Happy Birthday, Us! We are already 6 years old! This year, like all Ukrainians, we make one wish, to wake up as soon as possible in a Peaceful and Free Ukraine! In September 2017, Lelekan opened its doors for board game lovers for the first time, and is still open every day to bring a sea of happy emotions, interesting and fun experiences for you and your loved ones! So much has changed since then, but the love for puzzles and games has only grown stronger! We are glad that for these 6 years the number of connoisseurs of interesting and fun time has only increased! Thank you to EVERYONE who was with us, who remains with us, and also thank you to everyone who joins! Therefore, today, we have a nice gift! When buying board games, from September 21 to 24, in our store on St. Rubchaka 21b in Lviv, you will roll 2 dice, which will determine the discount you will receive before your purchase We believe that everyone will find a game that hits their heart, and our team will help with this! Raffle on the occasion of the store's birthday! There will be 3 winners in the draw, who will receive one of our localizations. 1st place Castles of Burgundy 2nd place 13 Tips 3rd place Coup: Steampunk Terms of the draw: 1. Be subscribed to our instagram lelekan.com.ua; 2. Make a story of your gaming evening and specify the hashtag #витаќемолекан; 3. Be registered on our website (link in profile header); 4. Send us a direct message with the name or email address you registered under. That's all. You are participating in a raffle. The draw will last until September 24 inclusive. We will announce the results on September 25. We wish you success)..

 One of the oldest franchises of computer boss-butlers has decided to move to the tabletop format. What came of it? MHW:TB has two game modes. In arena mode, a group of hunters (chosen by you, with pre-selected equipment) fight a selected monster once. But the main game mode is the campaign, during which you hunt a lot of monsters, and at the end you face a super boss. In other words, it's a boss battler like Kingdom Death: Monster, Townsfolk Tussle, etc. Up to 4 hunters in co-op fight card-controlled AI monsters, turning the best carcasses of the slain into gear to fight even stronger monsters. A base company lasts 25 days (longer if you add expansions or combine two bases), but one hunt usually takes just under an hour, so 2-3 game days can be played in 2 hours of play.  The first thing you'll see in the box are the monster miniatures. The quality is excellent by board game standards; little detailed, with more or less hidden seams. It is nice to paint them, but even if you are not a fan of painting, you should at least paint them with a dark shade so that the details are more visible. In particularly large models (Rathalos in the Ancient Forest) the wings lie separately. I was skeptical at first and expected to have to resort to glue or magnets to keep the inserted wings in place, but surprisingly they hold up well. True, the pegs of the Rathalos stand had to be cut by half an inch so that the wings fit a little tighter to the body. There are other components under the loopholes. The hunter miniatures are not inferior in quality to the monster miniatures, although lime green is a strange color for the model (hunters are so easy to distinguish from monsters on the field). There's a stack of decks, rules and adventure books, a two-sided field, and forge memo cards for each hunter (including one for Wildspire Wastes in case you decide to combine the two bases). The organizer is a little disappointing: the cards in the protectors do not fit into the corresponding notches, there is only enough space to "save" the progress (in the campaign mode) of two hunters, and it is not very convenient to store the cards somewhere separate from the miniatures of the hunters lying in the organizer. And I don't like the vertical slots for the cards either - I would prefer the horizontal ones, considering that part of the deck is individual for each hunter. There is only one notch for many different tokens, which is also not pleasing. There are a lot of typographical errors on landmarks, cards and adventure books - not so much critical as frustrating. Fortunately, SFG is already releasing a pack with fixed cards.  The campaign mechanics are quite simple and at the same time work well. You have 25 days in the base (the rules recommend spending at least 20 days hunting). With the addition of Elder Dragon or Kula Ya Ku, the limit increases by 5. It is also possible to combine both bases and get a large campaign lasting 45 days. Although each player has their own character progress sheet, there is fortunately little fiddling involved: you only need to count the number of available resources and keep an eye on potions. There is space on the sheet for equipment if you want to write it down, but since each item has its own card, it's easier to put the cards into their respective decks after the game. Although if you keep track of the equipment that was crafted in the forge, you can recreate the hunter from scratch. The pace of the campaign is quite strange. 25 days seems a little excessive (however, the rules suggest reducing the number of days if you want to increase the difficulty); players exchange resources and armor freely, and the campaign rewards you with resources fairly generously, so you rarely need to individually hunt down a monster specifically for the gear you want. It is also surprising that when combining the base, 20 days are added to the campaign. Equipment is divided into 4 tiers (5 if Elder Dragons are added to the game), each hunter in the base has two identical "trees" of equipment T1 and T2 - ore and bone. In the base, each hunter gets T3 and T4 weapons from two specific monsters, so when combining sets, your hunters will most likely only need 3-4 monsters out of a dozen available to max out, even if they decide to mix and match armor or want to get multiple weapons . from one shooting range (there are reasons for both). As a result, practically doubling the length of the campaign turns the game into a fairly easy walk, unless of course you are burning with the desire to hunt down all the monsters purely for the sake of the process. The actions available between hunts are also a bit disappointing. There are benefits to them - yes, you can exchange three common resources for one of your choice, get a resource for free if you're lucky with the dice, and most importantly, visit the monsterologist (Handler) to get the chance to re-quest - study of the monster (Investigation). But these actions are no different in both databases, except for the resource table, and are listed at the end of the adventure book, rather than in the core rules. I would like to see more elements of the computer game in this phase, for example, given by quest researchers. Although, perhaps, such a feature will appear with additions.  