have to play against the rest. Voidfall is different. The co-op mode here is closer to Arkham Horror / Ancient Horror: the game constantly pressures you, and one wrong move or bad card can upset the entire strategy and potentially lead to a loss. Also, the co-op mode is a bunch of extra pages of text with rules and mechanics that are not present in the competitive mode. They are quite thematic and fit into the setting, but they can be overloaded out of habit. Before trying the co-op mode, you need to make sure that at least one of the participants knows the rules well to avoid mistakes, and be prepared that it will not be easy. Again, some tabletop gamers like myself like these heavyweight games, but this factor cannot be ignored.  If you haven't lost interest in Voidfall yet, I'll tell you more about the competitive mode (and then the co-op mode). The field here is hexagonal, with a layout that depends on the scenario. For the most part, the placement of players is symmetrical, except for some unique tiles that can be further or closer (balanced by other unique tiles). The game is divided into three rounds. Each round starts with an event (1 of 3 possible for this scenario) that determines how many cards each player can play in the round. These cards are drawn from the player's hand of 8 cards (the 9th is added at the beginning of the second round). Each map has 3 sections; the player chooses which 2 of the 3 to activate. Cards are played in a circle: each player plays one card and chooses 2 sections (or can sacrifice a certain resource and activate all 3), after which the next player goes - and so on until everyone has played a certain number of cards. At the end of the round, each player receives an attack from the Wildborn NPC and potentially receives bonuses from the event if they meet the conditions listed there. At the end of the third round, points are counted - the one with the most wins.  In each scenario, the player can choose one of 3-4 different Houses, and each House has two starting layout options: a more economical one and a more militaristic one, which makes each scenario highly replayable and gives room for customization starting from the layout phase. There are a lot of opportunities in the competition mode. Certain Houses and scenarios encourage a certain style of play, but the variety of options available allows for many different strategies to succeed. Despite being competitive, the need to guard each sector through the attacks of the Wasteborn means that an economy-focused player can defend against an aggressive player with the distance separating them, and develop through construction, gaining more points for their not-so-large, but more developed holdings than an expansionist with large undeveloped holdings. And the corruption mechanic, which forces players to spend actions cleaning it up or risk penalties (like zero points from a corrupt sector), means you have to make even more difficult decisions each turn about what to play, and you're constantly thinking, "Eh , let's play one more card..." Every action is important and there are no unnecessary cards.  The co-op mode is based on the same basic rules, but here the hollows behave more diversely and pose a greater threat. Scenario cards here are completely different. New tiles and objectives appear that cannot be ignored. The choice of Houses is not limited by the scenario, unlike the competition mode, so players can choose optimal combinations that complement each other. There are also additional decks of cards that essentially give the Wasteborn an "action" at the start of each player's turn (and not just at the start of the event round). You have to respond to their activity or risk unpleasant consequences. Also, each player must now beat the Wasteborn's score at the end of the game or everyone loses. Unlike players who accumulate points throughout the game, the Wasteborn only score points at the end when counting VP, so the players' job is to deprive them of the opportunity to earn them, earning points themselves in the process. The balance of co-op depends on the scenario, but in general the Wasteborn score points from tiles that can be cleared from it through economic and military means. Therefore, in a cooperative mode, it is simply necessary to balance economic and military power, unlike in a competitive mode, where everyone can emphasize the economy, run to their corners and succeed. If your fleet is weak in co-op, then you will not be able to clear the field of ships and tiles of the Wasteborn, and they will score so many points that even the most optimized economists will not defeat them. It's true and backwards: you can't emphasize only the war, otherwise the Wasteborn will win at the expense of economic tiles.  In both modes, one of the main distinguishing features of the game is the lack of randomness. The set of available technologies and events is fixed and depends on the scenario. Although the order in which the three potential events appear (as well as the Wildborn cards in co-op) is formally random, it can be leveled. Completely deterministic battles are also a feature of Voidfall. As the game progresses, your fleet's strengths and modifiers will change, but you can always predict who will win the battle before it even begins. It's a breath of fresh air compared to games where your strategy depends on dice rolls. I hope my review has helped you decide if you need Voidfall. USEFUL LINKS Voidfall on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/337627/voidfall VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 The game is a small gray box with meeples of four colors, a deck of small cards, wooden coins and dice, and several cardboard tablets for scoring, for a tech tree per player, and for the three public actions. The cards contain possible actions (eight pieces), civilizations (34 pieces!) and wonders of the world (10 pieces). INITIAL GAME SCHEDULE We put a meeple on the division 0 of the winning points track. We choose five random maps of the wonders of the world, the rest will not be needed.  We reveal five cards from the deck of civilizations.  And in random order, we lay out eight action cards, placing above the first three tablets with three constantly available actions.  