Today, many thousands of people play flash games dedicated to the development of personal virtual farms in various social Internet networks. They grow virtual crops, sell them, earning virtual money for the purchase of virtual equipment, seeds or elements of the exterior. Uwe Rosenberg's "Harvest Trilogy" (Agricola, Le Havre, At the Gates of Loyang) allows board game lovers to do almost the same thing. Agricola, as you know, was the #1 game in BoardGameGeek's overall tabletop rankings for a long time, until it lost the honorable "gold" to good old Puerto Rico, falling to second place. Le Havre ("Havre"), which came out a year later, firmly established itself in the top ten and is currently in 6th place in the overall standings. The third part of the trilogy - At the Gates of Loyang (hereinafter simply "Loyang") - in my opinion, is greatly underestimated and is now in 113th place. Despite the fact that these games are very different, they also have undeniable similarities, which we will talk about. According to Rosenberg himself, "Loyan" was created even before "Agricola" and, in fact, the first part of the trilogy took a lot from this prototype. Therefore, it makes sense to consider "Loyan" as a prequel rather than as the final part. Perhaps that is why Le Havre stands out somewhat among the games of the trilogy, even by the parameter that gave the trilogy its name. The mechanics of crop harvesting in Agricola and Loyana are identical: the player sows the field and removes a resource unit from the field each round. In Havre, everything is done more mechanistically and abstractly from reality. Everything is simple there: the player has at least one unit of wheat - get one more, has at least two cows - get one more. There is no need to sow fields and build pens, resources multiply by themselves. And what did you want? A game about a port city, not a farm. After all, many of the city dwellers do not even know about how the harvest actually turns out! :-) Now let's talk about the interaction of players. "Agricola" and "Loyan" are games with a high value of the "solitaire" parameter. Each player boils in his cauldron, on his personal field. And only in a certain separate phase of the round do the players' interests intersect. In "Agricola" these are the moments when the members of the farming family are sent for day work to the common playing field. In "Luoyang" there is a drawing of cards according to certain tricky rules in order to get clientele for sales, new fields, markets or one-time assistants. In Havre, this "solitaire" is significantly less. At the personal disposal of the player is only some set of buildings/ships and resources built or bought by him. At the same time, the action phase is full of moments of activation of someone else's building. Players always use the capabilities of other people's buildings, often paying the owner of the building a penalty for doing so. And the main nuance is that such actions can greatly damage the plans of other players, because for now there is a chip on a specific building, it cannot be used. In fact, a good half of every player's moves in Le Havre are interactions with other people's personal zones. Food as a payment for development occurs at the end of each round in Agricola and Le Havre. The sword of Damocles hangs over the players for not being diligent enough in this matter. This forces you to divide your tactics into two fronts: get food and try to do it as efficiently as possible, so that more actions are left for the direct development of the farm (construction of buildings/ships). By this factor, Luoyang's gameplay is distinguished by a simpler formula of the player's goal: more money and no additional aspirations. Perhaps that is why this game did not reach the top ranks among experienced and experienced players: it is too simple. Winning points (PZ) and methods of obtaining them. Here, all the games of the trilogy demonstrate different approaches, and the most complex scheme is observed in "Agricola". Here you need to try to set all lines of development in motion so as not to catch fines. The farm should be self-sufficient, it should have fields with wheat and vegetables, and pens with different types of livestock. The state of each line of development will result in a certain amount of points, which are added up. Calculating software in Le Havre is almost identical to the same process in Race for the Galaxy: the values of each building/ship constructed plus the cash remaining on the balance are added up. "Loyan" flaunts a unique software acquisition system. The main difference is that here the SPs are calculated at the end of each turn, and not just at the end of the game. Accumulation occurs by spending the money earned by the player, that is, points are simply bought. For a small fixed price, a player can advance his chip only one position per round. Each additional move costs a lot of money, and the higher the player's position on the software line, the more expensive the additional steps. The very fact that Luoyang buys points every round might also knock this game off the list of veteran players' favors: again, too easy. Finally, I want to say the main thing: all the games of the trilogy, despite their commonality in some areas and belonging to the same class of eurogames based on resource management, play completely differently, so it is quite normal to have all of them in your collection. I will only stop those who are looking for a family game to spend time with their children from blind buying. A child under the age of 12 is unlikely to be able to draw up rules and seriously plan their own development strategy...