Hunting is divided into two phases: preparation (Gathering) and battle. When you go on a quest, you build a deck of a certain number of Time Cards. These cards reflect the limited time available to find and kill a monster; if the time runs out, the quest is failed. As already mentioned, the hunt begins with a preparation phase, in which you are shown a piece of artistic text and given a choice of two options of what to do. This continues until you find the monster and the hunt begins. Moreover, during the preparation phase, you may have to add certain time cards to the deck (their effect can be both positive and negative) due to certain events or receive some bonuses or penalties. But most often you will be offered to spend time cards on gathering resources. Some types of resources can only be mined in this phase. In addition to resources, you may also encounter Scout Flies. They allow you to randomly draw several face-down tokens from the pool, which can have positive or negative numbers. Once you discover a monster, you reveal those tokens, count the amount, and shuffle one of the three cards into the monster deck accordingly. In my opinion, this is the weakest element of the game. Not that the preparation phase is terrible; it flows much more smoothly than, say, the hunting phase in Kingdom Death: Monster. Also, when you're bumping into resources and guessing how many time cards you'll risk removing from the deck (given that you have to defeat the monster in the remaining time) for the resources needed to craft the next shooting range's gear, there's tension and it's gratifying. Especially when it turns out that Roar or Rampage went to reset (or not very happy when A Brief Respite goes to reset). The problem is that this phase is the weakest developed. Take, for example, resources. Some types of ores can be mined only in the preparation phase. There are also special resources (say, Firecell or Coral Crystals) that are required for crafting weapons and are obtained mainly during the preparation phase. This works great in a computer game, as ores and special resources are only found in a specific area, usually a specific deposit, and you can always revisit that deposit when you visit the map. Not so in a board game, of course. If you want, say, a Winged Drake Hide, all you have to do is wait for a card that gives you a Winged Drake Hide. Moreover, it is not indicated anywhere that these items are mined during the preparation phase, so those unfamiliar with the franchise can only wonder if it is a typographical error that the weapon requires, say, Coral Crystal - because it is not listed in the table of trophies of any monster. What's even more annoying is that you only get one chance to attempt each quest, and even if you come across Coral Crystals in the second Tobi Kadachi study quest, you'll only be able to use those resources if you remember exactly what you did path , spend a day visiting the monsterologist to get the chance to do this quest again, and repeat the path. It would be better to indicate at the start of each quest what resources can be obtained here. Not necessarily exact numbers, just roughly so that the player knows that Tobi quests #3 and 4 or Anjanath quests #1 and 2 are required to get the Winged Drake, and not have to wander around hoping to stumble upon the right one, and not wondered why he did not find what he needed: because he made the wrong decisions in the preparation phase, or in this quest, there is no such resource in principle. Artistic descriptions are also not always thought out. Yes, while hunting for Anjanath, we ended up in a cave, then in a forest, then in a cave again. Not that it's completely unrealistic, but it's a bit strange. We had to go through the previous paragraphs several times to make sure we didn't make a mistake. The mechanics of scout flies are stitched with white threads. Yes, it's part of the franchise, so it should be present in the game, but the only point they make is to generate a random number that dictates which of the three cards to add to the II deck. The system is quite frozen with minimal exhaust, so chasing these flies doesn't make much sense. I would like their effect to be more tangible, for example, to return useful time cards from reset.  And here is the main part of the game, where you will spend the most time: the battles. This is where the game unfolds in full. The mechanics are quite simple, but at the same time quite deep and interesting. The battle takes place on a field of 6×6 cells. What the field looks like is described in detail at the beginning..

 In this article, I will evaluate the application solely from a gameplay point of view, here you will not see an evaluation of the compatibility of the game's lore with the so-called Shadow of the Wicked (in the girlhood of the Vampire King).  The add-on fixes several issues with the base game: 1. Slightly improves the position of free peoples, adding to them actions thanks to the cube of rulers and powers with add. recruitment and protection thanks to the abilities of the rulers. On the one hand, the rulers are relatively easy to "awaken" in order to gain access to their proteins (for example, to "awaken" Brand, you only need to have a Severian active and spend an action cube with the value of Nym), on the other hand, it is also relatively easy for the Darkness to memorize them remember that it also gives the Darkness access to the white "scorned by corruption" versions of the rulers. I don't know if there is a balance here, but the chip is generally interesting.  2. Fixes an issue where a player has too many eyes dropped due to darkness, which deprives him of the ability to act on the field. Or when a few eyes dropped and the free peoples didn't drop swords or will of the west, meaning the brotherhood wouldn't advance, making the eye cubes useless. It is now possible to spend eye cubes from the hunting pool, just to correct the rulers. You roll the cube with an eye, draw 3 hunting tokens from the bag, choose one and place it on the field next to one of the rulers you want to carpathize. At the same time, there are 2 tokens in the bag, which force you to discard the rest and count as 0, that is, they mean, in fact, the failure of the corruption attempt, that is, corruption is not a freebie for Darkness, there is also a risk of wasting an action in vain. 3. Adds a little more opportunities to Darkness with Dark Lords. This solves the issue where Darkness lacks Nazgul leadership, and solves the problem of lack of variety of whites and combat capabilities of Dark minions. Leaders are still given the same ruler cube as free peoples. 4. They add more meaning to free peoples in the movement of satellites through the field. In the base of satellites, it rarely makes sense to move around the field, often cards like "There and back" or "Fear, fire, enemies" somewhere in the middle or at the end of the game lie dead weight and are used as combat. Now the satellites have an additional meaning to move them in order to "cure" the rulers of the disease. In general, the additional is normal, it slightly improves the balance of the base, makes it more diverse. Not sure if it will additionally go well with lords, most likely there will be a slight imbalance in favor of light. With warriors, most likely, it will be bad, even more advantage in favor of Svetlana, but I do not recommend playing with warriors at all in principle. All in all, I recommend this add-on for purchase and will buy it myself (but haven't seen the event map yet, maybe there will be a hat)...

