Game Nite magazine issue 17

Game Nite

Issue # 17

the magazine of tabletop gaming

F

e e r

Game Reviews friday

app review

Dr. Steve finn game Designer

quiver card case quivertime

Book Reviews and more!

In this issue: Reviews

book reviews

4 Playing at the World D&D History

6 Of Dice and Men The world of D&D

Interview 44

Steve Finn

Shahrazad Jeff Rhind

Accessory Reviews 12

The Quiver Card Case

Mobile Reviews 8

Fantasy Realms

18

Space Race

22

Isle of Skye

24

King of the Fillers

Solo Gaming 84

16

Friday

Combo Card Game.

The Race for Space.

Build the Isle of Skye.

Unearth

Ruins and Wonders.

28

ION

32

Escape from 100 Million BC Avoiding the Butterfly Effect.

38

Battle for Souls

52

C.O.G.

56

Near and Far

Chemical Compounds.

Deluxe Edition.

Dr. Finn Eurogame.

Storytelling Worker Placement.

Android and iOS

64

Review index

68

Caverna: Cave vs. Cave

72

Pocket Mars

76

Terra Mystica

80

Hafid’s Grand Bazaar

90

Back Issue Index

Contributors 78

Game Nite Contributors

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Terraforming Mars

Life on the Red Planet.

Rosenberg Two Player.

Colonize Mars.

Brilliant Classic.

Bidding and Trading Frenzy.

From the gaming table

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lthough Game Nite was originally conceived as a bi-monthly magazine, we always felt that it would eventually become monthly.

We are currently looking into the logistics and feasibility of making that happen. We might have to “skip an issue” in order to get a head start on the monthly version, but if possible, we’ll try and phase it in without having any interruptions.

So… what changes would going monthly bring? First of all, we would be able to deliver content that was more current. This would include News, Kickstarters and games closer to their release dates. Of course we won’t be able to deliver 80-100 page issues each month, but 30-50 seems viable, and should we get more contributors, we can shoot for more!

Cover Photograph by Serge Pierro.

Battle for Souls © Robert Burke Games

Editor in Chief/Publisher: Serge Pierro

Editor:

Would you be interested in a monthly version of Game Nite?

What would you like to see? Feel free to let us know!

Eric Devlin

In this issue, Tom Franklin reviews “Playing at the World”, “Of Dice and Men”, “Isle of Skye”, “Terraforming Mars” and “Terra Mystica”.

Bill Braun reviews,”Escape From 100 Million B.C.”.

Steve Krause reviews, “Caverna: Cave vs. Cave”.

Jeff Rhind’s column on Solo Gaming features, “Shahrazad”.

Special thanks to Dr. Steve Finn for taking time from his busy schedule to share his thoughts with our readers.

Contributing Writers: Photographers: Bill Braun

Serge Pierro

David Niecikowski

Bill Braun

Kevin Lauryssen

Jeff Rhind

Jeff Rhind

Tom Franklin

Tom Franklin

Steve Krause

Steve Krause

Congratulations to Robert Burke and Robert Burke Games for winning an Editor’s Choice Award for their excellent two player game, “Battle for Souls”.

If you are a writer, photographer, reviewer, etc. and you’d like to contribute to the magazine, feel free to contact us - we’d love to hear from you!

Follow us on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/GameNiteMagazine Visit us at:

Serge Pierro

www.gamenitemagazine.com Follow us on Twitter:

Editor in Chief

@GameNiteMag

editor@gamenitemagazine.com Issue #17

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Book Review

Playing at the World

I

f David Ewalt’s “Of Dice and Men” provided an overview of the people, games, literature, and events that led to the creation of Dungeons and Dragons, Jon Peterson’s “Playing at the World” is a Master Class on the subject.

Peterson begins by detailing the history of wargaming clubs based around games produced by Avalon Hill in the 1960s and the rise of medieval castle and crusade games. From there he goes in depth into the popularity of the fan-produced newsletters surrounding those games with a focus on the articles and advertisements written by E. Gary Gygax. (“Will cooperate on game design”) From there Peterson explores the early game systems created by Dave Arneson and Gygax including “Blackmoor”, “Chainmail”, and “The Fantasy Game”, which would eventually become the first release of Dungeons and Dragons.

The section on the genre of medieval fantasy is a literary exploration of fiction, science fiction, and, of course, Tolkien – the writer whose imagination sparked the initial D&D character types. My own ‘Books to Read’ list all but doubled in size by the end of this section.

Pulling back, Peterson takes the long view by setting out the full history of wargames beginning with an overview of the BCE games of the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians before dividing the relatively modern pre-D&D timeline of 1780 – 1968 into six sections. These sections cover the start of the German kriegsspiel trend of the 1800s, the British toy soldier terrain battles of the late 1800s, and the war games as war study of the mid-twentieth century, great world wars years.

By Tom M Franklin

Moving to the revolutionary game play systems that D&D –ones that we largely take for granted these days – introduced, Peterson shows the bond with the historical games from the previous chapter and shows how Gygax and Arneson, expanded each these factors.

Peterson then takes the reader through the history of roleplaying (or rollenspiel, in the original German) as a game mechanic. Originally a term used in group psychotherapy, the phrase was not used in the original three books that comprised the original release of D&D. However, it was well understood by fans of increasingly popular fantasy and gaming groups, both in person and by letter.

The final section starts by chronicling the years 1974-1977 with regard to the attempts to sell D&D to an audience that didn’t quite know what to make of such an abstract concept to its success. It ends with the sad political and business in-fighting and the legal cases that sought to determine ownership of the game and broke the business foundation apart.

At over 600 pages of printed text (and 38 Index pages) this may not be the book for everyone. However, there is no finer detailed history of the diverse elements that came together at just the right moment in time to spark the magic fireball that became Dungeons and Dragons. This is a work that earned my respect for both the time and effort it took to research and write, as well as Peterson’s insights and unending enthusiasm for his subjects.

Author: Jon Peterson Publisher: Unreason Press

Highly Recommended www.unreason.com

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Book Review

Of Dice and Men The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It.

By Tom M Franklin

D

avid Ewalt, a contributing editor and blogger for Forbes magazine, presents the reader with two books in one. The first is a history of the people and games that led to the creation of Dungeons and Dragons as well as the businesses that brought the game to market. The second is a personal history of his love of the game and his quest to better understand those people and games behind the game.

Role Playing adventure, and attending GaryCon where he plays a four-hour D&D session led by Gary Gygax’s son, Ernie Gygax. His writings on D&D attracted the attention of the current purveyors of Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, who invited him to Washington state to take part in an early preview of D&D Next, the gaming system that became Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.

Ewalt provides a good overview of the diverse elements that provided the foundation from which Dungeons and Dragons was developed: miniature war games, the formation of various Midwest-based gaming groups and their fan base newsletters in the 1960s, Swords and Sorcery fantasy fiction, and the early conventions where people who shared these interests were able to meet.

Much of the book is given to Ewalt’s own history playing D&D and his narratives of his gaming group’s Adventures.

These stories appear throughout the book, occasionally taking up entire chapters. Anyone who has played D&D will appreciate not only the Dungeon Master running the group but Ewalt’s storytelling and the cleverness of his Adventuring companions.

The major players, David Arneson and Gary Gygax, are given cursory biographies before moving into the circumstances that saw them collaborate on what was to become the first sellable set of D&D rules. Ewalt then chronicles the successes and failures of their initial company and loose partnership as well as the business and politicking behind the rise and fall of TSR in all of its various incarnations.

Ewalt’s book is a fine overview of the history of people and games that preceded Dungeons and Dragons, the fandom culture that continues to surround the game, and a first-hand look into why the game is still popular today.

In order to better understand the gaming that led to D&D, Ewalt attends Historicon, a miniature war gaming convention, where he plays Napoleon’s Battles and Boot Camp. Other personal experiences include a weekend at OtherWorld, a Live Action

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Author: David M. Ewalt Publisher: Scribner

Recommended www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/scribner

Mobile Review

Friday

By Serge Pierro

Help Crusoe Survive

J

udging from many of the online forums and groups, the board game hobby has seemingly become an “addiction” for many players, as they look forward to meeting up with friends and share a night of gaming and camaraderie.

But, there are times when you are unable to get the gang together and yet you still wish to play a game, and while there are several excellent board game apps available, there are few that are devoted primarily to solo play. Friday by Friedemann Friese is one such game. Originally designed as a standalone solitaire card game, it has now been brought to both Android and iOS. Let’s take a look at my new favorite solitaire game… and possibly, yours!

Upon loading the app you are greeted with a screen that includes several buttons: Start, Help, KOI and Achievements.

Along the bottom of the screen you also have icons for: Language selection, Settings and Info.

After clicking on the “Start” button you are taken to a page that has a slider bar at the bottom of the screen which allows you to set the level of difficulty for the game, as well as explaining what changes have been made to the level to make it more difficult.

By clicking on the “Help” button you are taken to a screen that has two more buttons: Rules and Cards. The Rules page has the original rules PDF embedded. You can scroll through the file and double tap the screen to have it display a higher resolution rendering of the page. The Cards page has all of the cards laid out so that you can see what they do and how many of each are included in the game.

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“KOI” has not yet been implemented, though apparently it is a type of tournament mode.

The “Achievements” button takes you to another page that lists, Achievements, Highscores and Last Highscores. The Achievements button reveals a list of specific tasks to pursue.

Example: Pirates - Beat all Pirate cards. Both the Highscore and Last Highscore sections don’t appear to be working at this point, as none of my scores have been added. Both of these sections are broken down for the five different difficulty levels.

The Language selection icon toggles between English and German. The Settings icon takes you to a page where the following can be chosen: Right-handed - toggles between ease of use for right-handed or left-handed users. Show Help. Animations - on or off. Sound effects - on or off.

While there is no dedicated walkthrough tutorial there is the included rules PDF, as well as access to a help icon in the bottom left corner of the screen to assist you at various points in the game.

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Mobile Review (Cont.)