We give each player a technology tablet. We give out three coins to everyone, and one more to the first player (yes, yes, why so, it will become clear now). General appearance of the game at the beginning. Even the first player's token is visible. FLOW OF THE GAME Players take turns, and the active player performs all three phases listed below at once. The next player will have the same actions as the first player. Thus, the interaction in the game is limited and is reduced to competition for peoples and wonders of the world and - at times - to a comparison of military power, which is simply the number of shields on technologies and civilizations. 1. The choice of civilization The active player chooses any of the open civilization cards, places it in front of him and takes the number of meeples of his color drawn on it. At the beginning of the game, this step is mandatory (without minions - nowhere), in subsequent rounds it can be skipped. On the map of the people, in addition to the population, two characteristics are indicated. The upper one is active while the selected civilization is active. The bottom one will work the whole game.  If the player already has a civilization and he decides to take a new one, then he has two ways.  The first way : update the civilization. The new card is placed on top of the old one, leaving only the bottom property of the predecessor. The player leaves exactly as many meeples as are indicated on the new card. Almost like in "Small World".  The second way : to conquer a new civilization with its active people. The new card is placed under the active card so that only the bottom property of the subordinates is available. In this case, the player receives one meeple in addition to his own. Players place one coin on all four remaining nation cards. The money accumulated from the card will go to whoever chooses it later. A new civilization opens from the deck. The properties of nations are diverse. They improve standard actions, save money, add action cells, increase military power. Their combination is one of the advantages of the game. It is worth remembering that a player can have a maximum of four meeple and a maximum of three civilizations can be played. And there are six rounds in the game, and workers can easily die - see further. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a new people carefully. 2. Execution of actions The active player can now send his workers to available action cells in the classic style of worker placement. Unless, at the end of his turn, the player takes the miplov from the cells and blocks only himself from using the action again. Actions from the tablet above a row of action cards are always available to activate, and actions from the three cards below the tablet are also available. Some actions require sending two workers at once, many - additional payment in coins. Workers will not return to the player from some cells (red). Technologies can only be studied using the always-available Research action for four coins. Learned technologies are marked with cubes on the technology tablet. There are nine of them in total, the bottom three are available first, then the next ones will open according to the arrows. Almost like its big game brothers, only, of course, it's more of a stunted bush than a technology tree.  It is possible to pay seven coins and send the meeples to the red window of the Wonder of the World to choose any of the open Wonders of the World cards. They will give a one-time bonus or extra points at the end of the game. There are few meeples, they can be replenished only by upgrading the civilization, and as we remember, only three civilizations can be played, so the choice should be made difficult. Money is needed, because without it many actions are not available, but at the end of the game, coins are useless. Do I send my meeples for two coins irrevocably to the Enslave action, expecting to grab a Chinese card with four meeples at the start of the next round? But the ability of the Chinese is too weak. There are usually six to seven actions available, a maximum of four meeples, so the action phase flies by quickly. 3. Return of workers Finally, the player takes his workers from the action cells. From the white cells, the meeples return to the owner, from the red cells, they go to reset. Currently, these three phases are conducted by the next player. End of round When everyone has gone down, the first player's token is passed counter-clockwise. A tablet with always-available actions moves along a row of action cards to the right. The card that came out from under the faceplate on the left goes out of the game, but a new case begins. If it is a Mora card, all players lose a meeple. If there is a sword in the corner of the new map, then the players compare their military power, that is, simply the number of shields in their technologies and on the maps of nations. The weakest player in military terms loses a worker, if there are several of them, all the weaklings suffer. The sixth round, in which there is nowhere to move the tablet, is the last. We count the points and determine the winner! EXPERIENCE FROM THE GAME We only played the prototype, which looks grey. Maps are small, illustrations are minimal. But all the information is well presented, the infographic is clear, the game is very compact.  Age of Civilization does not compare and does not aim to compare with famous civilization building games. Having only coins and workers as resources, the player has to squeeze the main thing out of his subjects in six rounds - victory points. We have exhausted the current civilization, we are finding a new one. Too bad you can only get three, you have to hold back and plan. And this is the beauty of the game — in a short time and in a combination of the simplest actions, a lot of interesting game decisions are made that affect the entire course of the fight. It is interesting to select a "combo" of the properties of peoples and technologies, choosing between a card with a large number of workers and a card with a good property is difficult and therefore interesting. Yes, sometimes a strong combination of civilizations can come out and someone can easily win thanks to it, but the brevity of the party does not give this problem. The constant diversity of the game is also worth noting. Both the variety from party to party due to the large number of people cards and the random sequence of actions, and the variety within the party - each round one action goes and a new one is added. USEFUL LINKS Age of Civilization on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264647/age-civilization Age of Civilization on the Game Theory portal https://tg.in.ua/boardgames/1893/age-civilization VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 Board games have a significant drawback: you need to allocate time and space for them, as well as gather the appropriate company. It is problematic to play a game even at a fast table when you are standing in a traffic jam, riding a bus or having a snack. Mobile versions of your favorite games come to the rescue. In this selection, I have collected 10 board games for iOS that I personally liked, do not require an Internet connection, and play well for one player. The selection is purely subjective, and the article is informative. 