Hello, received a batch of great games today, And we will immediately hurry to share the news with you!..

 As well as thoughts on sandboxes and salt pans from the genres behind this game. Warning: This is not a Dead Reckoning review  So, we have a conditional sandbox on the conditional deckbuilder engine. Build a hand of cards that will evolve over the course of the game, growing new abilities on a pack of translucent upgrades in one protector. See what symbols are available on the cards and have fun on the whole reel. Ride the sea, discover new lands, buy upgrades, capture islands, carry barrels, trade, produce, loot, fire at your neighbor, pump your deck and your ship.  Immediately about the best. Feature with pumping cards in deckbuilding is a direct killer feature. After training on the cool Mystic Vale and the obscure Edge of Darkness (didn't try), John D. Clare released a unique system. Each of the 12 starting characters can be pumped up to level 4 and hung up to 3 different upgrades to your liking. In TTS, it is implemented a little crookedly, but in real life, it is probably much more fun to stuff these translucent cards, creating a super soldier. And try to scroll the deck faster so that the favorites return to the hand again. Moreover, instead of a traditional game tablet, all strategies were put into this deck. Whom you caress, this is the direction you strengthen, it's all up to you. In short, this is what I liked the most. Fortunately, the hand mechanics here are normal (and not like in "Dune"). You can keep any cards in your hand between turns, and save one upgrade to wait for your perfect carrier. Because when a combo is stubbornly not a combo, it is the scourge of many deckbuilders.  Attacking another player or innocent merchants at sea requires a black flag symbol and a certain number of cannon icons. According to the amount of guns, you collect a bunch of cubes of your color and fall asleep in the miracle tower. Not dais, simple wooden ones. If there is a duel, then both collect and pour into this shaytan machine. I'll say it straight: I don't like the cube tower for combat. But that's because, in principle, I don't like cube launchers. And here is the same cube thrower in a different format: you throw a handful of wooden cubes into the tower, and they fall on one of the 14 faces. Yes, it's faster, easier and, what's more, funnier than traditional American-Cubans, but still a wildly random event. But the fact that I don't like it does not cancel the fact that it is a really cool and cool find. I wouldn't refuse to see it in other projects, just not for the randomization of combat, but, say, for the response of monsters or something else. Next, about the structure of the move. I like it less and less when games have huge moves with a bunch of options. Yes, in "Knight-Mage" you can think for 15 minutes about how two clearings are better to pass, but that's why it's a solo game. In Dead Reckoning, you can charge a bunch of sails, swim there, scout here, buy a map here, buy a map there, and during the break you can still control the island. And you sit and consider how and for what your cards will be enough. The potential for downtime is huge, I'm afraid to even imagine. It was not very noticeable on two. While one walks, the other upgrades between turns. I prefer to trust a party member and not control his every step. Yes, I am half listening to what he got and where he went. So it was adequate. But I know there are suffocators to whom show and tell everything, but don't deceive them, but here you have a speed not of 6, but of 5. I'm afraid, for four it would be hell and burning ephedrone. The most common scourge of many sandbox games like Runbound, Outer Ring, or Xia is huge downtime between turns, little interaction, and inadequate duration. Everyone plays their own role or fantasy in this world, rarely conflicts with others, and it is generally unclear why we are sitting at the same table together. On the one hand, I understand the desire of players to have many ways of development, so that everyone chooses something for himself. On the other hand, in some games it turns out that everyone evaporates into something different, and there is no great competition in the "enemy" area. Why other players? For example, in Dead Reckoning I mostly bought cards, captured islands and carried barrels. Because I don't like to rely on randomness, and these are obvious classes. And Lyosha explored, pumped up the ship and sometimes fought. And now, if it weren't for his principled attempt to sink me with full holds, we would hardly have crossed paths the entire game. Everyone cares for themselves, and that's fine. Let's say, a frequent complaint against "Agricola" is that the game forces you to do little by little, and you can't specialize. But this is where the main conflict comes from! Everyone needs food and wood, and that's what they grab first, until the war for the first player. It's not like you went to monuments, I went to adventures, and the third one went to collecting crystals, and we don't really get along. It comes to an absurdity like "Traders' Bay", where everyone plays giga-super-asymmetry, but you have no business with the opponent's tablet. Again, I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just that I like to play solo and try to find game-mechanical reasons to be in the games of other live players other than for a nice chat.  Further, unlike Agricola, in the same "Caverna" I choose arbitrarily whether I want to build sheepfolds, deep caves or gather a gang of armed adventurers. Nothing in the layout leads to anything, the initial room market is inadequately huge, and jumping to another strategy later can be problematic. And you choose a bit at random, rather because you decided to express yourself that way today, and not because the situation on the field demands it. Therefore, in my opinion, one or two people are optimal there, and the third one is useless. And from Dead Reckoning, the feelings are similar. The rules clearly spell out 4 conventional roles with tips on how to play them and what cards to pump for them: pirate, privateer, merchant and explorer. By the way, I didn't get into any of them, I was tormented by something of my own. It looks like a European sandbox. Choose who you are today and play with your imagination. But I don't really understand this desire to put everything into one game at once: engine optimization, and to be able to punch a neighbor's face with a cube. I'm curious when a game does some of its ideas