While the overall gameplay is smooth, there are a few bumps along the way. First of all the UI is not intuitive nor is it helpful on your initial plays. Some of the problems are: When there is a transition to the next level of Hazards, the only reminder that the level has changed is circle in the upper left corner of the screen. It is easy to get caught up in the game and forget that you are now on a different Hazard level. I would have preferred a more pronounced effort, such as displaying larger areas of the green, yellow and red colors.

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Another issue is that there is no “undo” button. This is exasperated by the fact that the two onscreen button to either “draw another card” or “stop drawing” are right next to each other and several times I had accidentally hit one instead of the other.

One of the things that I did like about the UI was the inclusion of the bird sound for when you completed a Hazard. There is also a small area devoted to your running total so that you don’t have to continuously tally the numbers on the cards.

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Overall the gameplay is exactly the same as the regular game, sans the reshuffling of cards. If you enjoy playing the card game, then the app will provide an easier means of doing so.

Let’s cut to the chase… I absolutely love the Friday app.

Even with its flaws and unimplemented areas, this is a must have game for your mobile device. The gameplay itself is exceptional and it is very addictive. I can’t count how many times I said, “just one more game…”

I’m very interested to see what they do with the rest of the implementation, yet at the same time I’m disappointed to see that such a basic thing as implementing a high score hasn’t found its way into the game yet. As stated above, there should be a better way to show the next level - instead of the green/yellow/red circle in the corner of the screen. Seeing how fast the game plays there needs to be something to help players know where they are in the game, other than the colored circle. And an Undo button is a must for those accidental screen taps.

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This has easily become my favorite pure solitaire card/board game on my Android device. Anyone who enjoys the actual card game will certainly want to have this on their mobile device especially since the game has a much quicker pace to it due to the fact that you don’t have to stop and shuffle cards.

I would consider this a “must have” app for the gamer who enjoys challenging solitaire games and if you like the original game, you are going to love the digital implementation of it.

The perfect solitaire game to be stranded on a desert island with.

Version #: 2.1.1 Price: $3.99 Devices: Android and iOS Developer: Brettspielwelt

Highly Recommended

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Accessory Review

Quiver

By Serge Pierro

Professional Card Carrying Case

A

nyone who has dabbled in the world of Collectible Card Games or any of their offshoots knows how the accumulation of decks is commonplace. Not only do you feel the need to carry several different deck archetypes, but you are also interested in bringing along trading material - so that you can build yet more decks. Coming to the rescue is Quiver, a professional card carrying case that has plenty of room for your card game needs.

Quiver measures 17 1/2” x 4 1/2” x 3 1/2” and is covered in black tolex.

As a guitarist, my first impression was that Quiver was a wood based case that was covered in tolex, since that is what I am accustomed to with guitar cases and amplifiers. However, that is not the case, as it is actually a lightweight product that is also strong enough to hold and carry your collection of cards. This is especially apparent in the corners, as there is great deal of support and it doesn’t flex. The metal logo plate on the front of the case is a nice touch and it adds a touch of elegance to an already impressive looking item.

It is hard not to notice the zipper system, as the chrome metal tabs have the Quiver name and logo embossed into them and filled with black. Due to the entire case being black, the logo plate, strap attachments and zipper tabs really stand out. What is surprising is the zipper system itself, as the zipper is self-sealing and looked a bit strange at first as I was unfamiliar with such a system. It works flawlessly as the zipper not only closes the bag, but it seals itself against water, thus making it water and rust resistant.

The case comes with two different systems for transportation. The shoulder strap is what largely gives Quiver its namesake, for when you use that to carry the Quiver it resembles a quiver used in archery and makes for hands free transportation. The length of the shoulder strap is adjustable. The other means of transportation is a wrist strap and it enables you to carry it dangling at your side. We found that the shoulder strap was the most useful, however, it is nice to have both options available.

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And while Quiver’s exterior is quite attractive, it is the interior which contains the heart of the system. The inside of the case can be broken down into an “upper” and “lower” area. The upper area is a long mesh pocket that can hold a variety of items such as instruction sheets, score pads, pencils and other items that for the most part can lie flat. The pocket features an elastic band which snaps the pocket in place to help prevent

movement. However, it is the lower area that is the heart of the case, as this is where the cards will be stored. It should be noted that although we are reviewing this primarily as a card transportation system, this actually can be used for carrying a variety of items, including games that don’t use boards, such as “Carcassonne” .

Their website even shows it being used to carry a bottle of wine!

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Game (Cont.)

Game Review Review (Cont.)

Accessory Review (Cont.)

Before we explore the main storage area of the case, it is important to understand what is also included inside the the case when you get it, as these are all part of the case’s system. First up would be the Velcro Dividers.

The case comes with five dividers that can be adjusted along the length of the case. Each of these are removable and movable, so you can set them in any manner you wish. The dividers have velcro on each end to attach to the case and a semi-firm material embedded inside it to support the compartment formed. Also included are two red and two black Plastic Separators that can be used to further subdivide a compartment for separating different decks and card games. Each of these feature the Quiver logo printed on them and feature a minute tab along the top, though it is for aesthetics only, as it is too small for it to be actually written on. The last of the included accessories are the two Corner Pads which help keep the cards straight in the corners of the case, as well as providing additional protection should the ends of the case collide with something. As an additional bonus, the case comes with two 50 count packages of clear card sleeves.

After deciding on what transportation system you want to use and setting up the interior to your liking, the case is ready for use. The case can hold 1350 cards or 770 sleeved cards, which should prove to be more than enough for a tournament CCG player who wants

to also tote along some trade material. It also worked fine for transporting boxed games such as Star Realms, Pairs and various CCG starter decks, as the boxes had no problem fitting inside the case and closing with ease.

Of course cards weren’t the only thing that worked well within the compartments, as the storage of dice and life counters were also given their own areas of storage via the arrangement of the Velcro Dividers.

Whether it be a trip to your local friendly neighborhood game store, your weekly game night or a large convention, the Quiver is more than up to the task of transporting your cards and beardless games. The fact that it has hands free operation is also a boon to those who ride bicycles to their points of destination. While there are many means of transporting card games, the Quiver professional card case does so in an aesthetically pleasing way while at the same time providing a generous amount of storage. Card game enthusiasts will certainly want to take a look at this if they are looking for a product that can handle a large amount of cards for easy transportation.

Manufacturer: QuiverTime

Recommended www.quivertime.com

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Game Review

Fantasy Realms

By Serge Pierro

Combo Oriented Set Collection

A

lthough Wizkids is primarily known for their Heroclix line of products, they have recently delved into the realm of card games! Last issue we took a look at “Tournament at Camelot” and gave it an “Editor’s Choice Award” and this time we take a look at one of their other offerings - “Fantasy Realms”.

“Fantasy Realms” comes in a small 5” x 6 1/2” x 1 1/4” box that includes a cardboard insert with one well for holding the cards, as well as two wings to support the score pad and rulebook.

The 8 page rulebook devotes most of its space to scoring examples and Q&A, as the game play itself is very simple and it takes only one page to explain how to play. There is also a section devoted to two variants. The back page features a card by card breakdown of all of the suits.

The game includes a large, double sided score pad. Since there are 6-7 columns for player names, each side can be used multiple times for games with a low player count.

The main component for the game is the deck of 53 cards. The cards have nice snap to them and although they are not linen finished, they should hold up to reasonable game play, as the deck is only shuffled at the start of the game. However, since the game can be addicting, you might want to consider sleeving the cards to keep them in top shape.

The game play is remarkably simple. Each player is dealt a hand of seven cards. On a player’s turn they will draw a card from either the top of the deck or from the discard area and then at the end of their turn they will place a card from their hand into the discard area. One of the unique aspects of the game is that the discard pile is laid out so that players can see all of the cards that have been previously discarded. The discard area also serves as the timing mechanism for the game; when there are ten cards in the discard area, the game ends and points are totaled.

The scoring is fairly straightforward, with each card being scored individually. First the card’s Base score is noted and then any bonuses or penalties are either added or subtracted to it.

These numbers are summed and then the next card is scored. After all of the cards are scored, the grand total is tallied and the highest score wins.

The most interesting element of the game is the interaction amongst the cards, as there are many combos that are possible; a card such as “Candle” is only worth 2 pts., however, if you also have “Book of Changes”, “Bell Tower” and one Wizard, it is now worth an additional 100 pts. and all of the aforementioned cards that are part of the combo each have interesting effects as well.

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For such a fast and simple game there is a lot going on. Not surprisingly the more that it is played the more depth is revealed, as players learn what’s in the card pool and can begin to suss out what their opponents are going for and try to deny them the opportunity of assembling a big scoring combo, while at the same time trying to assemble one themselves .

The only downside was that some players thought it was too “mathy”. I didn’t think so, but be forewarned that there might be members of your group who might feel that way. Overall, the math is more than manageable and many gamers will already be comfortable with such calculations (simple addition and subtraction).

I found this to be quite enjoyable and hope that there might be an “expansion” in the future, even if it is only a “swap a suit in/ swap a suit out” in order to keep the math/game balance in check.

It appears that WizKids is branching out, and if “Fantasy Realms” and “Tournament at Camelot” are any indication, their future line of games appears to be bright.

Designer: Bruce Glassco Publisher: WizKids Number of players: 3-6 Mechanic: Set Collection Ages: 14+ Length: 20 mins.

Recommended www.wizkids.com

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Game Review

Space Race

By Serge Pierro

Race to Build the Best Space Program

H

istory is fascinating. However, an alternate history can be even more fascinating. In Space Race, players compete to build the most celebrated space program in history. Perhaps you will be NASA launching Sputnik 1 with Carl Sagan leading the program from Cape Canaveral or the Russians with Elon Musk financing your development from Area 51 as you discover an Earth-Like Exoplanet. All of this is possible and more!

Space Race comes in a 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” x 2 3/4” box which features a custom, firm foam insert that has separate areas for each of the Control decks, player aides and the Space Race deck, as well as an indentation that holds the tail piece of the Rocket Ship Initiative marker securely in place.