10. Neuroshima Hex! Not only the desktop, but also the digital version of the game became a classic. Many factions are fighting in the ruins of post-apocalyptic America. These are the supercomputer Moloch (which destroyed the old world), the remnants of the military, and gangs of savages. All factions have their own sets of combat units and orders and generally feel different. In terms of gameplay, this is a quick and simple wargame with a random arrival of cards into the hand. All players take turns fielding soldiers and applying orders until a battle card is played. At this moment, the Mexican duel begins - and usually it becomes more free on the field. Each side has a base of 20 health, whoever has more HP left at the end of the game wins. From 2 to 4 players fight, there are bots, it is possible to play from one phone and via the Internet. Some time ago, the creators of the digital version decided to upgrade, as a result, the graphics changed and only 4 basic factions remained. They promised to return the rest, and to those who bought it for free, but so far Steel Police and New York have returned it. 9. Mystic Vale In ninth place is a non-standard, but very nice deck building strategy. Each player initially has 20 cards, each slot with 3 upgrades. In 9, one of the slots is occupied by cursed earth (+1 to filth and +1 to mana), in 3 inserted by improvement +1 to mana and 8 are empty. This deck will be pumped by the players during the game. Laying out the cards is similar to the game "21", only you can't sort through the dirty ones. The player opens the cards one by one, for each withered tree icon on the map he receives +1 to filth, for each growing tree icon -1. The maximum amount of defilement is 3, if it is more - the move is missed. Everyone decides for themselves whether to risk or open new cards when taint = 3. Then we collect mana and runes from open cards and use them to buy inserts in cards and valley cards. The latter are bought for victory points or small effects and are laid out in front of the player until the end of the game, reminiscent of investments. Inserts into cards give more mana, more runes and victory points, and the deck is pumped. There is really no interaction between players, there is no need to follow the progress of other players. The account is always on the screen, the card market is small, and if rivals bought something, new cards will simply be added. For a board game — a significant minus, for the electronic version digging in one's own deck the whole game is not so terrible. The pictures are pleasant (they even move when hovered over), the process is meditative and relaxing. From the minuses, the parts are quite similar to each other, there is nothing memorable here, not even close There are two paid expansions to the game that add new maps, hero mechanics, and amulets. If the process has started, it is worth looking closely, otherwise there are not so many cards in the database and they will quickly get boring. 8. Potion Explosion We arrange explosions, cook potions, become the best student. A fairly simple game, more on attentiveness, although a little logic will not hurt. Each turn we get one ball, higher balls fall down. If balls of the same color collide, they also fall into our cauldron, and other balls fall into the vacated place. We pour potions from the cauldron, we get points, and the potions themselves can be used to get the necessary balls. 2-4 players participate, you can play with one phone. It is worth noting the high level of bot play: it is interesting to play against them and it is not always possible to win. A little variety is added by the choice of 6 types of potions out of 8 possible, although you don't really go wild here. The application allows you to choose up to two professors who give indulgences to students or punish them for neglecting components. A new white essence is added, which plays the role of a joker both when collecting components and when brewing potions. There are also 4 new recipes, we are already choosing 6 out of 12 potions per batch. 7. The Castles of Burgundy It's time for a classic euro about the Middle Ages. From 2 to 4 participants rebuild the duchy. Each turn, the player throws 2 dice, these are his actions, and there will be 25 such throws in total, that is, 50 actions per game. For example, a 4 was rolled on the die, we can: take a token from market position 4 into reserve; place a token from the supply on the area with the number 4; sell goods with the number 4 from stock; take two workers (the value of the cube does not matter). Each worker can adjust the die by ±1, which reduces the impact of randomness. Reduces, but does not completely eliminate, and here every move is important. Tokens please with variety, each with its own effect, especially yellow ones, which give a bonus until the end of the game and set the vector of development. The release of tiles on the market also has elements of randomness: one of the players collects chickens, and the other sheep, and what will appear for sale in the next rounds - you can't guess. In general, the rules are quite simple, and there is a good training, after which there should be no questions. As a result, we have a sound euro, without long calculations in advance, with a large influence of chance. The competition for tokens and goods is intense throughout the game, the bots play at a very decent level. You can complain a little about the pale design, but you get used to it in one game. 6. Small World I have to admit that I adore this game. The combination of simple gameplay, high replayability, excellent scalability and low turn waiting time is a rarity for games of this genre. My personal preference is the design: feral hobbits, elf flower children, beer-swilling dwarves - it's a pleasure to look at. Before the game, two stacks are shuffled: races of peoples and abilities of peoples, the combination of which gives many combinations. So nomadic ghouls, diplomatic orcs or heroic rats can turn out. Since the world is really small, there will not be enough room for everyone and conflict is inevitable. It is worth noting that bots play quite aggressively, but, unlike live players, they are not offended by attacks and do not sweep the game off the table. Conflicts inevitably undermine the fighting potential of the chosen people, but no problem: a weakened race can be put into decline and a new one can be chosen by missing a turn. For additional money, there are 5 mini-additions to the game, but unfortunately, they only add new races and abilities. No "Riverlands", "Sky Islands", "Necromancer Islands" or "Leaders" were imported. However, the game is great even with computer opponents (though with live people it's even better). 