 Today, a pilot game was played in "Roboral". Impressions from the game are the most positive. It turned out to be extremely fun to chase robots around a strange room, breaking down every minute and arriving at a completely different place than you planned! The essence of the game is simple. There are works, there is a map with numbered flags. The goal of the game is to go around all the flags on the map in order. Whoever is first, well done. The difficulty is that the track is covered with a network of conveyor belts, here and there lasers stick out from the walls, gears are spinning on the floor, etc. Players play the role of operator-programmers, and the success of the "racers" depends only on their ability to navigate the complex industrial environment. And also from the cards in the hand... This is where the main trick lies. A lot really depends on the program cards in the hand. There are no turns - you drive straight. Acceleration did not come - you spin in place. And there's nothing you can do about it... We've had moves several times, during which robots simply turned left and right. Obviously, a situation may also arise when the robot will be forced to go beyond the edge of the map simply because there are no cards other than "gas, Seryogo!" did not sleep in the hand. And still a lot of fun to play. The inscription on the box with the game says: "A frenzied race filled with computer-driven chaos!". And so it is, hell take it and eat it! But to make your way to the cherished flag through a crowd of scrap metal that has come to life, or to accurately shine a laser in the back of the enemy is terribly pleasant. What is characteristic, despite the conflict of the game, that it seems that there were no quarrels at the table even once! Everyone jostled, shot at each other, flew off the field, dumbfounded and cursed at bad cards. There was an atmosphere of silly fun over the table, like a game of water pistol war. The game was liked by almost everyone, although at the end some complained about their brains being melted by the game. The game is designed quite nicely. Robots' disguises are so generally amazing. Cardboard components are thin in places, but this is not critical. It is strongly recommended to wear protectors on the deck of cards. During our game, she mixed up every move. Yes, I almost forgot. We were not able to finish even the first - the simplest - track in any way. In an hour and a half of the game, we mastered the rules "excellently", passed one or two flags and determined the winner by voting. Everyone was satisfied, because the main thing in Roboral is not the victory, but the exciting gameplay. PS People who can't distinguish between "right" and "left" better not even look at this game to avoid a migraine...

 Town is a 2-4 player board game by Shun and Aya Taguchi. Since I've played Glenmore, one of my favorite mechanics has been tile activation. I just really like it. The game itself is played over four rounds. Everything is fine with the design, it is more than suitable. The picture on the box is good, the buildings are a bit cartoonish. The playing field is two-sided with three types of resources: stone, fish and wood - pre-printed on the map. The box is nice and small, with a great organizer that has enough room for more tiles or additions. The game is very simple. Each turn, players will either place a worker on a square on the map, activating the eight squares around it, or build a building. There are twelve buildings to choose from plus five cornfields. Every time you build a house, you get victory points. At the end of the round you need to feed your workers (at which point everyone sighed). This was already seen in Agricola or Tsolkin, but here feeding is not burdensome: only one fish or corn per worker, and this is easily achieved, especially if you are building a field. If you want, you can exchange three coins for a resource of your choice.  There are several interesting buildings available. Fields produce wheat and stand one tree, and also yield 3 WP. Other buildings give you software or money for resources. The Pawn allows you to trade two resources for two others, while the statue gives you 10 programs. The bar and the well just bring VP, and the bookstore and gold mine produce coins. There are four more special buildings: cathedral, residence, castle and watchtower, which give you VP at the end of the round/game depending on the surrounding tiles - for workers that activate buildings, constructed buildings and empty squares. Players need to think carefully about where to place their workers in order to get the resources needed to build the right buildings to get the bonuses. As the game progresses, the tile placement area becomes more and more crowded, so it becomes more and more difficult to use the buildings. And money is also tight. Finding combinations from buildings and pre-printed resources is where the game shines. The object of the game is to score as many victory points as possible, and the scoring track is located at the bottom of the playing field. There is an extra token for each player if they score more than 60 points. COMPONENTS The game features cards, cardboard tiles, and wooden dice and tokens, as well as a wooden mallet for the first player, point markers, and a round marker. The course is small which is a bonus for me as I mostly play in pubs with small tables. Bonus cards are also small. The tiles are thick, with rounded corners. Preparation is simple. Places for tiles are clearly marked. The number of workers and buildings depends on the number of players. There is variability in the preparation, which is that there are more buildings (29) than are needed for the game (12) and more objective cards. The goals are easily achievable and bring 2-3 points. As such, they don't have much impact. I wish the goals were a little more difficult to achieve. GAME PROCESS The gameplay is smooth and fast. There is active interaction between players because you can use your opponent's buildings by paying them a coin. Also, as more buildings are placed, a sense of development appears. Towards the end of the game, you can activate four or five squares on your turn. With only twelve buildings, you compete to build the building you want. By the fourth round, most buildings will usually be built, so you'll be looking for opportunities to activate buildings to score victory points. DESIGN AND SUBJECT The design in this game is suitable. The subject feels weak. There has been some criticism from my band about the definition of the grid lines on the playing field. As with any game with resource cubes, you want to upgrade these cubes to more realistic resources and coins to metal ones. But what I like is that it's a cheap and fast game. CALCULATION OF POINTS This is an entry-level game - a simple game with tile activation, the engine here is also simple. The game lasts from 20 to 30 minutes. It's quick and easy to teach her. But there's still some depth for die-hard gamers. The overwhelming thought after the party was that I want more. More bonus cards, more buildings. I want to be able to rebuild! The game includes a promo with four additional buildings. Overall a great game that will remain in my collection. Fingers crossed for new buildings or additions. POSTSCRIPT Since I wrote this, my cell has broken down this game a few more times, and it's even better than I first thought. Each batch was radically different depending on the buildings chosen and the places where people built them. If you have a bank or other building that generates income, this means that there will be much more interaction in the party as players activate other players' houses. If you have a building that makes two fish, then foraging becomes easier and you build more buildings quickly. A building that allows you to exchange two goods for two others allows you to build houses more strategically. Buildings that give points for empty squares or people around them are always tactically blocked. Buildings that generate VP will be used more often unless specific resources (usually food) are rare. Every time we play I see different little chains/combinations of buildings. As I said in another post, we played Town with four workers instead of three, which makes the field more crowded. But we don't mind! Blocking each other just adds to the fun and interaction in this game. As a result, this small, fast-paced game gives you the opportunity to make great decisions!..