The 28 page rulebook is the size of the box, which helps explain the high page count. The first 18 pages are devoted to the main game and are fairly comprehensive in scope, as each phase is broken down and attention is given to explaining the icon system. The rest of the book features the rules for the solo game and contains an FAQ and Game Summary.

The 160 cards are linen finished and made of a sturdy card stock that makes for a somewhat firm, but easy shuffle. As far as sleeving goes, the Space deck can use any type of sleeves, but the backs of each of the Control decks are different, so clear sleeves or different color sleeves would be recommended.

The game’s only other component is the wooden 2 5/8” Rocket Ship that can be used as the Initiative marker.

Each player will choose one of the four space agencies: NASA, Russia, ESA and Private Sector and receive the associated Control deck of 12 cards.

These decks are symmetrical, though the backs are different.

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Players will be drafting cards from the middle area called, “The Universe”. To begin a turn each player will take one of the cards from their Control decks and place it face down in front of them, this will be used to determine the initiative.

After the cards are revealed they are resolved in the order of the Stages, as

well as the total amount of Initiative at each Stage.

Example: The first Stage is Propaganda. The player who has the highest initiative from cards played or aided by cards that are already in play will get to choose which Propaganda card they want. After players who have played a Propaganda Control card have taken their card, each player will resolve the Abilities (if any) on the

card they just took, as well as any previously played card that has the Propaganda arrow on the card. (see below) Then play continues in the same manner as above with the Technology Stage, the Space Program Stage and the Breakthrough Stage.

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Game Review (Cont.)

The most interesting aspect of the game is the setting up of combos by building a space program that has synergy with the cards drafted. Cards that contain an arrow are triggered any time a Control card with a matching color is played. Keep in mind that there are only 3 of each Control card type (values 1, 3 and 6), so you want to plan your drafting to be as efficient as possible so that when you play a Control card on a later turn it triggers multiple cards.

The game ends after the seventh round and players will total up their points and the highest score wins.

Due to the fact that there are 96 cards in the Space Race deck, there was a good deal of variety in each of the games and any of the various strategies were capable of winning. However, due to the randomness of the draw there were some games that lacked the “explosiveness” of the longer chained combos. These games were enjoyable, but personally the game is at its most satisfying when you are able to pull off a large combo.

Nonetheless, this is a very solid game that has some tough decision making in a short time frame. After multiple plays it becomes apparent which cards should be given a priority, though sometimes they just don’t show up at the right time for you to take full advantage of them and you have to then adjust accordingly. Each game is different, which leads to a high level of replayability, as you are only using part of the deck each game, especially in lower player counts.

The game includes a solo variant that has three levels of difficulty. Essentially it is the same as the main game, however, the opponent “draws blind” from the their Control deck and the cards they draft are placed aside to be scored later. Like the main game, the solo game ends after seven rounds and your opponent scores points for the types of cards they collected, while you score points This is a game that I can see continuing to hit the table quite often, as the various strategies and the randomness in the same manner as the base game. of the draw, makes for some challenging games and Due to the theme and the use of icons, initially players the satisfaction of pulling off a well planned combo is thought that it was reminiscent of Race for the Galaxy. rewarding.

However, the icons were surprisingly intuitive and were much easier to learn than Race for the Galaxy. And Designers: Jan Sokal & Marek Loskot speaking of Race for the Galaxy, the pace of this game is Publisher: Boardcubator much quicker and really does feel like a race, as you only Number of players: 1-4 have seven turns in which to build your engine. You have to quickly choose a path and focus on the strategy you Mechanic: Engine Building, Drafting want to pursue. The battle for “Breakthroughs” were Ages: 13+ present in each game, though often times one player would ignore them and focus primarily on another Length: 30 - 60 mins. strategy. Although it isn’t easy to pull off each game, the “Lab” strategy was a nice source of supplemental points.

Recommended http://boardcubator.com

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Game Review Isle of Skye:

From Chieftain to King

By Tom M Franklin

Build the Isle of Skye

W

hen I first read the description of Isle of Skye, I outright rejected the concept. A buy/sell mechanic attached to a miniature version of my much-loved Carcassonne seemed awkward and unnecessary. I hereby state, for the record, that I was wrong. Very wrong.

At the start of each game you randomly select four of sixteen Scoring tiles to be placed on the board. Each Scoring tile represents one way you will be able to score points. However, each scoring tile is only active in three of the game‘s six rounds. Scoring can be based on the number of Sheep present on your tiles, the number of tiles you have in a set pattern, the number of Lighthouses you have, the number of completed areas (land, water, mountains) you have, etc.

Players start with a player screen, starting marker, a Castle landscape tile, and a Discard token of their chosen color. The Castle landscape tile is set to the side in a space with sufficient room for tiles to be added. Each player then collects coins equal to the number of road tiles with whisky barrels that are connected to the Castle. Since the Castle landscape tile has such a barrel on it, each player is guaranteed five coins at the start of each turn.

Each player then selects three random landscape tiles from the provided cloth bag and places them in front of their player screen.

Your first decisions are (a) which tile to secretly place your Discard token behind to eliminate from the game and (b) how much of your limited coinage you want to put behind the other two tiles to show how much they will sell for. Both of these decisions will be weighed against how much overall coinage you have‚ since you also will want to buy a tile on offer by someone else that you will have already scoped out while they were making the same decisions.

When all players are ready, the screens are removed and the first player for that round has their choice of which landscape tile he or she wants and can afford to buy from any other player. After each player has had a chance to buy a tile, you must then purchase all remaining tiles not bought by other players for the amount you wagered, with the money going to the common pool of coins.

Players then take these tiles and add them to their growing town of tiles, paying particular attention to connecting any roads with whisky barrels to and which Scoring Tiles are in play that round or in future rounds.

In a nice bit of game design, after the second round, each player behind the leader gets a certain amount of coins for each player ahead of them, with the number of coins starting at one and increasing to four by the sixth round.

The game quickly becomes a balancing act based on how much money you have each round, whether you think a particular tile is too powerful to risk allowing anyone else the chance of buying, or putting up a lot of your own money and gambling that no one else can or will be able to afford it.

At the end of the sixth round points are tallied based on the final scoring tile. Every five coins you have remaining converts to an additional point.

The number of possible scoring tiles and the orders in which they do‚ and do not score‚ means that each time I have played Isle of Skye the game has felt different. This is an easy game to teach that is engaging and fun to play. The decisions you need to make each round can be difficult, but the game is short enough to not get bogged down. The addition of extra coins going to those not in first place means even someone in last place has a fighting chance the next round.

The components and artwork are both outstanding. The instruction booklet is brief and clear with a full page given over to explanations for each of the scoring tiles.

Designers: Andreas Pelikan & Alexander Pfister Publisher: Mayfair Games Number of players: 2-5 Mechanic: Auction/Bidding, Tile Placement Ages: 8+ Length: 30-50 mins.

www.mayfairgames.com

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Photo : Tom M Franklin

Highly Recommended

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Game Review

Unearth

By Serge Pierro

Claim Ruins and Build Wonders.

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here are times when the art and graphic design of a game’s box will catch your attention and make you want to read the back of the box to find out more. The striking isometric artwork by Jesse Riggle has that effect with Unearth. But a game is more than artwork and theme, let’s take a look at how the game plays and see if it measures up to the artwork.

Unearth comes in a 10 1/2” x 7 1/2” x 3” box that features spot varnishing.

Inside is a custom plastic insert that has five areas dedicated to the game’s components.

The 16 page rulebook is clearly laid out and features step by step instruction, numerous examples and has a 3 page FAQ for further clarification.

The game includes three different sized decks of cards - 30 Tarot sized cards, 17 regular sized cards and 38 mini cards (1 5/8” x 2 1/2”). All of the cards are of a decent stock, however, only the mini cards would be expected to see a lot of shuffling.

The Wonder and Stone tiles are made of an acceptable punchboard/ cardboard stock.

One nice feature is the inclusion of a cloth bag for drawing the Stone tiles. The black bag features a drawstring and a white silkscreened logo and graphics. However, I do wish the bag was a bit larger so that there was more room to mix the tiles.

The game comes with four custom dice sets. Each set is in a different color (red, blue, yellow and green) and features a d4, d8 and 3 d6’s.

The game is fairly straight forward. A player’s turn is made up of two phases: The Delver Phase and the Excavation Phase.

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The Delver phase is an optional phase in which a player may play as many Delver cards as they wish before rolling their die.

The Delver cards are used to manipulate die rolls, change the value of already placed dies, as well as having other effects.

They are resolved in the order played and then placed in the discard pile.

The Excavation Phase is the main phase of the game.

On each turn a player must roll one of their dies. Before rolling the die they must target one of the Ruins, as this will be where the resulting die roll will be placed. If a 1,2 or 3 is rolled, the player takes a Stone from the Ruin and places it in their tableau.

Stones that are taken from the Ruins and placed in the player’s tableau area are used for constructing Wonders.

A Wonder is a ring of 6 Stones that has a center space available for the placement of a Wonder tile. If all of your Stones are of the same color, you draw the top tile of the “Greater Wonder” stack. If they are assorted

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Game Review (Cont.) colors, you draw the top tile from the “Lesser Wonder” stack. There are “Named Wonders” which have specific requirements. If you meet the requirements you may build that Wonder and taking the associated card. “Lesser Wonders” range from 2-4 pts., “Greater Wonders” range from 6-8 pts. and “Named Wonders” have various point totals and special effects.

All the dice that players have rolled accumulate on each of the Ruins, until one of them is Claimed. Claiming is determined by meeting or exceeding the number printed on the Ruin. Any time a die is placed or manipulated a check is done to see if there is a possible Claim. The hierarchy of Claiming is: highest number, if there is a tie the “larger die” wins; ex: a “4” on a d8 will beat a “4” on a d6 or d4. If there is still a tie, then the next highest numbers are compared, etc. This is clearly explained in the rulebook.

Unearth is a light game that proved to be quite enjoyable.

I’m always a fan of games that have multiple paths to victory and although the collection of Ruins is the primary scoring mechanism, you have to devote some time to building Wonders if you want to increase your odds of winning.