5. Terraforming Mars One of the most famous Eurogames, flattered by both critics and the most ordinary players. The bottom line is that several corporations (by the number of players) are terraforming the red planet, namely creating oceans, green zones, raising the temperature, building cities. Each corporation has its own specialization: one skillfully builds mines, another is better at planting forests, the third specializes in expensive projects, and so on. The arrangement of Mars occurs by drawing cards of projects that differ in cost and effect; yes, the card allows you to reserve one cell for future construction, it costs 1 credit, to build a power plant - 8 credits, and Open City - 23. Many projects give profit in the long run, for example, Migrant City costs money, but it does not bring profit, but it increases your income when any player builds a city. And pets give victory points for built by all players of the city. We add a project that gives 2 credits for each new city on Mars, and we get the rest of the party passive income. It is on such simple combinations that the well-being of the corporation is built. You can play on the same phone, with bots or online - and unfortunately, all three options have a cover. When playing from one phone, the already slow game takes a long time, and I'm not a fan of this process. But it doesn't compare to playing online. All my opponents thought about each move for an incredibly long time - and I wanted not to win, but to end this torture. Having played three games online, I am not going to repeat this experience again. Well, bots... when you start playing, they are normal, then, unfortunately, they have few chances to win. Only the Prologue application has been released for the game, and it is strictly recommended for purchase, allowing you to choose 2 of the 4 proposed powerful and free projects at the start, which speeds up the boring start. Well, the new corporations and the solo mode, in which you need to colonize Mars alone, will not be superfluous. 4. One Deck Dungeon Next we have a cube puzzle. Although the name of the game, classes of heroes, names of skills and monsters will try to mislead you and pretend to be a dungeon crawler, you should immediately understand that the adventures here are tight, but the tasks, on the contrary, are good. Before the game, we choose the dungeon we will go to (they differ in overall difficulty and the final boss, the rank-and-file enemies in the deck are the same) and 1-2 heroes. If the hero is alone, he is almost twice as..

TINY EPIC PIRATES BOARD GAME REVIEW  The Tiny Epic series has almost every popular setting – from zombies and fantasy to westerns and space – so it was only a matter of time before a pirate game appeared. In Tiny Epic Pirates , your goal is to outrun rival pirate captains and be the first to bury three treasure chests. By moving the figure of your captain on the spinning wheel, you will choose actions, collect goods, sell them and bury the received gold in the appropriate places.  On your turn, you move your captain 1 or more divisions depending on how many meeple sailors you are willing to allocate to move him. After your ship takes a move action, you activate the action you selected on the roundel: Robbery : If you are in the same location as a city, you can draw 1-2 (depending on which location) goods tokens from the goods bag and put them on your ship. Selling : If you are in the same location as a merchant that is interested in the type of goods you have, you can sell any number of goods of that type and receive gold based on their current price. After that, this type of goods is sent to the lower part of the goods track and its price is reduced to a minimum. Quests : If you are in the same location as a quest token, flip it over and receive the specified reward. These can be resources (gold or goods) or tokens with a one-time bonus to future actions. Team Recruiting : Take 1 of the 3 Team Member Cards offered. Each of them gives some kind of bonus when you do certain actions and increases the damage done in battle. Attack : If you are in the same location as another ship (merchant NPC or another player), roll a number of dice equal to your attack parameter. Each match with one of the values listed on your captain and team members cards means 1 hit. Whoever has more hits wins. If you beat the merchant, you will receive his goods and the bonuses indicated on his card. If you beat another player, move 1 space on the glory track and activate the effects marked there, if any.  The action you choose can also be enhanced by the effects of your crew members and meeple sailors. Yes, if there are meeples in the rigging, you get bonus movement points, and if there are meeples near the guns, you deal extra damage. The last action, located at the top of the pan, is to hide in the lair. If you are in the same location with an empty lair, move there, remove all sailor meeples from all positions and redistribute them as you see fit. At first glance, this is a rather pointless action, but it is often useful. When you completely go around the rondel, a warship will sail in your direction. If he successfully swims to you and you are not in hiding, then you automatically lose the battle and 2 of your meepla sailors go to repair the ship. They become unavailable until you re-enter the lair. This is the basis of the gameplay, but there are many nuances here, and together the game leaves an ambiguous impression. Most of the players in our cell felt like they were playing more like a thieving merchant than a pirate. Indeed, it feels like you spend a large part of the game playing fetch. The most stable way to make money is to engage in robbery and attack merchants as often as possible, selling trophy goods when a decent amount is collected. While the game clearly tries to encourage players to fight, there's almost no point in attacking opponents, since (unlike an NPC with its fixed attack parameter) winning a fight with a player who also rolls dice is too random. Also, while progressing through the fame track gives useful bonuses, it's very difficult to progress (unless players are actively destroying merchants, resulting in more dangerous merchants that also gain fame).  