that sell really well, and not all at once. Hence the cool attitude to many modern hybridizations (Dwellings of Eldervale, "Dune. Empire"), and in general to 4X-gigantism ("Sickle", "Eclipse", Dark Ages). But such games are very popular now, so I have no business judging people's preferences. Never been a fan of pirate romance (or any gangster, mafia, etc. themes). Robberies, murders, rapes, slave trade, torture, unsanitary conditions, drunkenness - cool, cheerful mischief from fairy tales for children, yes. That's why I didn't bother with the setting. No, everything is adequate with the theme, but I did not find a lot of adventure and atmosphere. Even in such a rusk as "Maracaibo" there is enough soulfulness for me, but here it is not radically juicier or wetter. "Sickle about pirates" is a little humiliating, but not so far from the truth. Although someone, hearing this, on the contrary, will rush to buy. In this mincemeat of familiar Euro mechanisms, "everyone will be able to find something for themselves" is a trite and well-worn phrase. I've seen reviews like it's an epic ultimate pirate game and... well, I haven't seen that.  No, I won't say that all of the above makes Dead Reckoning exactly a bad game. But all these symptoms are characteristic of her. Yes, if you wish, you can directly destroy the neighbor's cabin, and the interaction will appear for you. And there is no desire, then it will not be. But this is my traditional problem with projects where three games were crammed into one. Someone is playing Eurooptimization, and cubes fly into his face. Or someone is looking for sea adventures and atmosphere, while another is suffocating for every point. Again, not a specific game complaint, rather this type of game. In general, it's cool. Deckbuilding fire, and the rest of the brine seems to be working. Just not mine. The solo deck was not brought to TTS, so the traditional consolidation of impressions in solo mode will not work. Therefore, most likely, I will not play anymore. But I would sit down for real in the future. After 3-4 years, "Kramnychka" will decide that it's time to finish what was promised (yes, it's a trick). I would touch the transparent maps, put a handful of Kubans to sleep in the tower - that's all...

Hello, received a batch of great games today, And we will immediately hurry to share the news with you!..

A cube metal co-op fantasy skirmish/dungeon crawler of sorts from Chip Theory Games (creators of Cloudspire and Hoplomachus) with a variety of scenarios and final bosses. Personally, I prefer the expansion (which can be played as a full game) of Undertow, because there is more variety - admittedly, and more rules. I LIKE + Setting (not a particularly serious fantasy with dwarves) + Components (custom dice pile, neoprene game mats, dice tray, poker chips, waterproof) + A bunch of different characters, each with their own abilities (some characters from the add-on are especially original). Each character has a unique tree of skill cubes that can be unlocked during the adventure. + It is important to properly adapt/level up characters based on the current game situation, group composition, enemies and tyrant + Monsters have different sensations, and players have to change tactics, adapting to them + Predictable and easily calculated enemy AI + Battles are not as random as it might seem at first glance, since the spread of values on the dice is small and they are quite "predictable". + The backup plan track on the player's tablet helps to eliminate failure (unsuccessful dice rolls) + Diverse encounters and characters provide high variety and replayability. The random selection of enemies also contributes to replayability, offering new challenges to players each time + Creative meeting cards; they offer several options for action that make you think about the risk-benefit ratio. Sometimes you will encounter mini-games or new game rules. TMB is not limited to the "kill all monsters" framework. + Battles take place in an abstract arena made of cells. Competent positioning is very important. Players are placed on the field after enemies, which adds tactical depth. + Units and their health are represented by stacks of poker chips, which is convenient. However, it can fall with careless handling + Loot cards with various effects - equipment and disposable items + The difficulty and duration of the game can be adjusted. True, the balance swings here and there, and sometimes it is difficult to choose the right difficulty Ambiguous = The illustrations are made in a not particularly serious style = The game requires knowledge of the language = Sometimes the game is very random. Randomness is especially evident in the initiative roll, drawn enemies (although you can find out who is waiting for you), the encounter deck and loot cards = TMB resembles a roguelike in places with a random difficulty that swings back and forth due to random sets of enemies and encounters. This unpredictability can create a tense atmosphere or almost eliminate the chance of victory. A snowball effect has also been noticed: if you lose battles, it becomes more and more difficult to play further = Basically single scenarios. Additionally, you can play in the campaign mode. The "plot" is random, formed from encounter cards = The game has a lot of add-ons, but some add-ons are either very mediocre or look like chopped off pieces of the base = 2/3 of the edition with clarified rules and reworked cards was released to the game. You can purchase an upgrade pack = Each new game element (encounter, character, enemy, item) brings new rules/keywords. The latest version of the rulebook is pretty well done, but it's still inconvenient to constantly consult it = The party can be very long. Up to 4 hours, depending on the number of players and the selected scenario = A large box of non-standard sizes. And in the boxes of additions there is more air than content = The game is literally heavyweight. If you have a bunch of add-ons and deluxe hp tokens, the weight of all this goodies reaches 5 kg. = Each unit's initiative is represented by colored poker chips, but blue and purple are too similar = Characters are difficult to master. Everyone needs an individual approach = The game is quite abstract. The setting and story on the encounter cards are quite banal, I pay much more attention to the parameters of the enemies. And different bosses have little effect on the course of the campaign. = Cooperation between mouths is reduced to a minimum = Enemies' AI is very simple, predictable and sometimes