The Delver cards proved to be influential at various points throughout the game and after your initial game you will realize that the timing of their use is essential to victory. I loved the ones that allowed you to manipulate the dies that were already on a Ruin, as these would often lead to the Claiming of the Ruin.

Unearth can be considered the perfect game for the times when you want something “meatier” than a filler, yet still light and relatively fast - as long as you don’t mind the randomness of rolling dice. I’m generally not a fan of dice games due to the luck factor, but Unearth’s When a Ruin is Claimed the player who claims it Delver cards and the rolling of 1,2 or 3 to obtain a Stone places it facedown with their other Ruins. Any other tile, help to mitigate that problem and makes the game a player who had a die(s) on the card receive one Delver pleasurable experience. card for each die. All dies that were previously on the Ruin are returned to their owner.

Play continues until all of the Ruins have been Claimed.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that at the beginning of the game one “End of Age” card is chosen randomly from the associated deck and placed at the bottom of the Ruins deck. This card signals the approaching end of the game and can be anything from Ruins that grant “negative points” to “all dice rolls are −1”.

Designers: Jason Harner & Matthew Ransom Publisher: Brotherwise Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Set Collection, Dice Rolling Ages: 8+ Length: 30 - 60 mins.

After the last Ruin is Claimed players will tally their points. Scoring is calculated by: Quantity of a specific color Ruins (ex: 1 green = 2 pts., 2 green = 6 pts, 3 green = 12 pts. etc.), one of each color Ruin +5 pts. and 3 or more Wonders +5 pts. The player with the most points wins.

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Recommended www.brotherwisegames.com

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Game Review

ION

A Compound Building Game

By Serge Pierro

Card Drafting Chemistry

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’ve always been interested chemistry. When I was in fourth grade I was reading high school and college chemistry textbooks and found them to be fascinating. Flash forward to today - I no longer have the Periodic Table of Elements memorized, but I’m still fascinated by science - and now there is a card drafting game that will encourage students, as well as gamers, to marvel at the subject as well. Genius Games has a series of releases that deal specifically with scientific subjects - while at the same time producing games with contemporary mechanics.

ION comes in a 5 1/4” x 8 1/2” x 1 1/2” box that features spot varnishing. There is a cardboard insert that is mainly one large well to hold the two decks of cards and the tokens.

The 8 page rulebook is the size of the box and is broken down into the main game, as well as the more advanced versions, including the “Radioactive” expansion. The rules are decent, however the typeface and graphic design are meant to invoke handwritten notes on a notebook page and are a bit distracting.

The 103 cards are linen finished and are of a decent card stock with good snap to them.

The 21 tiles are made of a very thick cardboard and are very sturdy.

To begin playing the base game, each player is given a set of three Action tiles. It is important to make sure that the letters of each set are the same, as the values of the tiles differ in each set, yet each of the sets add up to a −9 points. Depending on the number of players, 2

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or 3 Goal cards are placed in the middle of the play area. Four of the Drafting cards are placed face up in the middle of the play area. Each of these cards must be unique, keep drawing cards until there are four unique cards in play. Each player is then dealt a hand of 8 cards and play begins.

ION is an easy card drafting game. On a player’s turn they will choose one card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. Then all players will reveal their chosen card and the remaining cards are passed to their left. When the card is revealed the player chooses to either “bond” it to another card - a positive charged card “bonds” with a

negative charged card - forming a Neutral Compound, or it can be placed on its own as an “unbonded” card and perhaps “bonded” on a future turn. Drafting continues until each player has two cards remaining in their hand. The remaining cards are discarded and the round is scored.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

The game has a series of Action Tiles that can be used to extend the gameplay of the players. Each set of 3 tiles has a letter on them and are grouped with the same letter. The stack of tiles are then randomly given out and placed in front of each player. Players are not allowed to look at the numbers on the bottom of the tiles. There are three different effects that can be used once per game and the penalties are subtracted from the final score. The tiles allow you to “Select Two” cards on a turn, instead of the normal one, with the top card of the draw deck replacing it in the draft hand, “Take From Center” take a card from the center of the table and “RXN” which allows you to rearrange your drafted cards.

The scoring is based on the points printed on the cards used for each Neutral Compound, the scoring listed on the Noble Gasses and any matches for the Compound Goal cards. Scoring takes place over three rounds and the highest score wins.

While the base game is fairly easy, the game does come with several other options for increasing the depth of play, these include adding the Transition Metal and/or the Polyatomic Ion cards. These add twists to the scoring and the manipulation of the Action Tiles.

For more advanced play there is a Radioactive card expansion which further adds to the strategy and scoring of the game.

Overall this is a fun little game that can be used as a light filler or in an educational environment. The real strength of the game is its educational merit. Genius Games is developing games with an educational slant that can be enjoyed by gamers, as well as to instruct students. The more students play the game, the more they become familiar with the scientific compounds revealed throughout. A winning proposition!

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The only thing that I didn’t like about the game was that the values on the bottom of the Action Tiles were hidden and varied. I prefer to have open information when making the decision to use a tile and determine if the points lost at game’s end were worth taking. Not only that but some close games were determined by one player having a “Select Two” that was −2 points and the other player had a “Select Two” that was −4 points - all because of a random set of tiles given at the start of the game and not being able to look at the penalties.

We loved the fact that it played from 2-7 players, as the higher player count is a welcome addition to a collection for times when there is a larger group of players who just want to sit around and socialize over a light drafting game. Of course it is even better for use in a classroom when several games can be used to have the whole class participate. I’m a big fan of games that can be used to teach students about a subject and increase their critical thinking. ION is such a game and the fact that it is still actually fun as a light drafting game makes it a great addition to any gaming group or educational entity.

Designers: John J. Coveyou Publisher: Genius Games Number of players: 2-7 Mechanic: Card Drafting, Set Collection Ages: 8+ Length: 20-30 mins.

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Recommended www.gotgeniusgames.com

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Game Game Review Review

Escape From 100 Million B.C.

By Bill Braun

Avoiding the Butterfly Effect

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he idea of time travel is a concept that has intrigued generations of science fiction enthusiasts. From novels and short stories to movies and television shows, the very thought of traveling back in time (or, in some case, ahead) holds a certain amount of allure and potential danger. Translating this theme into a board game isn’t necessarily new. Some designers have found tremendous success. T.I.M.E Stories quickly comes to mind as both a new and innovative game mechanism that captures the notion of time travel in a unique and interesting way. However, I still imagine that presenting a strong time travel theme to the world of tabletop continues to be a bit of a challenge.

Escape From 100 Million B.C., designed by Kevin Wilson (Arkham Horror, Cosmic Encounter) and published by IDW Games is the latest board game foray into the idea of time travel beginning as far back as H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine.

With such a potentially complex topic to tackle, does the game deliver on its promise of historical adventure, or are players left with memories even the most powerful of flux capacitors cannot erase?

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Gameplay Designed for 1-6 players and averaging 60-90 minutes of play time, Escape From 100 Million B.C. drops players 100 million years into the past, the direct result of a failed time-travelling expedition. With your time machine crashing onto the lip of an active volcano – supplies and time machine components scattered around the area – players must spread out and locate enough of the time machine parts to repair the machine and leave the past behind before an all-consuming paradox erases all of history.

At the start of the game players select from the available hero sheets, each providing unique character abilities. The hexagonal map tiles – separated into mountains, plains, jungle, water, and swamp – are shuffled into their respective groups and placed face down. The exploration cards – including carnivorous, herbivorous and aquatic creatures, and adventure, equipment and paradox cards – are shuffled and placed onto their indicated spaces next to the game board. The dice and

Game Nite Issue #17

Photo : Bill Braun

multitude of cardboard tokens are placed within reach of all players, and the character standees are assembled and added onto the volcano space (the center) of the board. Two equipment cards are handed out to each player with an additional amount of equipment cards being removed from the game. The level of difficulty is selected and dictates the number of time machine parts that are needed to successfully repair the time machine: 6, 7, 8 or 9.

On their turn, each player can leave the center volcano tile of the board in an attempt to begin exploring and searching for the scattered time machine parts and additional equipment. Based on the speed of their character they will move that many spaces, revealing a map tile that matches the type of terrain the character advanced onto. Numerous tiles revealed will allow for further movement, but anytime a tile is revealed that indicates a dinosaur creature or adventure, the player must stop their movement and have an encounter.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Encountering a dinosaur prompts one of three potential action-based skill checks the player can take: killing the creature (which adds to the paradox track on the outer edge of the game board), drive the creature off (requires a weapon with the repel trait, but does not increase paradox), or flee from the creature (fleeing helps in a pinch, but this leaves the creature on the board, free to roam). Regardless of the actions selected, each requires rolling a number of dice equal to the particular skill check of the character, against a number of dice found on the creature’s card. Rolling 6s “explodes” the dice and allows for additional rolls.

At certain points on the paradox track “castaways” from another time emerge onto the game board from one of six possible locations. Players must work to intercept these various characters – Abe Lincoln, Socrates, Daniel Boone, etc. – gain their trust from (you guessed it) more dice-based skill checks, and deliver them back to the time portal from where they came. The longer they stay on the board, the more precarious the time paradox becomes.

Players will also locate and gather more equipment, gain additional will (a currency that allows for rerolls) and the necessary time machine parts. There is no limit to the number of equipment a character can carry, and it is nearly as important to deplete the entire equipment deck as it is finding all of the necessary time machine parts (more on that later).

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After all players have taken their turn there the paradox phase of the game begins. A player will roll two dice – one white and one red – and check the results. If either dice matches an open time rift from which a castaways has emerged the paradox marker will move one more space on the track. If at any point the paradox marker enters that last space on the track - the volcano space - the game ends immediately and the players lose the game.

Taking note of the red dice result dictates the movement direction of any creatures and castaways currently on the board, making things more difficult to either avoid creatures or track down castaways.

Lastly, both the red and the white dice results are added together. If the total of the two dice is equal to or less than the current temporal stability (shown along the paradox track) a paradox storm occurs, causing yet another time rift to open and belching forth yet another castaway.