The oversaturation of random is much more unpleasant. Let's start with the fact that the rondels are randomized at the start; they are different for all players. Because of this, a player with a good placement of actions on the rondel has a much higher chance of winning. Goods are drawn randomly from the bag. The team members card is one of three randomly available at the moment; they are not all equal. When attacking, the die determines whether you win or lose...which can result in you losing the game. Yes, there are aiming fire tokens here that allow you to set a chosen value on the die, but they are not easy to get unless you have lost the fight. But in this case, you are already behind. I've had to play games where my opponent was pulling very valuable items one after the other, selling and burying the treasure with no problem, while I couldn't pull a single decent token. Although low-value chips can also be used to collect treasure, this game is all about speed, so whoever gets the early lead is likely to win easily. Yes, you can attack the enemies, but they only get rid of the meeple-sailor for a while, which goes for repairs. So you can't stop the one who broke ahead, unless you're very lucky.  The map also suffers from randomness. At the start, all locations are randomly placed on the map. Some of them have storms. When entering a location with a storm, the player is forced to send a meepla-sailor for repairs, which makes it difficult to achieve the set goal. Depending on the schedule, storms can hurt newbies/careless players a lot, especially if they don't have free meeples. Yes, some team member cards allow you to ignore the storm penalty, but this clearly shows how unbalanced some of the team member cards are. Admittedly, these are specific to the Crimson Silver mini-dope, but they still show that the availability of certain cards at certain times can make or break the game for you. I really wanted to love Tiny Epic Pirates like Galaxies, Quest and Zombies in the past. But a lot of design decisions harm the atmosphere of the game. You feel more like a merchant than a pirate. The mechanics are chaotic and inconsistent. The winner usually wins by a wide margin. Those looking for a low-key filler might get a kick out of Tiny Epic Pirates, but in my opinion, any of the Tiny Epic games listed above are better than this one. And if you want a game about pirates, then Libertalia, although it is very different from Tiny Epic Pirates, in terms of feelings, conveys the atmosphere of managing a pirate team much better. CONCLUSIONS  Tiny Epic Pirates is a game for those who want to relax in the company of friends while throwing dice. It is a bit difficult for casual players, but it can be suitable for players who care less about points and victory than about blowing up their friends' ships. USEFUL LINKS Tiny Epic Pirates on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/309430/tiny-epic-pirates Tiny Epic Pirates on the Game Theory portal https://tg.in.ua/boardgames/65676/tiny-epic-pirates VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 We will talk not only about the novelties of the world of board games. Veterans of this hobby also deserve to be told and shown about them). So today we have the strategy game Mare Nostrum in its first edition).  Mare Nostrum is a strategy game in which ancient civilizations (Rome, Babylon, Carthage, Greece, Egypt) fight for power over the Mediterranean. To do this, they produce soldiers and ships (and eventually monsters), build markets and found cities to produce more resources.  The victory of the nation is brought by the purchase of heroes and/or wonders of the world. They are represented by cards that give the owner some special bonus. According to the standard rules, the first to buy a total of 4 heroes and/or wonders of the world wins. An alternative way to victory is to build pyramids: this is also a wonder of the world, the most expensive in the game.  Each round begins with a trading phase. Nations collect all available resources (by taking goods and money cards, depending on the number of relevant buildings), then begin trading. The holder of the Master Trader title chooses how many cards will be put up for trade, and all nations must put up the appropriate amount of resources. The process of trading is like a tableau: one player chooses a resource from another player, then that player also chooses a resource, etc. Trading continues until the commodity cards run out.  There is no such freedom of negotiation as in "Colonizers". Only negotiations like: "If you take this product from me, I will take it from you in return." It turns out a very interesting hand management: you need to try to plan in advance what resources to mine, while paying attention to what resources other players are trying to collect.  After everyone has collected piles of newly acquired wealth, it's time to part with them in the construction phase. In this phase, nations build armies, buildings, and buy heroes and wonders of the world. During the construction phase, you have to make difficult decisions that can result in victory or defeat. On the one hand, new houses are needed for economic growth. On the other hand, troops are needed for their defense. Thirdly, for victory, one cannot do without heroes and wonders of the world. Maintaining a balance between these is difficult. When playing with the add-on, you can also make sacrifices to the gods for a one-turn bonus. Then the most interesting part begins - the combat phase: land and sea battles. Combat is simple: each combatant rolls as many dice as he has units. The total result is divided by 5 (rounding down). The final figure = how many soldiers the enemy lost. For example, if your three soldiers rolled a 3, 4, and 5—a total of 12—then your opponent has lost two soldiers.  