dull. He can be abused = Battles are a bit static. Ranged units have unlimited range, they do not have to move at all I DO NOT LIKE - The game is expensive, with overproduction - Too many bones or an imbalance?.. For most ghouls (for example, Boomer, Ghillie, Tantrum), it is optimal to pump basic parameters (HP, agility, attack and defense), and not to pump skills at all. Many skills can only be used once per battle, and you can attack every round. And most skills don't do much more damage than a basic attack. If you pump attack and agility, you can often vanshot enemies, which is much more effective than, for example, stun skills. Some skills still make sense, including companions (especially Tink) and true damage, but other skills can be safely ignored. This strategy makes the passage easier, but makes the game more boring. - strong random on dice. There are few possibilities of their overturning. The randomness is especially strong in initiative rolls, which can lead to a one-shot one of your ghouls in the first round. - Some mouths are not very interesting. Their abilities are either situational, reactive-passive, or require extensive training to effectively apply the skills. Also, if you don't roll the right face of the die, you probably won't be able to use your ability. - The game does not scale well. Difficulty jumps dramatically from 1 to 4 players. The best option is 3 players. - a long layout (especially if you have many additions), because you have to sort a bunch of components - Special encounters at the beginning of each (in the base) game are somewhat monotonous and drawn out. However, the quick start option allows you to skip them, get loot and random damage. Basically, there are only three special meetings, which leads to monotony. New ones appear in Age of Tyranny, but they should have been included in the base - You will have to check the rules often because of a bunch of keywords; dazed, equipment, assault, etc. - When several game effects interact, it is often not clear how to solve them - I don't like plastic cards and letters. They don't smell very good to the touch and they smell a little. And the art on them is not so clear - Apparently, TMB has a problem with plastic. On the other hand, your game is waterproof, yay! After some time, the rugs may begin to wear out, and the paint on the poker chips may wear off. IMPRESSION I rarely use home rules, but in the case of Too Many Bones they are necessary in my opinion to keep the game fan friendly. In particular, the home rule is that the mouthpiece must take a skill die every second upgrade, and that the mouthpiece may gain an additional initiative die (or reroll as an option) for 3 hp. Despite the criticisms above, I generally like the game and its mechanics. Especially the variety and the fact that every fight is a new puzzle. The need to learn new rules with each new encounter, boss and mouthpiece does not bother me. But I don't like that the skill dice are less effective than the base dice, and that the AI is very primitive (the only difficulty is a lot of keywords). If it weren't for the long layouts and games, I would still be playing TMB to this day. ..

EXCURSION INTO THE HISTORY OF CARDS Nobody knows where and when cards and card games appeared. The earliest references to maps date back to the 12th century and are associated with Asian countries. China is mentioned, where cards were played with some long strips, India, where the cards were round (!), and Korea. According to other sources, cards allegedly existed in China as early as the 8th century, when some stick games were invented, which were later replaced by the predecessors of modern cards - strips of paper with symbols printed on them. There is another version according to which cards appeared in Ancient Egypt.  It is reliably known that maps reached Europe before 1367. More precisely, they appeared in Europe, probably before that, and by 1367 they had become quite widespread, because it was in this year that card games were banned in the city of Bern. Little is known about the history of card games in Russia. Cards entered our country somewhere in the middle of the last millennium, and in 1817 industrial production was established in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Card Factory. Card games are usually divided into commercial and gambling. Commercial include games that require more or less significant intellectual effort from players  ("bridge", "preference", "whist", etc.), and gambling includes games where chance plays a decisive role ("blackjack", "storm" ») ). There are other classifications of card games, for example, there are games for discarding cards ("witch"), games for knockback ("fool"), games for collecting bribes ("splash"), games for collecting points on bribes ("thousand"), games for seniority of combinations ("poker").  All these are so-called traditional card games, known to probably everyone. After all, literally the whole country plays "fool", "witch" and "drunkard" in our country (I wonder why the most popular games in our country have exclusively negative names?). But, of course, we are more interested in other card games - board games. Actually, board games (sometimes called board-printed games) in Russia also include traditional games with fields, chips and cards, which are denoted in the West by the term Board Games (literally - "games with a field"), and games consisting entirely of cards - Card Games (card games). However, recently the terms "board game" and "board game" can be found more and more often in our country. Several varieties can also be distinguished among board games. These are collectible card games, live card games, regular board games, deck building card games, and card games where cards replace figures. COLLECTIBLE CARD GAMES Collectible card games (Collectible Card Games or ККИ) are probably the most famous subtype of card games. The name of the most successful and popular KKI game in our country is Magic: The Gathering. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, because there are a lot of collectible games.  