 Dungeon Twister is a dueling game with a minimal impact of randomness. At the start, players place 8 characters and 6 objective cards each on the dungeon tiles, hidden from the enemy. The goal of the game is to be the first to score 5 victory points. Points are usually awarded for killing enemy characters and for getting your characters out of the dungeon — beyond the enemy's starting line. A character standing on an adjacent cell with a closed tile can spend an action point to turn it over. New characters and items are placed on the inverted tile. Having turned over a tile, the player decides how to place everything on it (except his items), which is a rather important advantage. Each tile has a cage with a mechanism. The staff on it can spend an action point to turn that tile 90 degrees in the direction indicated by the arrow, or a matching tile with the same number if it's already flipped.  In the database of both players, the same sets of characters and items, but they are very different and interesting in their own way. For example, a goblin is fast and weak. However, due to his weakness, you get extra software if you bring him out of the dungeon. There is also a wizard: frail, but able to use powerful magical items unavailable to other characters. You'd expect a game with secret placement of units, tons of fantasy characters and items, and rooms that rotate as the game progresses to be simple thematic filler. But actually Dungeon Twister has nothing to do with them. This game is closer to chess than Descent.  When characters meet in battle, players simultaneously play a card from their hand, the value of which is added to the character's base strength. The loser gets a wound. Injured characters become items that can be carried by their teammates, but are essentially useless cargo until they are healed. They cannot attack and have a base strength of 0, although they can defend. As for combat cards, you can play as many +0 cards as you like, but cards from +1 to +6 are disposable. Therefore, the battles are quite mind-blowing thanks to the possibility of bluffing and double bluffing. However, even if you have a base power advantage, you can't be sure of victory unless you're willing to say goodbye to your best battle cards. This creates an interesting tense atmosphere and forces you to spend cards carefully.  Dungeon Twister is an amateur game. It's too slow, too mind-numbing, and too random for most players. Although it is designed thematically, there is neither a plot nor a campaign here, which again can repel many fans of themed games. The drawing also looks outdated. In addition, not everyone can imagine in advance what effect the rotation of such a room will have on the game. Lovers of abstracts may not like the combat mechanics or the element of randomness (laid out on open tiles), etc., etc. In Dungeon Twister, player skill and experience are very important. An inexperienced player will literally be crushed by an experienced one and probably won't even realize what he did wrong. The developer came up with several options to compensate for this advantage: to give experienced players fewer characters or battle cards (though there are none in the digital version). I think they can even out the balance. The problem is that not all players are happy when they are given a penalty. In general, Dungeon Twister will not be suitable for everyone, and those who will find it difficult to find an opponent. This does not mean that the game is bad at all. On the contrary, I think she is wonderful. All the characters are well thought out, and the dilemma in the meantime, whether to keep a character on the field to help in combat, or to take him off the field for the sake of the software, is very interesting. So is the tension in combat: you want to both not lose too many battles and keep powerful one-time cards. Base Dungeon Twister offers exciting gameplay and high replayability, although it is not without flaws. The gameplay is quite slow; seems too slow at times. Sometimes this procrastination is interspersed with bursts of action. Sometimes it feels like a single move can  decide the outcome of the game. This is not entirely true, but if a more experienced player gets involved in a large-scale fight and in a turn deals damage to, say, two enemy characters, and the enemy healer is out of order, then most likely the weaker player will not stand a chance. Also, in basic Dungeon Twister, as in chess, players will likely prefer to position each piece the same way with minimal variation. Partly because some starting combinations are clearly better than others, partly because of personal preference. Therefore, games with the same opponent can be quite similar. But there is an important element that brings novelty to the game: additions. When the base game was first released, the developer already had many additions planned. Add-ons perfectly expand the game, making it more interesting. In addition to single-character splashes, 6 major additions have been released in each Dungeon Twister: new items, characters, and tiles. They can be played both separately and mixed. All the expansions I've played (Prison, P&D, etc.) I like on their own, but they look best when mixed together. You can give each player the same set of characters and items, you can draft, you can choose secretly. I like all the options; although the draft and