I find battles to be a very exciting part of the game. Battles are simple, but not boring thanks to the existence of special units and passive abilities. If you ignore the troops, you will grow the economy quickly, but are very vulnerable to looting and invasions. If you focus on conquests, there may be problems with income, although you can potentially benefit greatly from capturing buildings built by others.  After a simple calculation of the result of the battle, you are given an interesting choice (if the opponent has no one left): Annex the territory, which is more useful in the long run, but requires payment for the annexation + the opponent will still have time to receive one income from the houses. Or occupy buildings: the territory still belongs to the enemy, but your economy immediately rises. Or demolish one of his buildings: the benefit is relatively small, but the enemy suffers significantly. All in all, an interesting choice between short-term and long-term benefits.  I especially like how Mare Nostrum allows turn order. It is determined by one of the players, namely the holder of the corresponding title in each of the phases. To get the title, you need to achieve certain achievements: having the most troops, the most cities and temples or markets and caravans. And receiving these titles has far-reaching strategic consequences. For example, determining the order of construction, you get the opportunity to build yourself the last houses of the corresponding type (all players have a common limit of buildings). Or, on the contrary, give the opponents the first move, see what they will build, and react accordingly. An experienced player will pay attention even to the conflicts of nations at the other end of the map and try to establish such a turn order that they engage in an expensive arms race. For the same reasons, it is very important and fun to correctly manage the determination of the sequence of moves in the phase of military operations. Arrange everything so that your enemies cripple each other, and then attack last and take all their wealth. I like resource management games combined with direct conflict, and at the heart of Mare Nostrum is resource management. They are necessary for obtaining heroes and wonders of the world, i.e. victory. Troops are needed only to strengthen and defend one's economy or harm the enemy. Attacking for the sake of attacking is, of course, fun, but it will not lead to success. Replayability is facilitated by the unique capabilities of nations. First, each nation has its own special hero that encourages a certain playstyle. Secondly, with the addition, each nation has its own mythical monster: these are the strongest units in the game, and with special abilities. In addition, nations become increasingly differentiated as they purchase heroes and wonders of the world that provide special abilities. In this way, you can create interesting and effective combinations; there is room for strategic decisions. Each nation plays in its own way, with its own strengths and weaknesses. Are these opportunities balanced? Mostly yes. Partly the balance drives the add-on, partly the players balance the game themselves. In addition, the constant victories of one nation are difficult due to the tendency of "all to beat the leader". In general, the game leaves a very pleasant feeling. The tension is high, the decisions are difficult and interesting, and the emotional payoff is very gratifying. You don't have to be bored at the table.  Despite all that praise, I can't give Mare Nostrum a 10 out of 10. While we've had great, near-perfect games, the weakness of the game is that those games don't happen every time. Many factors need to come together to create an epic experience. First of all, consider supplements as a must. It fixes a lot of problems and polishes the base, complementing it perfectly. Although, of course, it is more difficult for newcomers to learn due to the new rules, the price tag is also higher, especially considering that the game is no longer in production. With the addition, you can play with up to 6 participants. Base officially supports 3-5, but I've never seriously considered a 3 player game. I will not sit down to play with 4 again, most likely. 5 participants is an excellent option, but ideally 6 is better; this is how Mare Nostrum's potential is fully revealed. The fewer the participants, the less conflict, jostling, and drama, and the interplay of many nations' abilities. Secondly, the more experienced the players are - and it is desirable that all are equally experienced - the more interesting the games are. If players aren't familiar with each nation's unique abilities, their mythic monsters, and their hero and wonder maps, many interesting opportunities and strategies evaporate. Third, the ideal party in Mare Nostrum must play by the epic rules, which again require augmentation. According to the epic rules, pyramids are worth 13 resources instead of 12, and heroes need 5 to win instead of 4. In my opinion, it should be played this way and only this way. Otherwise, the game will end at the most interesting and tense place. During the game in Mare Nostrum, as in a good book, the tension should build gradually. At first, nations grow and develop, begin to collide at the borders. Their economies are growing, there is an opportunity to produce large armies. Heroes/wonders of the world are being bought = the stakes are getting higher and higher. If you play by the standard rules, it will all be over early. In one of our parties, all the nations were preparing for war and an epic massacre was about to break out... when suddenly someone bought the pyramids and it was over. Even the winner was disappointed by the wasted potential. Since then, we have only played by the epic rules. Their obvious disadvantage is the increased duration of the games. So the hardest thing about Mare Nostrum is getting the conditions right for a great party. The pendulum swings between "mediocre dreary party" and "posh pastime". But if the stars do align, then your efforts will more than pay off, and you will not regret the time spent. USEFUL LINKS Mare Nostrum on the BGG portal https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3931/mare-nostrum Mare Nostrum on the Game Theory portal https://tg.in.ua/boardgames/1377/mare-nostrum VIDEO REVIEWS ..