The history of KKI originated in the United States of America and goes back to the 19th century. At that time, a new hobby appeared in the United States, which later became traditional - collecting baseball cards. The cards were a piece of cardboard about the size of a standard playing card with a photo of a famous baseball player accompanied by a small text about him. The main feature was the method of distribution of the cards - they were packed in opaque bags in small quantities and sold in this form. The buyer had only to open the package and find out which cards he got. However, there was one trick here - some cards were printed more and some less. Accordingly, some cards were considered more valuable because of their rarity, some less valuable because there were so many of them. These cards were collected, traded, sold and hunted. In 1904, the Allegheny Card Company issued a special set of 112 baseball cards that included not only the cards but also the rules for playing them. This game did not become famous and did not gain popularity, but, in fact, it was a prototype of modern KKI.  The history of KKI began again in 1993, when a little-known mathematician Richard Garfield invented the game Magic: The Gathering, and his friend Peter Adkison's small company called Wizards of the Coast published it. Magic: The Gathering (aka "Magic") is a card game in which each player plays with his own deck. The cards in the deck are territories, creatures, events, and spells. The game is built on the fact that players introduce territory cards into the game that act as resources, and then use them to pay for the draw of other cards, mostly creatures and spells. The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent by attacking them with magic or your creatures. The lion's share of the appeal of "Magic" is that each player has his own deck of cards, which is drawn up in advance. In fact, it allows you to play "Magic" even before meeting with an opponent, choosing cards that combine with each other and allow you to implement one or another strategy. Thanks to the talent of the developers, MtG allows you to play completely different games and, very importantly, the variety of cards always leaves the opportunity to surprise your opponent by playing a card or combination of cards that he is completely unprepared for.  And, of course, the game distribution model played its role. The cards were sold in starter sets, which presented a certain list of cards, and in so-called "boosters" - opaque bags containing 15 random cards (just as baseball cards were distributed a hundred years before). This decision turned out to be beneficial both for the publishers, who thus increased sales, and for the players. Fans of "Magic" could not only play the game, but also collect cards from a certain issue, exchange them with friends, and simply satisfy their passion for learning the unknown, revealing new and new boosters. The success of the game was overwhelming. Within six weeks, 2.5 million cards were sold, although the publishers believed that this circulation would last six months. Immediately after, WotC printed another 7.5 million cards, while Richard Garfield designed the next set of cards, released in late 1993, called Arabian Nights. Since then, new issues of "Magic" have been released every year, and every year 600-700 new cards appear. The game takes the world by storm, regional tournaments and world championships are held, Richard Garfield gains worldwide popularity, and Wizards of the Coast says goodbye to the status of a "small publisher" forever. After MtG, other collectible games appear on the market: Babylon-5, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Legend of the Five Rings, Naruto. CCIs were even published based on the A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Harry Potter books, the works of Howard Lovecraft, and the computer game Heroes of Might & Magic IV. KKI appeared in Russia as well: "War", "Heavens", "Kozyablo", "Commander's Way", and the most famous domestic KKI - "Berserk". Unfortunately, repeating the success of "Magic" turned out to be within the power of few. Today in our country, World of Warcraft TCG, Berserk, and of course MtG itself are popular. LIVE CARD GAMES Over time, traditional methods of spreading "Magic" have been criticized. Someone gives up the game, realizing that they are firmly "hooked" on buying new and new cards, someone understands that the pursuit of boosters and rare cards requires too much financial investment, and someone is simply tired of endlessly exchanging cards with friends. All this led to the appearance in 2008 of a new type of game called "living card games".  In essence, ZHCI are still those collectible card games with different editions and sets of cards, but the method of distribution of cards in ZHCI is fundamentally different from KKI. There are no boosters and there is no random distribution of cards in the housing complex. When buying a set of RKI, the buyer always knows which cards he will get. For the game, it is enough to purchase the basic set, which contains all the cards of the basic edition. Then, if you wish, you can purchase an additional edition of cards that also includes all the cards in that edition. Do you understand? No more randomness, no more boosters, no more rare and ultra-rare cards. We owe the appearance of the term "Living Card Game" to the publisher Fantasy Flight Games. TABLE CARD GAMES Well, now it's time to move on to board games with cards, which are called Card Games abroad. The history of these games is inseparable from the general history of board games, which begins in the fourth millennium BC, when the Senet game appeared in Ancient Egypt. The exact appearance of board card games is unknown, so we will consider the same game with collectible baseball cards from 1904 (it was called the Allegheny Game, by the way) as one of the first games. Then the history of board games froze to be revived again in 1996, when three years after MtG took off, the Settlers of Catan toy appeared in our country under the name "Colonizers". Since then, board games and board card games have also experienced their heyday.  There are many such games today. There are easy company games (Uno), fast-paced dueling games (Blue Moon), complex multiplayer games (Caylus Magna Carta). There are games that practically do not require mastering (No Thanks!), Difficult games (Race for the Galaxy), in short, there are no number of them. A separate type of card games are games where cards actually replace chips or tokens. For example, in the same KKI "Berserk" or in "Black Prince" miniatures could be used instead of cards. There are games where the playing field is actually formed from the cards (Dungeoneer, Meuterer). In my opinion, it is possible to make the following classification of board card games: original and derivatives. Original - these are all card games that were conceived and created precisely as games (Saboteur). Derivatives are..