secret picks can throw off the balance of the game if the players are not of the same experience level, they are very fanciful. Unfortunately, the add-ons have a bunch of characters and items that are of interest only in certain, specific combinations. For example, if you secretly choose characters and objects, and one player chooses a bunch of characters tied to the darkness mechanic, and the other does not, it can result in a very slow game. And the sword that kills the dragon is useless if there is no dragon in the party... But still, the additions add a lot of variety to the game and banish the feeling that all the best combinations and debuts have already been calculated. On the other hand, it means that you have to look for add-ons to an old, long-discontinued game, which can present a problem. And if you don't find yourself enough opponents, you probably won't play enough games to need the dops. In my opinion, Dungeon Twister needs a new revision, partly because it's a great discontinued game and partly because it couldn't hurt to improve it a bit. Improved art — perhaps in a more playful style. The content is closer to the card Dungeon Twister, where each player has 25 characters and 10 items. This will introduce variety, enable drafts and secret selection of characters and objects, but you will not have to learn many additional rules. It will also remove the problem of poor compatibility of characters and mechanics from different add-ons. Minks or even cardboard boxes of the new edition, I think, are useless; enough tokens and a convenient souvenir. And then an add-on could be released to the new edition with new types of terrain and characters and items to go with the base. I really hope that something similar will work out. Then newcomers will come to Dungeon Twister, and perhaps this will push the developers so much to release more games in this rather popular genre. However, Dungeon Twister will always have a small but devoted gaming audience. I don't remember any Dungeon Twister analogue with similar gameplay or feeling from the game. Dueling fairs with fast games and tireless layouts are lacking, as are more thoughtful, less random duels like Dungeon Twister. This game has settled into my top 100 and I'm very happy to be able to play the online version because my main live opponent is already tired of our single digit games. If you can get hold of Dungeon Twister or Dungeon Twister Prison on the cheap, I'd recommend doing so—provided you have an opponent who likes thoughtful duels lasting 45-90 (if you think slowly) minutes. Otherwise, it's worth trying before you buy. Most often, it takes two or three games to decide whether you like Dungeon Twister or not...

 SolForge Fusion is a hybrid card game from Richard Garfield (Magic the Gathering, Solforge, etc.) and Justin Gary (Ascension). Half decks are generated by a special algorithm, each of them is unique. Kind of like Keyforge, yes. You choose two factions, mix them and form a deck. One of the unique features of SolForge is that when you draw a card, it automatically levels up. You start with weak cards and end with very strong ones. In addition, your leader Forged is also leveled. Each leader has three abilities that you can use during the game. ABOUT THE GAME Quick layout, simple rules. You start with 50 lives. There are three stacks of cards in front of you: Level 2 cards, Level 3 cards, and the starting deck. You and your opponent take turns making moves, taking control of the forge, which turns each turn, indicating who moves first that round. As a rule, you can play 2 cards at a time. The first to play the card that controls the forge, then the opponent, then again he and again the opponent. Cards are placed in one of five slots on the field. You can play both creatures and spells. When both players have finished their turn, a battle is played out in all slots at the same time. Buffs, debuffs and damage from phase to phase are preserved; they can be tracked with dice or tokens. 3 player moves - one cycle. At the end of the fourth cycle, the one with more life wins - unless, of course, you reduced the opponent's life to 0 even earlier.  SolForge is distributed in two ways. First, there is a starter set with 4 random decks (one for each faction), 2 paper play mats, 12 minion cards, 26 parameter modifier cards, and 2 paper Kowalski counters. RRC - $34.99. Second, there are boosters with 4 random decks and 4 bonus cards. RRC - $29.99. Let's analyze the pros and cons. Is the game worth the price? PROS OF THE GAME — The gameplay is well-thought-out and very fan-friendly. There is a lot of strategy here, but at the same time, the game is not so mind-blowing that you miss something. It's great that you only have to keep track of 5 slots; thanks to this, you don't have to mess around too much with the calculation of battles. The strategy here isn't in deciding how or when to attack, but in the cards you're dealt. Should I play a suboptimal map just to pump it? The choice is yours.  - Deckbuilding. When building a deck, you have to make a few decisions too, and I love that. If you got a bad deck in Keyforge, you can't do anything, it's your problem. However, in SolForge, even if your half of the deck doesn't look too promising, there is always an opportunity to find a perfect match for it and go destroy the opponents. - Game speed. There's a lot of room for strategy here, but little fiddling, so you can play games pretty quickly. — Availability of fashion in TTS. SolForge's Tabletop Simulator is completely free to play! So testing SolForge is not difficult at all. - Game support. SolForge plans to actively hold tournaments in which you can participate, in particular, remotely. Prizes and awards belong. - Development company. Stoneblades are simply stunning. They listen to feedback and actively interact with the community. Great company. - There are no bad logs. I have many, many SolForge decks, and I haven't seen any that are truly trashy. Even if she is inferior in strength to the average, you can always mix her with another, suitable half that will strengthen her, which is awesome. At Keyforge, you bought a deck, then you have to deal with it - and it doesn't matter if it's good or bad. The strength of different decks there varies very dramatically. Here, all logs are at least rakeable. Maybe not everyone is capable of winning the tournament, but there is no complete garbage. CONS OF THE GAME - Art. To be honest, I love the art and I think it suits the game perfectly. But if you expected high-quality illustrations of the level of Magic or Flesh and Blood, then you will be disappointed. Everything is rarer here. - Absence of a rule book. Yes, there is no rulebook in the starter set. Personally, it doesn't bother me too much, but I've seen a lot of complaints about it. But you probably have the Internet at hand and can easily read it online. In addition, in games of this genre, the rule book is usually not included in the set. I played Magic in the 2000s without a rulebook, accessing the Internet via a modem. You could argue that Keyforge has a rulebook, but it's incomplete, so you still have to look up the rules online. - Play mats. The only minus, with which I will not argue. I recommend throwing away paper ones and buying decent ones. There is $19.99. The paper ones are not terrible, but they have an offset pattern and I don't really like them. CONCLUSION I love SolForge. Haven't played such an exciting game in a long time. It is atmospheric, fun, fast and inexpensive. I highly recommend it. SolForge is actually a Keyforge without the Keyforge drawbacks. Definitely worth a try. Especially you Magic players, given that Hasbro is trying to drown your game; it's time to run from the sinking ship! :-)..

 "Yukon Airlines" is the first game that came out from under the wing of the author Al Leduc, as well as the first localization of RollinGames. That's why I think it's important to talk about this game in more detail! In the game, we will have to take on the role of a seaplane pilot who transports travelers to various points in the Yukon. In addition to this, you also need to improve your seaplane! At the end of the game, whoever earns the most money by transporting passengers wins! GAME PROCESS To understand the gameplay, I will briefly describe how your game will go. The game is divided into 6 rounds, where in each round we have to play 4 phases.  Phase 1: landing. In this phase, the player takes all passengers (cubes) of the same color from any cell, and each digital cell brings its own bonus.  Phase 2: Flight. At this stage, we use ticket cards to transport passengers to various points in the Yukon, but we need to take into account the amount of fuel, because it will not work to make too long flights without it. Also, after the trip, you can upgrade your gaming tablet by improving various indicators or unlocking new abilities to make it easier for you to transport passengers. ;)  Phase 3: Income. In this phase, we receive income from transportation, as well as completed missions.  Phase 4: Maintenance. This round is preparation for a new day. All players draw cards and roll dice. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES To be honest, a bit above I tried to talk about the game in a neutral way to be as impartial as possible, but now I want to say everything I think about it. The history of the appearance of the game is quite sad. In 2014, Al Leduc's father died and he decided to honor his memory with this game. The author transferred all his love for his father in one cardboard box. In addition to his father working as a pilot in Yukon Island, he also left many cute and very heartfelt moments in the game that remind him of his father. For example, the 6 game rounds are the days of the week from Tuesday to Sunday, because on Monday his father had a day off, or on the onboard tablets the players have nice drawn photos - this is a copy of the real photos of his family (different photos on each tablet).  And a lot of such moments! All this together gives a very pleasant and meditative atmosphere. While games nowadays try to impress the player, Yukon Airlines provides the comfort that every person needs. If we talk about the game from the mechanics side, it is a very nice family game, in which there is no evil interaction, but at the same time it is not completely toothless, because resources are limited and you have to try hard to get them in time. In my opinion, this is the perfect balance of interaction in the game. CONCLUSIONS Yukon Airlines is a great example of being proud to say, "Made with love." The game gives space for game actions and miscalculation, and together with a soulful story and very soft visuals, it encourages you to play again and again!..