If at any point all of the necessary time machine parts have been located and returned to the center volcano space of the board and all characters share that space, the Time Machine is repaired and the jaunt back to the future commences, ending the game but not necessarily winning the game for the players. First, a few additional checks need to be made.

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Photo : Bill Braun

Any castaways still on the game board are immediately killed, adding paradox equal to each killed castaway’s paradox value. Next, any remaining equipment cards not yet discovered represent items left behind by the expedition, adding paradox to the track equal to each item’s individual paradox value.

If the paradox marker has still not entered the last space on the paradox track the players officially win the game. A Future Results Chart is provided at the back of the rulebook to detail your overall success based on where the paradox tracker ended.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Theme and Components

And speaking of components…

While the board, punch out tiles and various chits all promoted a solid and sturdy form, I was a bit disappointed with the overall quality of the 181 cards that came with the game. They were just a tad on the flimsy side, accommodating for easy bending and/or warping.

Final Thoughts IDW Games could have taken Escape From 100 Million B.C. anywhere they wanted. Time was literally an open book for them. What they chose was a period when dinosaurs ruled the earth. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact, that’s what caught my eye when it was first announced. With a never-ending stream of zombie

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games, dungeon crawls, and sci-fi adventures, dinosaurs are a welcome change. Interesting theme aside, the remainder of the game was a bit on the light side for my taste and focused too much on the randomness of exploring new tiles and rolling handfuls of dice. What I would have preferred was more exploration and high adventure. This was briefly achieved through a handful of somewhat interesting adventure cards. However, Escape From 100 Million B.C. essentially felt like a missed opportunity. Still, gamers that love dice and tile laying mechanisms may very well embrace what Escape From 100 Million B.C. has to offer.

Designer: Kevin Wilson Publisher: IDW Games Number of players: 1-6 Mechanic: Co-Op Ages: 13+ Length: 60-90 mins.

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Worth Trying www.idwgames.com

Photo : Bill Braun

The dinosaur theme was nicely captured with Escape From 100 Million B.C. and, honestly, who doesn’t find dinosaurs interesting and intriguing. Mixing this prehistoric vibe with futuristic technology was at first an odd marriage for me, but by the end of the game it made for a more interesting experience.

And while the artwork embraced more of a comicbook style than what I would have preferred, it served its purpose and was consistent throughout.

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Game Review

Battle For Souls Deluxe Edition

By Serge Pierro

Battle of Good vs. Evil

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hether it be literature, cinema or even game design, the theme of good vs. evil and heaven vs. hell, is a popular one. Due to the nature of them being polar opposites, it is quite easy to produce an asymmetrical design around the theme, but, perhaps the hardest part is trying to find player willing to take on the role of evil. With Battle for Souls, the tug of war between these two forces is readily apparent and only your skill will lead one side to victory.

The deluxe edition of Battle for Souls immediately captures your attention with its high production values, starting with the box itself. The 10” x 10” x 3” box is linen finished with spot varnishing and a gold foil logo. Also included is a custom, black plastic insert that features separate wells for the main components and a clear plastic cover that has 2 3/8” sides to securely keep it in place. It should be noted that underneath the insert is the original “D” set of Soul cards that featured graphics that didn’t really match the original graphic design and are included here for the sake of completeness.

The 12 page rulebook is the size of the box and is linen finished, which adds a luxurious feel to it. The rules are fairly clear and are sparsely illustrated.

The game includes two cloth playmats that feature the graphic elements of each of the factions.

The Soul cards measure 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” and are linen finished and feature the artwork of Michelangelo on the backs.

Each side will receive 100 linen finished cards split into several decks. They have a nice feel to them and are very comfortable to shuffle.

The deluxe edition includes metal Markers. Heaven receives 10 metal crucifixes and Hell gets 10 skulls. Both of these look great. Each player will also receive a small black cloth bag with the associated graphic embroided on the front to store the Markers.

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The three custom dies feature an interesting finish that makes them look weathered. Another nice touch is that there are small arrows on each face that show which way to turn the die for the next number.

There are also 6 wooden cubes and several cardboard tokens.

Players have the choice of either using the player mats or setting up without them. Each player has the same deck types, just different versions (Virtue/Sin, Unholy Relic/Holy Relic, etc.) These are placed in their play area and the deck of Souls are placed in between them. Three Souls are revealed

and the dies are set to “1” and placed on the neutral square on each Soul. The rulebook suggests a roll of the dice to determine who goes first.

A player’s turn is made up of eight simple steps: Use one Archangel/Devil card, Purchase a card, Play/Manage your hand, Use one Intercession/Sin card, Use one Holy/Unholy Relic, Play a Reap card, Draw and End Your Turn.

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Game Review (Cont.)

1. At the start of your turn you may use one of the Archangel/ Devil cards that you have in play. These allow you to add +1 to the die of the relevant Soul.

2. You can purchase a card by subtracting the cost from the die on one of the Souls you control. Example if the die is set to 5, you can spend 2, thus lowering it to 3 and then purchase a 2 cost card.

3. The main action of the game takes place during the Play/Manage Hand phase. Player’s will be trying to make specific Poker-type hands. Each hand has a different reward.

Example: A pair lets you take a Victory Point card and place

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it in your discard pile. A set of 3 different cards allows you to adjust a die +1 on a Soul that matches one of the three cards played. Four of a kind grants a player a free Holy/Unholy Relic card, as well as either adjusting a die +4 on the Soul that matches the cards played or -2 from the die of any Soul in play. There are nine different hands that can be played and each of them have different effects.

You can also choose to not play any cards and instead discard as many cards from your hand as you like or draw one card.

4. Use one Sin/Intercession card’s ability.

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5. Use one Holy/Unholy Relic card’s ability.

6. Play a Reap card. These are powerful cards that can affect the game greatly. There are certain requirements necessary to play them, but essentially they will allow any Soul that is 4 or higher to go directly to Heaven or Hell and the others are removed from play and placed in “Purgatory”.

7. During the Draw phase you draw back up to five cards.

8. When you are done with the above you declare that your turn is over.

Play continues in this fashion, as players go back and forth trying to win Souls to their side. The game ends when the last Soul card is taken. Players will then tally the points of all the cards that they acquired throughout the game. The highest score wins.

The game also comes with four mini-expansions that add a number of interesting touches to the game. These include Special Powers and Bonus scoring, which in all likelihood will find their way into your games on a regular basis. They are all interesting and add another layer of depth to an already excellent base game.

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Game Review (Cont.)

The solo variant is both interesting and challenging. The game moves at a much quicker pace as you race towards trying to acquire 35 points in order to win. Once your deck runs out, the game ends and points are tallied.

It is easy to see why there was so much acclaim when the first edition of the game was released. This is an excellent two player game that really captures the feel of a “tug of war” battle for souls. The overall production is amazing. It is clear that Robert Burke had no interest in cutting any corners when producing the deluxe edition of the game. This is a game that you would be proud to own.

As usual, the downside to these types of games is that someone will have to play the side of the Devil. This usually could be swept aside with a thinly themed game, but, here the game and theme are so intertwined that it is hard to separate the two. Some players are going to have a hard time sending Souls to Hell. That being said, the game is not at all “preachy”, if that should be a concern of yours.

Theme aside, this is an excellent game with a lot of interesting decisions to be made. While the main focus of the game is claiming Souls, there are several other means to acquiring points that need to be considered. The Holy/Unholy Relics are very strong and worth 2 points by themselves and are usually worth subtracting the 3 points from a die in order to obtain them.

Another interesting decision is to whether or not to pursue a Reap/Purgatory strategy of running out the deck or trying to have Souls hit 7 so that you get a free Archangel/Devil card worth 3 points. The Reap card’s ability added a certain amount of tension throughout the game as players had to be aware of one of them being played at any time.

Speaking of the Archangel/Devil cards, the +1 ability to a specific Soul proved to be quite strong. Not so much for the race to 7 points, but for the ability to keep “milking” the Soul for the 2 and 3 cost special cards. This was another element of back and forth that weaves throughout the game.

While the game states that it takes 30-60 minutes, this number varies depending on how many Souls are used in the game. A game with one set of seven Souls takes 20 minutes, while four sets can take 90-120 minutes.

It goes without saying that the artwork for the game is just gorgeous! There are pieces by many of the great masters of the past such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Peter Paul Reubens, Titian, Gustave Dore and Albrecht Durer, as well as pieces by some others who aren’t as well known as the aforementioned artists, but are just as stunning.

This game joins my shortlist of favorite two player games.

The game play is strategic with some depth, while at the same time there is an ease of play and flow that keeps things moving along. If you are interested in an excellent two player game with a challenging solo variant, then this is a game that you will certainly want to take a serious look at.

Designer: Robert Burke Publisher: Robert Burke Games Number of players: 2 Mechanic: Hand Management, Dice Manipulation Ages: 14+ Length: 30-60 mins.

Highly Recommended www.robertburkegames.com

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Interview

Steve Finn

By Serge Pierro

Game Designer What games over the years have you enjoyed most, from both the point of personal enjoyment, as well as those that influenced your growth as a designer?

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with our readers, can you tell us a little something about yourself?

I am a husband, father of two boys, philosophy professor and avid ultimate Frisbee player. We live in Westchester county, NY, just north of New York City.

Did you start designing games at an early age? If so, do you remember what your first game design was like?

I started in my late twenties. My first game eventually turned into Biblios, which is essentially a card game about collecting medieval manuscripts.

However, it began as a board game with all sorts of mechanisms, but was slowly whittled down to the game it is now.

Dr. Steve Finn

Designer Biblios C.O.G Foragers

Some of my favorite older board games include El Grande, Doge, Navegador, and Web of Power. However, I have a fairly large collection of games and I am part of a gaming group that is into the “cult of the new,� i.e., we are constantly trying new games; it is rare for us to play the same game multiple times (except with a long break between plays). I lean toward area control and dice manipulation games, so these two characteristics often appear in my own designs.

Cosmic Run

Photo supplied by Stephen Finn

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Interview (Cont.)

When the opportunity presents itself, what games have you currently been playing?

Ponzi Scheme is one of my new favorites.