 I bought "Galerist" at a time when the wow effect from the variety of board games and mechanics had already subsided, and I no longer wrote reviews for everything in a row. However, "Galerist" is still worth mentioning, since this game is distinguished by a good overlay of mechanics on the theme and without unnecessary conventions. Players appear as competing gallerists with empty galleries, two assistants, and a dozen follower profiles. The task of each player is to fill his gallery with works of art, invite visitors who have nowhere to spend money, and sell canvases and sculptures at a reasonable price. The most successful gallerist wins. Success is determined by earned money, which is more pleasant than a counter of abstract software around the perimeter of the playing field. And since you have to spend a lot of this money during the game, you have to use it wisely. "Galerist" does not pretend to be hardcore. On the contrary, its rules are so simple that people without desktop experience can easily learn them; tested on relatives who did not follow Rummikub. But our party was in some sense phenomenal: we managed to increase the popularity of five artists as much as possible. The endgame trigger is a popularity boost of at least two. The game does not have a fixed number of rounds, but there are three events that mark the approaching end of the game. As soon as two of them are triggered, the game is over. The second trigger is visitors who gradually enter the field and at some point run out. The third is tickets to the box office, which are needed to attract these visitors. Visitors are divided into VIPs, investors and collectors. VIPs increase the gallerist's influence, collectors help popularize artists, and investors bring money. And the fact that the gallery is filled with them increases the capabilities of the gallerist many times over.  There are only eight actions in the game, divided in pairs between four locations. In "Artists' Settlement", players buy works of art or search for unknown talents in order to promote them. With the latter players, they make a kind of agreement, according to which the artist will sell his first painting at a starting price, regardless of the level of popularity, the price of an entrance ticket to the world of great art. His further works will be available at the current price. With each purchase, the artist's works become more and more popular, and when he reaches his peak, the artist becomes a celebrity, and his works become masterpieces. And then he stops creating. And it is very important to have time to purchase it before this moment. Sales contracts are concluded in the "Sales Office" and, in fact, the sales of paintings themselves are carried out. Sold paintings leave the gallery together with one of the visitors of the player's choice and are stacked next to each other. At the end of the game, you can get extra money for a certain set of sold paintings. In the Media Center, gallerists use their influence to advertise their artists in the media, increasing their popularity, and also hire new assistants to help them in this difficult business. The more famous the artist, the more influence units are needed to "rock" him forward. But it easily pays off with bonuses for these actions and the selling price of the painting. Assistants are needed to be in several places at the same time. They work on contracts, promote the player at the international level, help to make more actions on the playing field. "International market", where gallerists earn a reputation by sending their assistants or participate in an international auction for world masterpieces. Reputation is revealed in Reputation Tokens, which provide extra money at the end of the game. For example, a coin for each visitor to the gallery or two for each sold work. At the auction, there is a fight for works that you can add to the gallery and thus collect a set (it is also available here). Or add to the pool of sold paintings to collect a set there. The works for auction are randomly selected at the start of the game and are placed next to the field on cute little wooden easels, but there is one oddity about the auction. In fact, this is a bet on the possibility of taking an additional picture at the end of the game first. Only one can lose in it. Others will get it for one work. And every time it turns out that their value is approximately the same, when the players' investments can differ by almost half.  Players perform their actions by placing a gallerist token on a location that interests them. They then call out one of the two actions available in that location and perform it. Point by point, according to the memo. By the way, the monuments are made very well: all the actions are briefly but comprehensively described and an explanation is given for all the iconography that is found on the field and on the game tablets. In "Galerist", the player who performs more actions per unit of time wins. This is facilitated by Vital's very interesting idea as "kick-outs" (kick-out action in the original), or "action-compensation", as translated by the localizer. The point is that a player gets the opportunity to perform a location action out of turn if his chip is knocked out by an opponent's chip. And during the game it will happen constantly. But on such kick-outs you need to spend influence, which may not be there, or which should be saved for a more effective move. Moreover, when the player leaves the location, he can leave his assistant there, and if he is knocked out, this will also be an opportunity to perform an out-of-turn move. And "if" is because the assistant can be taken at any moment and used in another place, if he suddenly "stuck" in the location or there are no other options. When I say influence, I mean an influence track. This is the most important element of the game and another amazing find of Lacerda. The impact track is versatile and elegant. It can be spent on performing actions, on additional "infusions" into the popularity of artists, it can simply be used as additional money if suddenly there is not enough to buy a painting. The main thing is to monitor the occupancy of the track.  I fell in love with this game precisely because it explains how and why it works and what it interacts with. And there are no artificial restrictions, which are, for example, in "On Mars", where you can build buildings strictly across the cell from previously built ones, or in "Vignos", where the player is obliged to buy vineyards from different regions in one move. Everything works well at "Galerista" and you don't wonder why. The design of the game is also at a height. Capacious organizer, thick cardboard, colored soaps. The field is decorated in calm tones, but not pale. It perfectly contrasts with the bright elements of the players. Assistants on the field will not get lost and you can always quickly list the visitors in the gallery. For me, this standard design in terms of ergonomics. You can find something similar only in "Lisbon".  The game, of course, is not fast. With a full team, taking into account the knowledge of the rules, 1.5-2 hours will go. Despite the visible triggers, it will be possible to accelerate the progress of the game only with joint efforts. However, it will be a most interesting watch...