 I recently received a parcel. I wanted to buy "Neuroshima Hex!" for a long time, and it finally happened. But now it's not about this masterpiece of Polish play building. And about the fact that the same person also sold Empires of the Void, which I seem to have heard something about once. I thought about the purchase, decided to read... and found nothing. Almost. Next, BGG and the game site were studied, which turned out to be richer in information. As a result, the game has already been on the table twice, acquired a bunch of printed components and managed to like it, although it did not overshadow Eclipse. But about everything in order. I will admit right away that I played only Eclipse among 4X-cosmostrategies, which I will compare with it in the course of the story.  So what is Empires of the Void? 4X? So! However, the main reference of the author of the game, in my opinion, is an attempt to speed up the gameplay as much as possible by adding his own "spices" to the classic recipe. Let's start with something simple - there is practically no space exploration as such. The galaxy consists of 7 tiles, which are laid out openly right from the start of the game. At the same time, the central tile is always the same, the others are spread around randomly. There are only 7 tiles in the box, i.e. they participate in every game, except for the option for 2 players. At the same time, they are large and bilateral. The meaning of the latter escapes me, as both sides are completely identical. The 3 fattest planets are located in the central part of space, and 2 in the rest. Actually, the planets and options for interacting with them are the main feature of the game. Unlike "Eclipse", all the planets here are unique and have their own completely intelligent and different inhabitants. In addition, they are pathologically peaceful - they will not respond with fire even to repeated attempts to seize by force, they will easily obey after the first hit. They will give resources, but they will not help, having gone to the edge of their Oikumena offended. Neither influence in the galactic council, nor secret knowledge. But if you offer them friendship, collect information about them (diplomacy cards that match a potential ally's worldview), and send a diplomatic ship with a delegation to them, they can even tell you how to build a local analogue of the "Death Star" that shoots at 3 times per attack, or teach how to make friends with other worlds more effectively. One world - one special. a trait only available to native race allies. And also: they will not betray you until the end of the game, they will not reveal the secrets of their alien invaders. Most likely.  Next moment. The turn here is divided into a pre-round, in which all players choose one technology to study and build ships at the same time, and the turns of players that go sequentially clockwise. There is an advanced version with a variable order of movement. A few words about ships and technology. There are 14 (fourteen!) types of ships: 5 available to each player (but mostly requiring the appropriate technology), 5 aliens that can be accessed by allies, and 4 more unique to certain races. Schemes of ships, like in "Eclipse", are not here. They differ in range, accuracy and initiative, most have special properties, some can be improved with technology. The battles here are very similar to those in Nexus Ops: all ships fire in order of initiative once, all have one hit and one shot (with rare exceptions). Can there be more attacks in one turn? Technologies are fully available from the start of the game. Some require only payment in money, some require access to one of 5 resources (infinite), others require prior learning of any technology. However, there are not many chains here. When everyone has learned the technology and built a fleet, the first player's turn begins. He can perform 3 primary actions and one secondary action of his choice. The choice is not very large, but quite sufficient: movement, attack, production (mine), culture and diplomacy. Movement initially allows you to move one ship, technology makes this process more massive and efficient. The attack is what it is. Unlike Eclipse, battles take place immediately after the announcement in a certain place, but not until victory, but only one round. However, if necessary, you can always repeat. Mining is just +2 credits, you can do it once per turn. Culture - taking the appropriate cards into the hand. Diplomacy - their use in order to acquire an ally. The more correct cards, the easier it will be to succeed. 3 cubes will determine the result.  After the main ones, you can perform one additional action. This opportunity appeared with the release of a free PnP add-on from the game developer. Moreover, he positions it rather as a patch, recommending to play even your first game taking into account all the changes. Secondary actions are not much more complicated: attack, a slightly modified movement, the ability to increase the income from one of the planets, buy a one-time "+" to military and diplomatic rolls for subsequent rounds, and the ability to learn another technology even if you do not have the corresponding resource, but there is a place to steal it. That's how the game goes. A random event is read before the start of the round. Points are counted every 3 turns. After the 9th round, the game ends with a final count (we have already seen this somewhere). Points are awarded for controlled planets, technology and friendship with the aborigines. And three times per batch. This means that you have to capture as many planets as possible by a certain point, even if you lose some of them in the next round. As a result, we have a wave-like increase in confrontation and a decrease in the role of a single mistake at one of the stages. Now about the first impressions. The first game on the 4th blew everyone's brains. The rules are not that complicated, but there is far from one version. The Key to the Universe expansions are rewritten and expanded rules of the base game. Among them, the number of components changes, the technology tree and the form of its presentation change (separate cards for each - one self-print page on which you need to mark the learned), new actions, goals, races, criteria for obtaining victory points, etc. are added. Changes are mostly small, which are always noticeable, but have a significant impact on the process as a result. In short, all this must be thought through. In addition, when you receive a letter with almost 3 dozen technologies, most of which can be learned almost immediately, the eyes frankly go wide. I see the potential of the fastest 4X strategy in the game. But not in the first batch. And, most likely, not in the second.  By the way, the next game for two was much faster and more meaningful. Ships scurried back and forth, the leader changed with each scoring, planets passed from hand to hand. Different starting races entailed a specific play style. In short, it was fun. PROS OF THE GAME small batch time (potentially); a large number of starting races, types of ships, aborigines with their specials. properties; the possibility of choosing: befriend/capture/release (if captured by the opponent). CONS OF THE GAME the feeling that the game is still in the testing phase, hopefully the final one; the feeling that the last player in the last move has an advantage - he does not defend his worlds and throws the entire fleet into an attack on foreign ones, while others must either leave part of the ships on their home planets, or completely go on the defensive; it is not particularly difficult to fly to the neighbor's planets here, there is always someone nearby; there are several options for determining the turn order, but the basic one is clockwise with/without eliminating the first player each round. AMBIGUOUS MOMENTS controversial cartoon art: some people think it's genius, others it hurts the eye; a large number of interpretations of the rules gives rise to a desire for experiments and home rules, the last game was played with a fanatic tree of technologies - I liked it; there is no clarity, but there is room for creativity. ..