REVIEW OF THE GAME 7 WONDER: ARCHITECTS 7 Wonders: Architects is the last game in the 7 Wonders universe. The game is based on the inexhaustible imagination of Antoine Bose, where the architects build his 2010 epic "7 Wonders". Despite the 2015 two-player edition, 7 Wonders: Duel , and the recent re-release of the original, Bosa went back to the drawing board to create yet another version of the ancient world. LET'S DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF 7 WONDER  7 Wonders: Architects is very simple. The box contains seven individually sealed containers, one for each of the available Wonders. Each container contains a deck of cards with a convenient plastic holder and a set of five double-sided wonder of the world cardboard pieces. One side depicts the Miracle under construction, the other the finished masterpiece. Each player receives one such miracle and places their deck of vodka cards between themselves and the player to their left and lays out the miracle on their unfinished side.  Common elements of the game are placed in the center of the table. A deck of cards is shuffled. The stack of Scientific Progress reward tokens is shuffled and three tokens are laid face down. According to the number of players, several double-sided Conflict tokens are placed on their peaceful side. Finally, a stack of military advantage tokens completes the general area. All the cards in the game have the same symbols and colors as in the original 7 Wonders , only with a more playful style of illustrations. Each turn, players choose a card from either the two face decks on either side, or the face decks from the deck in the center. The card is placed face up in front of you. If a particular set is completed, players must exchange cards for that set's reward. A miracle is built from scratch by assembling sets of the same or different building materials. As each part of the miracle is flipped, the completed structure takes shape, revealing its unique features and abilities. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus lets you draw an extra card from the center deck twice, while the Lighthouse at Alexandria lets you pick a card from any deck on the table. Sections of the Pyramid of Giza simply bring more victory points, the Colossus of Rhodes has additional military power. Abilities are varied and can be used in different ways to achieve victory. Yellow cards bring gold, which is a universal building material. Green science cards are collected in pairs or sets of three unique symbols to collect progress tokens from the center. These tokens either give extra points at the end of the game or provide unique abilities during the game. One symbol will allow you to take an additional card, the other allows the player to ignore the conditions of the building material when building a miracle.  Blue cards bring victory points and can bring the blessing of the Cat. A player with a Cat chip can look at the center card face down at the start of their turn before deciding which card to take - a major advantage! Combine this advantage with the two-point bonus at the end of the game, which also comes with the Cat token, and this little feline will remain a popular commodity throughout the game. Finally, red cards indicate military power. Each war card contains a shield and the number of shields determines the advantage when the war starts. Some military maps also have one or two horns. For each horn collected, players transfer one Conflict token from the peaceful side to the less friendly combatant side. When each token shows its combat side, a war begins and players receive tokens based on their military strength difference. After a battle, any card with a horn is discarded, and shields without horns are saved for future battles. When one player finishes their miracle, the game is over. Points are accumulated from miracles, blue cards, science tokens, military rewards and that damn Cat. A REAL WONDERS 7 Wonders: Architects is a simplified cousin of the original. Instead of playing cards from their hands, players choose cards from several adjacent stacks of cards. Instead of a constant fee, cards are continuously bought, opened and exchanged for rewards. Instead of a temporary military conflict, players repeatedly push each other to the brink of war. And because of all this, mysterious miracles come to life before everyone's eyes.  To be honest, we really love the original 7 Wonders . This is one of those rare games that can entertain seven as easily as three, as long as the table can support the weight of an endless horde of cards. We like 7 Wonders: Duel and its simplistic head-to-head combat mechanics. We tend to enjoy this title and believe that this series will bring more than one game for us. Architects is a game that can easily be played multiple games back-to-back faster than the original. But speeding up the gameplay does not reduce the number of interesting decisions in the game. Instead, each decision is interesting and purposeful. Progress tokens and miraculous powers decorate the game and serve as harbingers of the end. Constantly flipping conflict tokens create incredible tension as players prepare for war. And while the player can't often win the original 7 Wonders, having a purely military bent, Architects lets loose the hooligans who want to make good money from conflicts. The illustrations for Architects are obviously more playful and pleasant and will definitely appeal to children).  It's difficult for us to rate the various 7 Wonders series , but the willingness to do so is a testament to the relevance of these games. Antoine Bosa has created a whole world of several titles that do not make each other obsolete. They are talking about ranking, not replacement (again, apart from the whole reprint thing). For players who love the 7 Wonders universe, this is a game for any social environment that captures a unique aspect of the experience. USEFUL LINKS Game 7 Wonders: Architects on the portal BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/346703/7-wonders-architects Game 7 Wonders: Architects on the Game Theory portal https://tg.in.ua/boardgames/114129/7-wonders-architects  VIDEO REVIEWS ..

 There are many studies that prove that music in video games improves immersion and performance. The choice of music depends on the genre in which you play: music in a fighting game and in civilization are very different. In the first case, it is aimed at speed and dynamism, in the second it is slightly different from music for board games, which I will talk about later. You can see for yourself. Try turning off the music in Cuphead and it suddenly goes from fast and chaotic to very tactful and slow.  And how about board games? A lot depends on the people you play with. For some people, the game itself is a background for a loud conversation, and therefore the music will be superfluous. This group includes people who don't listen to music, and the game itself is enough for them to immerse themselves. Fewer people believe that music is only needed in big and atmospheric games. Only a few regularly play music. So which games can you play music in? First of all, we reject abstracts. If your entire game consists of conventional meeples or figures, it doesn't matter what you put in the background, because the game doesn't rely on immersion, you need to focus on the process. Most of the time this will be true, but in England it has been recorded that rock music impairs concentration while playing. The participants of the study played "Operation" - a game in which you need to use tweezers to remove bones from a voluminous man. Interestingly, much stronger rock music distracts men. This leads us to believe that music in games works in the same way as music while working. There are many such studies, most of them adhere to the principle that classical and slow music helps us think, and dynamic and loud music encourages movement. But this does not answer the question of immersion in the game, which I want to consider in more detail. My friends and I were playing "Dead Season" once, and the ambient music that someone had put together was playing in the background. In the track, disturbing music played softly, the winds howled and sometimes you could hear the crunch of snow. Zombies occasionally growled. And so the player decides to move from a location to a location without gasoline and rolls a damage die. "Death" drops out, and at the same moment zombies start growling in the track. We made our way to the ants. How to make music an element of the game that will affect the process? There are several types of companies. The first to select a musical team on the theme of the game. This approach affects the process in the same way as in the experience with "Operation". But if you make the music quieter and in the background, the impact will be less. Sometimes such players play music at the beginning of the game to set the mood, but when they get into the process, they turn off the music so as not to distract. This technique is popular in role-playing games, but we are still taking them out of parentheses. This approach affects the gameplay, but probably changes the balance. Others choose a thematic environment. If fantasy, we put folk. If it's a western, we play soundtracks from movies about cowboys. Players who try this approach for the first time say that playing becomes more fun and more atmospheric. If the ambient is assembled from sound effects, as in the example with "Dead Season", then the best immersion is noted. This approach works for immersion, but won't work for games without a theme. Will work well on large and medium games. Still others make a mixed selection that reflects the theme of the game and its mood. For example, this resource contains playlists for almost any game. Ambients are rarely found there, most often works selected for the game. This approach can include original music for specific games. On "Melodice" in playlists you can find music written for specific games, for example "Tribes" or Shadows of Brimstone. In my opinion, this is the best option, but it requires additional training. It can be summarized that: Music in games affects our intellectual activity. It is better not to include it when playing abstracts and games with a large number of variables. Music in themed games enhances immersion. When preparing a game night, we recommend choosing a themed playlist. Music in games is optional. Better to ask your company if they want to include it.  Somehow we will try to play the same game several times with appropriate, foreign and atmospheric music and see how the perception of the game changes. Until then, enjoy the exciting games!..