Although, as a player, I personally do not care that much about getting wrapped up in a theme, Ponzi Scheme is the first game I’ve played where I really feel like the theme is integral to the game play. I really feel like I’m creating a Ponzi Scheme while playing, with all the tension that involves.

Most of the time, I see games as simply puzzles in which I’m pushing cubes around to maximize points, whatever the theme.

Who are your favorite game designers?

Reiner Knizia and Stefan Feld are probably the top two, for different reasons: Knizia because of his influence on me and Feld because of the variety of mechanisms he employs. Knizia’s games often have very simple rules, but yet require you to make a lot of interesting decisions.

This is usually what I aim for in games. Feld games, especially Castles of Burgundy and Roma, introduced me to the idea of using dice in creative ways.

Is there a particular designer that you would be interested in collaborating with?

If so, what type of game would you be interested in making?

Feld – so that I could get better at designing heavier games than the quick fillers I am known for.

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When starting a new design, do you start with a theme or a mechanic?

I’ve done both, though the mechanics often drive the project once it is started. As previously mentioned, I’m not a player who gets wrapped up in the theme, so as a designer, the theme is usually secondary. In more recent cases, a theme has been provided by certain circumstances. For example, my friend Ed Baraf of Pencil

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First Games showed me some artwork of various herbs

by Beth Sobel, then he asked me if I could make a game with it. I replied “I certainly can.” But, then I did not begin with the question “How can I make a game that makes you feel like you are planting and growing herbs?” Instead, I said, “I want to make a light, push your luck, set collection game.” As another example of opportunities affecting my game designing decisions: I was at the house of my son’s friend and noticed that the friend’s mom had illustrations of flowers on the walls. I soon discovered that she is a botanical artist, so I asked if she wanted to do some flower illustrations for a game.

That’s how my newest game, The Little Flower Shop, was started.

What is your daily design/playtest schedule like?

Do you work on games everyday?

I have a primary job that takes most of my time.

However, I do have time to reflect almost every day.

Much of my game designing happens in my head on the drive home from work. Certainly, I need time to make up prototypes and to play test, but a lot of the creative work happens because I am trying to solve a problem during a previous playtest. So, I spend a lot of time just thinking of various options and the related pros/cons.

Do you feel that your PhD in Philosophy has influenced your game design in any way?

Not specifically. The theme of Biblios came to me from an interest I once had in medieval philosophy. I do think that the PhD helps me in streamlining games and trying to cut out unnecessary rules.

What do you think defines your “style” as a game designer, is there a specific mechanic or rule set or… ?

Most, but not all, of my designs aim to be “thinky fillers.” A number of reviewers have said something like this: “Dr. Finn’s games have more going on than at first Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.) appears” or that my games are “deceptively simple.”

I am always trying to force the player to think about the different options and, if I succeed, the options are meaningful.

Which one of your games do you consider your best design, and why?

As far as the mechanics of a game goes, I believe that The Institute for Magical Arts is my best design because it gives players different ways to play and use their dice rolls. The various card powers work well together and, with the ethereal realm, there is a game within a game. It combines a number of different mechanics, which I think work well together.

As an independent publisher, however, I also have to think about the “presentation” of a game, i.e., its artwork, graphic design, components, etc. So, I’m not sure if this is considered to be part of the game “design.” If it is, then I think C.O.G. is my best production. Also, if asked to play one of my own games, it would be C.O.G. because I still really enjoy it. Most of the time, I get tired of my own games because of the number of playtests and the mental strain that comes with looking for ways to improve a game. With both of these games, I usually can just play it and have fun.

Since you are also the publisher of your own games, how does the economics of the publishing business influence your design process?

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It greatly affects it. I’m always trying to streamline games to cut down on components and box size. Also, because I’ve built an audience for light-medium filler games, it’s harder for me to attract backers to my heavier games.

C.O.G., for example, was barely funded and Foragers is not one of my top sellers, despite the good reviews for both.

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You co-designed “Cosmic Run” with your son, Seamus. What was it like working with your son and did the experience inspire him to want to design his own games?

My son likes to say that I helped him (rather than he helped me) with the game. It was a fun process and he really did come up with some good ideas. This game was clearly an example of mechanically-led designing. After figuring out the mechanics, he was the one responsible for the space race theme. He also helped with the various card powers.

He’s very much into games that have cards with all sorts of powers (Pokemon) and with deck building (Dominion), so that’s the kind of game he would want to design. The process did inspire him a little, insofar as he sometimes starts to develop a game, but then his other interests (especially soccer) ultimately stop him from doing it a lot.

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Interview (Cont.)

“Biblios” (aka - “Scripts & Scribes”) is perhaps your best known design. What challenges did you encounter when you designed “Biblios Dice”, especially since there was already an audience that was enthusiastic about the original game?

I’m not sure I had any specific challenges for that game that I don’t have for any of my games. In short, Biblios is still regarded by many people as my best game. It also has a lot of hype around it, such that new players often expect more than what it actually offers and so might be disappointed. The challenge, then, is trying to live up to the expectations set by that game. When it comes specifically to Biblios Dice, I guess I could say that I couldn’t find an interesting way to make it a short version of the card game. Usually, dice games tend to be quicker and lighter than the original, yet I decided to buck the trend and go for a longer, more involved game.

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“C.O.G.” is a departure from your filler games and is more like a medium weight euro. Is this a “one off” or is this a direction that you intend to further pursue?

For my next few games, I’m returning to lighter fare. I have a lot of ideas and I like to keep moving on games.

The medium-heavy games really slow me down, given the demand for more playtest sessions and adjustments.

Also, it seems like my audience appreciates more casual games from me.

How did the idea of “Crossword Puzzle” meets “worker placement” come about for “C.O.G.”?

My brothers and I were really into Scrabble when we were younger and I still think it’s a great game (though I don’t play much). I’m not sure where the idea came from, though I like to say that it began when I wondered how Feld might design a crossword game. But, that might not be accurate. To be honest, I cannot remember when/where the seed came from.

How did your approach differ in the design and development of “C.O.G.”, as compared to your previous filler games?

Actually, it did not really change my approach to the way that I design games. It changed the actual process by extending it, requiring more playtests and adjustments along the way. My approach, though, is usually driven by the desire to streamline games down to a core idea.

In this case, the core idea was simply to combine a crossword game with a worker placement game, and tossing in a variety of ways to score (point salad from Feld). The steampunk theme was one of the last things to add to it. It started as a typical, euro-resource theme.

Are there any plans to bring any of your games to the mobile platform for iOS or Android?

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I looked into it a couple years ago and the costs were prohibitively expensive. I’ve also had people approach me, but nothing has come of it.

Are there any other upcoming projects that you are at liberty to discuss or announce?

Absolutely. The Little Flower Shop will launch on Kickstarter in late August (2017). In this game, players are flower shop owners who decorate their windows with floral arrangements. The game uses the standard card drafting mechanism from 7 Wonders/Sushi Go, but gives it an interesting twist with the variety of scoring mechanics. It’s very easy game to learn, especially if you already know those other games. It’s not my most original game mechanically, but I think the theme is quite unique and the artwork is pretty.

After that, I have another game in the pipeline. I’m working with the artist Beth Sobel, who has done amazing work on games (such as Herbaceous) on this one. The game is called The Waters of Nereus and it takes place in a fantasy water world in which players navigate the oceans to pick up crystals/treasures (still figuring it out) and to use these to pay off their crews.

What advice would you have for aspiring game designers and aspiring publishers?

As a game designer, listen to your gut and hope it’s right.

Many people will offer advice and I think I’ve learned how to pull out the good from the bad.

As a publisher, I’d say don’t quit your day job. My track record for Kickstarter campaigns is quite good insofar as I’ve had more than 10 successful campaigns. Yet, they usually hit only 1 or 2 stretch goals. At the same time, I’ve never had one that flies off the charts. This is a hard business and the margins are low. Despite my “success,” my game business had been in a precarious situation for a long time. It’s not on life-support, but it’s still a struggle, especially if you’re doing most of the work by yourself.

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Game Review

C.O.G.

By Serge Pierro

Worker Placement Crossword Game

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r. Steve Finn is well known for his filler games and is often called the “King of the Fillers”. With his latest release, C.O.G., he ventures into the realm of the big box eurogame. Let’s take a look and see if his filler game magic translates over into the eurogame genre.

C.O.G. comes in a 10” x 12 1/4” x 3” box and contains a custom, black plastic insert for the components.

The 12 page rulebook is the size of the box and contains numerous examples. The rules are in-depth and fairly easy to follow.

A large Summary card is included which covers all of the phases, scoring and star token usage on one side, and on the other side are tips for each of the phases.

The production of the game is above average and there’s no better example of this than the quality of the 4 player boards and the main board. The player boards are made from a thick cardboard stock and feature indented areas along the edges in which other components can be slotted and the main board is double sided and made of an even heavier cardboard.

The 24 Goal tiles and 111 Letter tiles are punched from a sturdy punchboard. The Goal tiles are die cut to have a space to place the wooden cubes. One note: Be careful punching the Letter tiles, as one of the punchboards includes 20 Spare tiles. These are not used at the start of a game and should be placed aside until needed.

On the same punchboard are 4 Variant tiles, however, these are not mentioned in the rulebook, so you might want to save the printed instructions.

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The game includes several wooden components, including; 4 pawns, 16 Cogs and 48 wooden cubes, each of which is broken down for four players/colors.

The 48 Cabinet cards are 2 1/8” x 1 3/4” and are printed on decent card stock.

Also included are 4 different colored dice and a black “Collect” is the main worker placement phase of the cloth bag, as well as four plastic stands for the player game. On a player’s turn they will take one of their Cog tokens and place it on one of the sides of the board and order cards. takes the relevant action. Each player may only place Each round of the game contains 5 phases: Prepare, one of their Cogs on each side of the board.

Collect, Activate, Construct and Conclude.

The available actions are: Collect Letters/Star tokens, Collect a Cabinet card, Collect Turn Order bonus and “Prepare” is a general “setting up” phase.

Collect a die and move your Pawn.

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Game Review (Cont.)