 Hi to all! Over the past few days, we've received a ton of great games. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we want to inform you about fresh arrivals and product updates in our store. Get acquainted with the novelties and what's new in Lelekan-chiku. Hurry up, the games are great and will satisfy all tastes, be the first in time)..

 A game I've never heard of. Not that I care much about the games over the hill, just what reaches my ears through the hype of the saint. I have enough new products on the Russian market, I would have time to buy them, but trying new things in online areas is completely out of bounds for me. But thanks to friends, this also happens... So, the game is a variation of one against all. Only here everything is the opposite: one hero and several lords. The hero supposedly woke up somewhere, and the villains are trying to send the poor guy to the other world. According to reviews and rules, I got the impression that it is better to play dueling than we actually did. We played two games in a row, with a change of sides. Actually, let's take a closer look at them... HERO The owner places the hero figure on one tile of the field and chases away. You can look into the distance, or you can just take a step into the unknown. Playing for this side, you don't know the map and you don't even have an idea in which part you are. And to give you motivation - the game comes with missions that you need to find and do. The research element in all its glory. Moreover, the ruler breeds all kinds of animals that the hero meets on his way. If the animal jumped out unexpectedly or out of nowhere, then you lose self-control, and if you saw it from afar, then everything is normal. And now you are climbing through the tunnels, having absolutely no idea where you are going, fighting back every step. The game has a lot of tools that help you cope with hardships and wanderings. These are the mechanics of light, where you firmly fix the status of these rooms, plus the monsters there are weaker (after all, in the light it is easier to plant any chthon in the eye), and a clock with echo location, where the owner can answer what is the distance to the object, about which you ask Separately, I want to emphasize the mechanics of noise. If the owner moved a monster that the hero cannot see, he must say the direction of the light from which the sound came. On the way you find all sorts of things, Andrii just found a fur suit in which he cut out monsters left and right. On the one hand, you feel like a blind kitten staring from side to side, on the other hand, you crush monsters without much trouble, and a bunch of items and a mechanic help you in this. RULER Here you are king and god. But God is like that, weak, but cunning. You know the whole map, and it is also two-level. You give birth to animals (you can't stand right next to the hero: the stronger the monster, the further it appears from the hero), lure it into traps. Monsters are not that strong, but when there are a lot of them, there is enough trouble. There are laconic rules that will not allow you to create an army in every room, so you have to connect tactics and set up networks. In our party, Andriy easily passed the first level and said that it was necessary on a different level of difficulty (in the game of 4, we played on the second). But when I got to the second level, I realized that I prepared most of the manipulations for him precisely at the end of the game. IMPRESSION The general atmosphere of the game reminded me of Claustraphobia, but I only have one game before it, and that was a long time ago. I liked the action mechanics. You take an action, after which the other party has a chance to react. Thanks to this, you do not wait for each other's moves for 10 minutes. For the hero, all actions are performed from the standard set plus item cards. And the owner operates with cards from the deck that he chose for the game. (A total of 4 half-decks, of which you choose two per game; hello, "Tyrants"). Each deck focuses on something different: attack, movement, traps, control. We watched all 4 - and it's interesting! You are like the king and god of locations, but you have limitations in implementation. It plays very lively and the game time is comfortable - we played 2 games in one evening and it took about 4 hours, considering that it was the first games for both of us. Simplicity. I like games where the actual implementation of actions is not complicated by a lot of factors, but how to win is another matter. The same is true here: the rules are concise and clear, there is a good video with the rules on YouTube, after which questions remain at least. There are also few exceptions. CONCLUSIONS I was impressed and liked the toy. It is interesting to sit on both sides, but probably the owner is closer to me. There you don't feel like an imboy, but you develop a plan to steadily bite the hero and lead him the wrong way. You run monsters where you don't need it, creating the illusion of protecting the area with noise, you lure in the network and play from the cards that came to you. The threshold for entering the game is low, the table is small, because the map is constantly removed between rounds, the language on the maps is primitive, although, of course, it would be more comfortable in localization. I would like to get such a box for my collection...