TERRAFORMING MARS IN A NEW WAY For a long time now, we have been going around and around with the question: is life possible on Mars? There is a whole separate subgenre in science fiction where the Earth is dying at our own hands. Think of climate change, human depletion of raw materials and nuclear war... Wait, all this is already very close to the same science "fiction"... Since humanity takes everything for granted, there is a need to find an alternative "living" space in space. Finding a suitable place in an inexhaustible universe seems to be almost as difficult as finding a house for sale for first-time buyers in the Ukrainian housing market. Maybe Mars is an alternative to real estate in the center of Kyiv? Mars is a pretty stylish place, so you need to make it habitable first, and that's exactly what players will be doing in Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition . Will you be able to grow potatoes like the main character of the movie "The Martian" or will the lack of oxygen take your breath away? GOAL OF THE GAME Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is the younger brother of Terraforming Mars , one of the most popular expert games, the pinnacle of engine building games and the school of bad graphics and art. Like its big brother, in Ares Expedition , you and your fellow players will terraform Mars into a habitable planet. You must increase the oxygen content, make the temperature pleasant and create literally and figuratively oceans of water. The game will end as soon as there is enough oxygen, heat and water. The player with the most victory points wins the game. HOW TO TERAFORM THAT MARS? Each round takes place in several stages. Players can: build green cards, red or blue cards in your field; perform actions; produce resources; and conduct research. Playing cards costs credits, but you can earn discounts. Building green cards often allows players to gain more resources during the production phase. Red cards usually initiate direct actions, while blue cards contain effects or actions that can be activated, such as during the action phase. Sometimes the cards also contain victory points or the opportunity to gain victory points. With the action phase, players can perform actions on maps or cooperative actions, such as opening oceans, increasing oxygen, and collecting resources or money. During the production phase, players gain more money, cards, and resources based on the cards they play. During research, players can get new cards. The highlight of the phased game is that not all phases go through every round. At the start of a round, all players secretly choose a phase to play in that round. Players cannot choose the same phase they already chose in the previous round. All players now flip over the phases they chose, and these are the phases that all players can play this round. If two or more players choose the same phase, this does not mean that the phase will be completed twice, but it does mean that there will be fewer phases to complete in that round. Players who have selected a phase also receive a bonus during the selected phase. PHEW, MARS HAS BEEN TERRAFORMED, NOW YOU CAN GO TO THE EXPERIENCES We really like the idea of phase selection. This greatly increases the interaction between players. By choosing certain phases, you can cause trouble for other players. For example, you see that your opponents have neither money nor cards, so they cannot profit from card draws during phases 1 and 2. Also, by choosing certain phases, you can inadvertently help your fellow players. So think carefully about which phase will help you the most, but which phase will benefit your opponent the least.  Ares Expedition is also a great engine building game. It feels very smooth and intuitive to play. It's not a short game, but it's not annoyingly long either. With everyone pumping oxygen, heat, and water to Mars, the game is over sooner than you might think.  Ares Expedition is beautifully designed. A common criticism of Terraforming Mars is the incredibly ugly artwork (stock photos, professional illustrations, amateur drawings and sketches mixed together). Ares Expedition is beautifully illustrated and colorfully designed. However, the criticism is that the text on the maps often causes unnecessary confusion. This could have been avoided by sticking to the symbols for the most part, but perhaps the publisher didn't dare. The game components are also of very good quality, unlike the base game. The cards are nice to the touch, and the plastic dice are fine too, unlike the base game dice, which had paint peeling off before the film was even removed from the box.  Expedition "Ares surprised us a lot. It's a beautiful and enjoyable game that we think has a lot to offer both novice and experienced board players. USEFUL LINKS Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/328871/terraforming-mars-ares-expedition Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition on the Game Theory portal https://tg.in.ua/boardgames/113926/terraforming-mars-ares-expedition VIDEO REVIEWS ..