When the Collect Letters action is taken, the player may choose from the Letters and Letters/Star tokens available. This will be the primary way of obtaining Letters.

C.O.G. is an interesting offering by Dr. Finn’s Games and is their “heaviest” effort to date. The concept of a worker placement game with a word creation element is unique. I liked the fact that instead of collecting resources to construct an item, you instead collected letters to spell When Collecting a Cabinet card, the player may out a word that was the name of the item. choose any of the Cabinet cards that are still available.

The placing of words on the grid proved to be quite When Collecting the Turn Order bonus the player challenging, especially if you entertained thoughts of will have a choice of either taking the First Player card trying to get the bonuses in the corners of the board. It for next turn or taking one of the other positions and will take a few plays before you wrap your head around receiving the relevant bonus. the best plans for laying out the words. Hint: try to use large words first and build through them. Short words on When using the Collect a Die action the player will the board early is a harbinger of future problems. move their pawn the number of spaces on the main board as indicated on the chosen die and receive the I felt that it was always better to receive the immediate bonus as indicated on the space they land on. points on an Item card than placing a cube onto a Goal card. Trying to complete a Goal card (other than Key/ During the third phase, “Activate”, all of the players will Lock) was a strategy in itself. simultaneously activate all of their Cabinet cards and resolve them.

I really enjoyed the game and would love to play it more often, as the gameplay is interesting and the puzzle-like During the “Constuct” phase players will simultaneously nature of the words on the grid was challenging. However, build words on their Player boards. The parameters for there are players who are going to be turned off by the this are listed in the rulebook. An interesting note is the word element - even as you try to convince them that it use of Star tokens to turn letters into wildcards. This is not a word game, per se, but a worker placement game is an essential element of the game. During this phase that uses letters as resources. That’s a shame, because this players may also complete Item cards. When a word is is a good game. If you like worker placement games and built on the grid, the player will place their Item cube would like to try something different, then this is a game on the associated Goal tile. If they should complete a that is well worth checking out. word on an Item card, they can choose to place an Item cube on its’ Goal tile or receive the amount of points Designer: Steve Finn indicated on the Item card.

Phase 5 is the cleanup phase, “Conclude”.

Play continues in this manner for 6 or 7 rounds, depending on the amount of players and then a final score is tabulated. The player with the most points wins.

Publisher: Dr. Finn’s Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Worker Placement, Crossword Ages: 14+ Length: 60 - 90 mins.

Recommended www.doctorfinns.com

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Game Review

Near and Far

By Serge Pierro

Storytelling Worker Placement

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n today’s crowded marketplace, it is rare that a game or company is able to stand out from the rest. In the case of Red Raven Games, not only does Ryan Laukat’s artwork help to differentiate their games from others, but now they’ve upped the ante with the release of Near and Far which combines a worker placement game with a storytelling element. Toss in a Character mode and a Campaign mode and quickly you begin to understand why the game has garnered so much attention.

Near and Far comes in a heavy 11 5/8’’x 11 5/8” x 2 3/4” linen lined box that features spot varnishing on the box top and is the first hint of the game’s production values. The box contains a shallow, one large well insert that features the cover graphics.

The 40 page rulebook is well written with numerous illustrations and a complete breakdown of all the elements in the game. Due to its size there is even an index on the back cover. Although 40 pages might seem overwhelming, the information is clearly laid out and the typeface is larger than normal, so it’s not as intimidating as it sounds. It’s a breeze to quickly read through all of the information.

The spiral bound Atlas features 11 two-page maps that lie nicely on the table. The pages are similar to a card stock and will easily last numerous plays with no ill effects. The artwork and variety of the maps are commendable.

The 140 page Storybook is spiral bound and features a heavy stock front and back cover. The interior features black and white text and is nicely laid out.

The Town Board is a double sided, two fold board that is constructed of a sturdy cardboard stock.

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The four player boards are also of a sturdy cardboard stock and feature the box top graphic on their backs.

The game includes various high quality components. These include cards and cardboard tokens that have a linen finish, as well as custom wooden Camp tokens and cloth bag to hold the Adventurer tokens. Also included were beautiful red plastic gems and two different metal coins that are gorgeous.

There are basically three areas in which players will playing the game: The Town Board, one of the maps from the Atlas and their personal Player Board.

The Town Board is the area in which the worker placement element of the game takes place. When a player visits the Town Hall they will have the opportunity to trade goods.

Upon visiting the Saloon a player may recruit an Adventurer.

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Game Review (Cont.)

The Stables provide the means of obtaining Pack Birds. The General Store allows a player to either obtain 1 Coin or draw 4 cards from the Artifact deck. The Farm provides 1 Food.

The Mystic Hut is the source of Treasure cards. The last area is the Mine, which provides opportunities to obtain Coins and Gems.

There are a couple of notable rules about using the Town Board. The first is that you are only allowed one player at a building per turn. The exception is the Saloon, which allows all players to visit with no penalty. The second is “Dueling”.

If you are interested in visiting a building where someone is already present you have to duel them so that you can also be in that area. This is determined primarily by a die roll and some other factors, but the end result is either you win and join them in that building or you lose and go to Jail for one turn and then on your next turn you can go to any building in play, regardless of whether or not someone is there.

The maps within the Atlas provide the game board in which players move about and explore. The maps are marked with places in which to place the Quest Tokens as well as printed rewards for building one of your Camps on the relevant space. There are also spaces that provide the means to build Trade Routes and areas that trigger Threats that need to be dealt with.

The Player Board provides an area for you to keep track of all of your elements within the game. It is here that you will have your active party of Adventurers ready. There are also section for your Pack Birds and their related Treasure cards, as well as an area to store your Coins, Gems, Food, etc.

The top right of the board features the tracking area for your “Hearts”. This is the currency used throughout the game for building Camps and manipulating dies. The bottom of the board features the starting area for your Camps. These spaces are all covered with Camp tokens at the start of the game and as Camps are removed they may reveal a bonus.

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During the course of the game players will have the opportunity to quest in an “open” environment. Starting on the Town Board, players will take turns visiting the

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buildings and gathering their materials and Adventurers.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this is that you can stay in town as long or short as you like. Staying in town longer will grant you the opportunity to grab more resources

and such, while leaving town earlier lets you go on Quests before your opponents. This is a fascinating element of the game as players try to decide when to leave the town and start exploring the map.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Speaking of the map, this is where you’ll be building Camps and engaging in the storytelling aspects of the game. You will also have the opportunity of dealing with Threats that increase in difficulty each time they are defeated. In order to build a Camp you have to spend 3 Hearts to place it on the space you are at. As a reward you receive the resource that is printed on the space. Since you only have “X” amount of Hearts when you leave Town and go exploring, you will eventually run out and you’ll have to return to Town and reequip yourself in order to go back to exploring.

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For many players the storytelling aspect of the game is what is going to be the main draw. When a player moves to one of the spaces that has a Quest token, another player will open the storybook to the relevant section and read the corresponding text and then offer the player two options. After choosing an option, the questing player rolls a die and adds it to their base number. The base number is: Skill = number of hands in the active party + any additional bonuses. Combat = number of swords in the active party + additional bonuses. If the final number is equal or greater than the target number, the

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resulting text is read and the reward is given; if the number is two greater than the target number, a bonus reward is awarded. Players can choose to spend Hearts to increase their result. Quests are a one time experience, whether they are successful or not, they are removed from the game.

The end of the game is triggered when one player has placed all 14 of their Camps. Then the round continues until everyone has had an equal amount of turns within the game.

Points are then tallied and the highest score wins.

It is rare that you receive a game that exceeds your expectations. Near and Far is one such game, as the various modes of play and an interesting storytelling element alongside a fairly solid worker placement mechanism provide the player with an enjoyable experience, for “what it is”.

And “what it is” should be addressed. At its heart this is a worker placement game and as such it is good. However, the majority of players are going to be drawn to the game due to the storytelling element and while this is clearly a “plus” for the game, they might be disappointed to find out that while the storytelling is well done, it is not the prime focus of the actual game play. The game play itself is fine and the storytelling element kicks it up a notch.

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Game Review (Cont.)

However, there are a couple of weaknesses to the game.

First of all the dueling mechanism is non-thematic and uninteresting. While I understand the need to have something in place to be used as a deterrent for players occupying the same Building, the “Dueling” mechanic came across as noticeably weak and I felt detracted from an otherwise solid worker placement system. There should have been an alternate method to achieve the same result - perhaps tying it in with the Reputation track would have been better, as it would have been more thematic and further utilize a track that wasn’t exploited as much as it could’ve been.

Secondly, the storytelling itself, while it is nicely done, isn’t “rewarding” enough. While I certainly enjoyed the storytelling aspects of the game, the results were often dull, along the lines of “You saved the child… receive one gold and one food” …. yawn… The storytelling certainly added flavor to the game, but those looking for it to have more of an impact might be disappointed. This is essentially a worker placement game, and the storytelling flavor should be looked at as an enhancement to the game, rather than the main feature.

With the various modes of play and high quality production values, Near and Far is a game that you will enjoy playing for quite awhile. While there might be some trepidation as to the replayability factor for the game due to the unveiling of the story, the bottom line is that the game itself will continue to be playable - even after all of the maps have been explored.

While the base game is certainly enjoyable, it is the inclusion of the other modes of play that takes it over the top. To start with, the Campaign mode is amazing. Players who enjoy a story based game will love what this mode has to offer, as players will experience something they’ve never felt before in a worker placement game, as they move from map to map acquiring Experience points that can be used to purchase Talents to upgrade their Characters. Like many of the features within the game, the Talents are subtle in nature, yet provide another layer of interest to the game.

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RPG players will probably want to jump right into Character mode. Character mode is similar to the Campaign mode, but is a bit more freeform with players needing to only complete 8 Character Quests. Like the Campaign mode, players can upgrade their characters with the acquisition of Talents. Here you will use the Character cards and/or the included Character sheets to track the character’s changes/ stats throughout the game. Each character has a special section devoted to it in the storybook for backstory and Quests.