 Mythic Battles is targeting an already pretty tight niche: its competitors will be games like Summoner Wars, the Commands and Colors series (BattleLore, Battles of Westeros), Heroscape, and games based on the Clix system (in particular, Mage Knight... no, that's another Mage Knight). The game bills itself as an estate of miniatures wargames, card games, and board games—apparently trying to appeal to several different tabletop groups at once. Why three categories at once? Wargames with miniatures: As far as I understand, the similarity is that here, too, players recruit armies from units with various abilities before battle. Like in Heroscape, for example. Card Games: Mythic Battles was clearly inspired by Summoner Wars. On a large table, you can even lay out squad cards, like in Summoner Wars, and not be limited to tiny round tokens... But the main similarity is in command cards, which add an element of hand management to the game a la Commands and Colors, only with less randomness. Board games: well... because it is played on a table. So, how is the gameplay and how good is it? The following will mainly cover the game in standard mode, not the scenario. Because even in the training campaign, the army recruitment mechanics and victory conditions are so different from the standard mode that the base game cannot be judged by the scenarios. RECRUITMENT OF ARMIES Army recruiting is pretty simple and straightforward: you have 100 points, you need to spend a minimum of 95, you need to have at least 5 and a maximum of 10 units. Given that the game has big, badass monsters, this helps a bit to eliminate the problem common to some miniatures games where a player puts all their points into one or more super monsters, and then their opponent either can't do anything with that monster (besides gnawing on it HP slowly), or the monster will move away from one successful dice roll.  Command cards also help balance the sides of a conflict. By the way, speaking of them, let's move on to... GAME PROCESS The gameplay boils down to "draw cards, activate units you have cards for"? No, not really. Each maneuver card has three uses: the actual maneuver, a counterattack, or a discard for energy. Each Art of War card also has three uses: an extra move, an extra card, or a discard for energy. Considering that the first two options for using maneuver cards require the presence of the corresponding squads of cards, it can be concluded that this gives an advantage to the player who has fewer squads: the deck is smaller, the chances of drawing the right card are higher. Right?  This is where one of the beautifully thought-out nuances of the rules comes into play that balances the game: discard decks are only shuffled after both players' decks have been exhausted. That is, if Mr. Hades spent all his points on 5 Stone Monsters, then after the fifth turn he will have to miss at least one more turn, waiting for hordes of Miss Athena's soldiers to walk around the field and poke his soldiers with sharp sticks. So you'll have to manage your deck smartly so that your advancing mobile troops don't get stuck in place, actively use the art of war cards and special abilities so that you have the right cards at hand when you're on the offensive. And also to discard unnecessary cards for energy, which can be used to strengthen squads. The strategy is dictated partly by the composition of the army, partly by the cards drawn and the terrain, but you still have enough freedom of action to make competent moves, while at the same time there is a chance to fail at the mercy of the cards that did not come. As for combat, when I first saw the exploding cubes, I thought combat would be a random swing back and forth with frequent oneshots, but thankfully the game has a cap on maximum damage per shot. Exploding cubes increase the chance to hit, but do no damage. And thank God. You get energy by discarding cards that you choose not to use this turn. For energy, you can activate interesting and cool abilities. It may seem that the balance is shifted in the direction of large armies - because you can discard more cards and turn your hordes into superhordes for energy... But only under the increased ability of the hordes of ordinary soldiers, they did not stand close to the impressive capabilities of large monsters. No amount of energy will save your slingers when the Infernal Judge comes upon their souls. COMPONENTS  The art is stunning, seeing the soldiers immediately brings to mind "This is Sparta!". However, the color scheme is quite pale, and in less than ideal lighting, the pens are difficult to distinguish. And although the round discs are cute, they are not as impressive as full-fledged miniatures. However, they are quite functional. What is really annoying is that the abilities of the units are not described directly on them - and they have to be memorized. And I don't really want to remember the difference between the aura of power, godless power and experience in close combat. However, all the descriptions would not fit even on the large and functional squad cards... Well, even though there is an official monument. By the way, when units receive losses, their parameters decrease, and abilities change. Everything is described in a surprisingly clear way in the campaign book. It's nice to be introduced to more and more rules throughout the campaign. True, the first battles are so primitive that even our 14-year-old son complained that he would like to play Heroscape and Summoner Wars. Getting really cool stuff like Cerberus eating three Spartans at once will take time and patience. FACTIONS There are only two of them - Hades and Athena. Hades is a bad guy with all kinds of creatures, Athena is a nice woman with people. If you dig deeper, Hades emphasizes air units and cavalry (as well as large monster air cavalry and even larger monster artillery), while Athena emphasizes hordes of soldiers with sharp sticks that they poke and throw at you from over the hill ( after which Hades whines that it is not fair: you cannot respond to shooting with a counterattack). And Athena has, for example, Spartans, who not only counterattack in close combat, but can also fire from afar. Hades' soldiers can't do that, because their weapons are probably part of a limb or nailed to their hands, because it's Hades. In general, both factions have a very different approach to tactics and hand management. And it pleases. CONCLUSIONS I really like Mythic Battles. Well-thought-out game design balances both the strength and the number of armies. The depth is decent, the games are not long, there is room for strategy and tactics, and at the same time there is enough randomness to be interesting for all but the most hardcore players. Thanks to the card engine, you can easily manage armies, and at the same time it is more realistic than in many games with much more complicated mechanics of unit control (the closest analog in terms of convenience is Warmachine; WH40K against its background looks like a dinosaur stuck in the 80s). Highly recommended for fans of Summoner Wars, BattleLore, Battles of Westeros, Heroscape, and even fans of miniatures wargames who are more interested in mechanics than minions...