 At high speed, the Formula 1 car is approaching the pit stop. Stop or drive? Driving into the pits is lost seconds, during which rivals rush forward. But will the tires last to the finish line if you rush past? Drive or stop? Why am I? I just remembered the games where you have to make a similar decision. I have two such games in my collection. And if the first one is quite well-known, then few people have probably heard of the second one... CAN'T STOP You don't need to be a smart board or probability expert to figure out that two dice can only add up to a number between 2 and 12, with the middle values more often than the extremes. The playing field for Can't Stop is not a regular octagon, as it may seem at first glance, but eleven independent tracks of different lengths, numbered from 2 to 12. The outer tracks consist of only three cells, but the central one, corresponding to the seven, is almost in five times longer. The task is simple - to be the first to run the track to the end. It actually looks like this. During his turn, the player receives four cubes and three chips of neutral (white) color - they are shared by everyone who plays. He throws the dice and at his own discretion divides them into pairs, thereby determining the numbers of the two tracks that he has the right to move. Now he has two moves, one for each pair of dice. If the corresponding track already has a white chip, it moves forward one space; if not - the player is obliged to place a white chip on the appropriate track (even if he does not want to). Of course, for this he must have this white chip - and there are only three of them...  Yes, we must say about the forbidden tracks. Where someone (perhaps you yourself) has already reached the end, you cannot place another white chip. If movement on one of the tracks is impossible (the track is prohibited or there is no free white chip) - no problem, instead of two moves, one move will be made. Moreover, sometimes it is advantageous to combine the dice in such a way as to advance only in one place (for example, in order to save a white piece). It is much worse if - no matter how you form pairs - you cannot make a single move. Then you must forget about all your progress, remove the white pieces and pass them, the dice and the right of move to the next player. In order not to lose what he gained by hard work, the player has the right at any moment not to roll the dice, but to stop and voluntarily end his turn. Then the place of white chips is taken by chips of his color, and the next time he will go along this track not from the start, but from the stop point. If, of course, he manages to get on the same track...  According to the basic rules of the game, the winner is the one who reaches the end of the three tracks first. However, it is good with four participants, but with three and especially two it impoverishes the game. (And if you still carelessly read the rules and skip everything related to the forbidden tracks, as we managed to do at first, it's so boring.) Therefore, lately we prefer modified rules, when when playing together you need to complete five chips, and when playing with three - four. By the way, this is not home rule, but an official version. With this refinement, the game becomes less predictable and therefore more interesting: I once managed to win after my wife was on the finish line on four (!) tracks before I finished on at least one. It's just that usually the easiest paths are the first to become forbidden, and the rest still need to be accessed before reaching the end. Of course, there is no strategy in Can't Stop, instead there are enough tactical solutions. What to choose — to go the long way to values that often fall out, or to risk starting with a short track? Stop when you reach, say, the middle of the path, or risk continuing to move, hoping to reach the finish line in one move? All the time the choice between a more relaxed and a more risky game; it is no coincidence that many years ago this game was released by one of the domestic manufacturers under the name "Risk". By the way, observations show that it is possible to go all the way from start to finish without stopping either through the central (6, 7, 8) tracks, or - in case of some luck - through the outer ones (2 and 12). On the rest, it is an exceptional rarity, possible only in cases where the situation requires action. The name Can't Stop translates as "Impossible to stop". In my opinion, these words better characterize not the course of a single game, but the game in general. It is like a seed: it started to bite, and it is impossible to stop until it is finished. We had a period where we played Can't Stop several times a day. But it was worth taking a forced break - and it became clear that we were bored with completely other games. To some, Can't Stop will seem like a game that depends entirely on dice. I won't argue, although it's not "roll-walks" and not even dice poker. Are you not satisfied? Then I am ready to offer you "Ovija". OUIJA This game was brought to me from Canada. Probably, it is more correct to pronounce it as "Ouija" or - if we believe the hypothesis that the name consists of the word "yes" in French (oui) and German (ja) - in general as "Vi-ya". "Ovija" is a card game. It is based on 50 cards, each of which is characterized by three parameters: value (from 1 to 13), color (white or black) and "answer" ("yes" or "no"). There is also a letter on each card, but this is a separate conversation. Although there are equal white and black cards in the deck, as well as "yes"/"no" values, they are unevenly distributed: yes, all "threes" are white, and if out of four "fives" all three blacks have the answer "no". Since there are two fewer cards than traditional 52s, the values 1 and 12 are missing (inexplicably to me). It's hard to say whether this unevenness improves the game. The fact is that the participant's task is to predict what the next card from the deck will be. He can try to guess the color or the answer or make a prediction on the value of the card relative to the previous one (more less). At the same time, in the latter case, regardless of the bet made, the appearance of a card with the same denomination means "didn't guess". Theoretically, the probability of guessing can be increased if you remember the cards that came out, practically - taking into account the mentioned unevenness of the distribution of values - it is extremely difficult. Yes, the game still has semi-jokers (stars) - cards that do not have a numerical value. If such a card is revealed at the moment when the "over/under" prediction is made, the player is considered to have guessed. As a "payoff", the next prediction can only be on the color or on the answer, but not on the denomination.  The following is the same principle as in Can't Stop: at any moment you can stop and turn the guessed cards into the "unburnt amount" of scored points, which is marked with a special Stop card. Or risk further... The round ends when someone guesses 11 cards correctly. The winner receives 15 points (11 + 4 bonus points), the losers - according to the number of recorded cards. It is recommended to play five rounds. And now about the unusual feature of "Oviji". The thing is, it's a magic game. (By the way, according to the dictionary, ouija (English) is a board for spiritual sessions.) To use magical possibilities, before the start of the game, each player asks his question to the Higher Powers. The winner of each round has the right to know the answer. If the question was formulated in such a way that it involves an assertion or a denial, then it is quite simple to count your 11 cards: which one is more - this is the answer given by Heaven. In other cases, the answer must be composed of 11 letters that are on hand. As in all such games, the "star" replaces any...  For those who, like me, are far from occult entertainment, there are two ways. You can just ignore the letters. And you can use home rule for those who know a foreign language or, better, are studying it. Then the winner has to make a word from his letters, the longer the better. And instead of the traditional 4 bonus points, get 1 point for each letter used. In general, "Ovija", despite the greater influence of the player on the situation, which seems to be more primitive than Can't Stop. And even (taking into account 5 rounds) not faster. Therefore, if you make a choice between these two games, "Ovija" I recommend in two cases: if you need to somehow force the child to learn foreign words and if you play in derivative conditions. Because there is no doubt: a deck of cards on the go is more convenient than a rather large plastic one (that is, a field that does not shrink in size). Otherwise, both toys are easy fillers for luck, risk and a little knowledge of the basics of probability theory...