The Arcade mode is perfect for when you want to play a faster paced game without the “downtime” of searching and reading from the storybook. A separate deck of cards is used to offer the two choices provided in the storybook, however, there is no initial story, nor any followup, it is purely an offer of two choices and the results of each.

Overall I was quite impressed with Ryan Laukat’s ambitious effort to produce a storytelling game that actually had a solid game as a base, while at the same time delivering an experience with high production values and various modes of play. If the above sounds intriguing to you, then I would highly recommend it - you won’t be disappointed.

Designer: Ryan Laukat Publisher: Red Raven Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Worker Placement, Storytelling Ages: 13+ Length: 90-120 mins.

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Highly Recommended www.redravengames.com

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Game Review

Terraforming Mars

By Tom M Franklin

Life on the Red Planet

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n the year 2315 the World Government, faced with an Earth that is overpopulated and whose resources are disappearing, puts out a call to all interested parties and corporations to begin the terraforming of the planet Mars for human habitation.

They know the process will be a long one and many will try to prove their system superior to all others. However, the winner will have demonstrated their dominance by having the most victory points once the temperature, oxygen, and water levels have been sufficiently raised for sustaining human life on the planet Mars.

Each player begins by choosing one of three random Corporation to play. Each Corporation lists the amount of MegaCredits (money) you begin the game with as well as a unique ability that carries on throughout the game.

Players start the game with a hand of ten cards. You can keep as many cards as you would like, although each card you retain costs you three Coins. Cards also have a separate cost associated with putting them into play to build your economic engine. Spending all your initial MegaCredits on a large hand of cards means you’ll have fewer MegaCredits to put any of those cards into play on your first few turns.

Each player starts with a Terraform Rating of 40. Since your Terraform Rating is the base of your income at the start of each turn, this means you will get at least 40 MegaCredits at the start of each turn. You’ll want to work on raising that number quickly as everything you’ll want to do costs more MegaCredits than you have.

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Each player also gets a Production Board that allows you to keep track of your accumulation of the six types of resources used in the game: MegaCredits, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat.

Photo : Tom M Franklin

In keeping with the theme, each Round is referred to as a Generation (as in, it will take many generations to make Mars habitable for human life). Each Generation has four phases: In the first phase the play order moves clockwise to the person next to the last player to go first. In the second phase, each person is dealt four cards that they may choose to keep (again, paying three MegaCredits each) and discarding the rest.

The third phase of each Generation is the heart of the game. Here you can take one of two actions before play moves to the next player to your left. During this phase, you can play a card, convert eight plants on your production board to a greenery tile, convert eight heat into a temperature increase. You can also take actions listed on the player board including paying the MegaCredit cost to place a greenery tile, a city tile, or Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

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an ocean tile, pay to raise the temperature, or raise your own energy production. You can also pay to claim a milestone (having achieved certain conditions on the board first for extra points) or fund an award (betting you’ll have the most of a given element in play at the end of the game). Turns continue to move from player to player until all players have passed.

The game ends after the Generation where all the ocean tiles have been placed and both the heat and oxygen levels have reached the point where humans can live on the planet. Points are totaled from your Terraforming Rating, your cards in play, any milestones and/or awards won, forests placed, and forests connected to cities you placed on the board.

At the end of each Generation any leftover energy gets converted to heat and you add any resources to your player board that you’ve earned.

Terraforming Mars is a beautiful game to play. The artwork on the cards, the colored plastic cubes that identify each player on the board, and the copper, silver, and gold cubes denoting MegaCredits make this game a pleasure to lay out. The game board, as well as the ocean, city, and forest tiles are equally well presented making for slowly expanding swaths of colors.

Terraforming Mars comes with an impressive stack of over 200 cards. Each card comes with some benefit(s) and must be paid for either in MegaCredits or, for some, paid either partially or wholly in either steel or titanium from your player board. Many have conditions restricting when they can be played depending on the maximum, minimum, or specific oxygen levels, temperatures, or numbers of oceans on the board. Some allow you to accumulate points over each Generation, others allow you to increase production, others still allow you to steal a resource from an opponent. Some allow you to build special cities; some earn you points at the end of the game while others take points away from your score.

As the red, dusty image of Mars on the board slowly begins to be claimed by forests and cities and oceans, players need to be conscious that there are points to be claimed there as well. Forests are worth 1 victory point while each city you place is worth 1 victory point for each greenery tile connected to it, regardless of who placed it on the board.

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The player boards are a very thin cardboard and without any recesses for cubes to rest in. This means at least two or three times in every game I’ve played at least one player bumps the card or the table, requiring us to try and remember his production count. The rule book is good, but perhaps too complex. It wasn’t until I played the game with friends that I understood how it all came together. Now teaching it is simple and the rule book is only used for clarifications.

This is a game I really wanted to like a lot. However, by the third time I played it I found myself disappointed at seeing the same cards and frustrated by the lack of player interaction. While 25 of the cards allow you some degree of affecting another player they’re momentary interruptions in your own little terraforming game plan.

One of my weekly gaming group absolutely loves the game and requests that we play it any time I bring it with me, so clearly opinions differ.

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Photo : Tom M Franklin

Designer: Jacob Fryxelius Publisher: Stronghold Games Number of players: 1-5 Mechanic: Engine Building, Tile Placement Ages: 12+ Length: 90-120 mins.

Recommended https://strongholdgames.com

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Game Review

Caverna:

Cave vs. Cave

By Steve Krause

Streamlined Rosenberg

A

designer who edits is disciplined. A designer who self edits, doubly so. So often board games can be bulky experiences with designers refusing to cut down their labor of love. But the pros know that the best self editing is harsh, unforgiving and, in Uwe Rosenberg’s case, fruitful.

Caverna: Cave vs Cave is the third iteration of Rosenberg taking pared-down mechanics from one of his mainstay blockbusters, and condensing them into a bite-sized two-player experience. The mechanics of Cave vs Cave aren’t so much pared down, as they are wholly different. Players still dig out caves and fill them with combo-making rooms, but the entire process is leaner and lighter.

This is cave building for amateurs; Cave Building 101.

The traditional worker-placement board is streamlined into a long action board, littered with worker-like actions, which bifurcates the play space. Players slide the actions onto their side of the board, denoting the action taken (essentially worker placement without the workers).

Actions vary from gathering food-like resources, building-like resources, furnishing homes, digging further into your cave and using the actions of rooms you’ve previously built.

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One, immediate delight of Cave vs Cave are the room tiles. During setup players will populate their empty caves with, face down, room tiles, thus creating the cave you will later excavate.

This creates a wonderful element of surprise and variability in room distribution, an area lacking

Photo: Steve Krause

in the original Caverna. This can also create a frustrating inconsistency when one player uses their turn to excavate and the other builds the room immediately. There are also six starting rooms, a few of which feel much more as a pseudo jumping-off point to help manage your multiple resources.

And those resources come with an odd configuration.

Instead of the usual piles of wooden bits or the rondel Rosenberg employed in Glass Road, players move the six different resource tokens up and down a “ladder” of shelves. This vertical movement is built into the rooms’ abilities, some bringing specific resources up a certain

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

number of shelves, and others bringing specific resources up to a specific shelf level (like the Food Corner, which brings your food token up to the 3rd shelf ). This creates an interesting bit of resource jockeying that’s just enough to require planning and strategy and eeking out big plays but not enough to be frustrating.

The actions in Cave vs Cave are, like all Rosenberg’s harvesting games, staggered by phase, and are rather straightforward. Each action usually does two things, with the later actions doing more, and better, things.

The core complexity comes with the interactions of rooms, your opponent’s strategy and what rooms you are actually able to build, because the rooms also come with spatial requirements, requiring 1-4 sides of the room to either be touching or not touching a wall (and may of the rooms have optional sides, which can be either, making them more flexible). This really is the biggest wrench in your planning. You may be able to take a build action and have the resources to pay, but lacking a certain wall means you’re constrained on how you can build. The separate parts are simple, it’s the working them together that takes brain power.

The scoring is also devilishly simple: Rooms and gold.

That’s it. Whatever rooms you’ve built and whatever gold you’ve gathered is your total, another welcome paring down. Also, a notable absence of negative scoring leaves the end scoring tighter and more satisfying.

Rosenberg is a good editor. The mechanics in Cave vs Cave would not have served Caverna well and they are not wasted here in this standalone experience. And of his 2-player adaptations of his big hits (Le Havre: The Inland Port and Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small) this one is a clear winner. It takes the best part of Caverna (building your cave), throws in variability, simplifies scoring, tightens up the process while still leaving it complex and rich. But it still doesn’t beat Patchwork, a small masterpiece that came out of Rosenberg working on A Feast for Odin. Patchwork feels utterly timeless, while yes, simple, and any iteration of a larger game is always going to feel lacking and draw comparisons.

Because Cave vs Cave is a good game, it’s just a game designer’s version of throat clearing. It’s unresolved strands from a larger design, edited out of a massive tapestry into a nice throw pillow. It’s beautiful and small and fun, and it clearly shows Rosenberg is only getting better.

Designers: Uwe Rosenberg Publisher: Mayfair Games Number of players: 1-2 Mechanic: Tile Placement Ages: 10+ Length: 20-40 mins.

www.mayfairgames.com

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Photo: Steve Krause

Recommended

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Game Review

Pocket Mars

By Serge Pierro

Colonize the Red Planet

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t appears that Mars is now the current darling of board game themes, which is a nice change of pace from zombies and Cthulhu. But what makes it interesting is that there are currently some good games that are using that theme. “Pocket Mars” joins the pack with a small and fast filler that features engaging gameplay - in spite of its size.

“Pocket Mars” comes in a small 5 7/8” x 4” x 1 1/8” linen finished box and features a cardboard insert that has two wells and features the artwork of the game.

The 12 page rulebook is the size of the box and is laid out in a horizontal format. The setup and cards are all numbered/annotated clearly. Although concise, the rules are clear and will have you up and running quickly.

We also received a 4 page solo variant pamphlet. This was included outside the box and is a different size than the rulebook, it would need to be folded in half in order to include it in the box.

The 49 cards are of a good card stock and snap back nicely. Since this is not a shuffle intensive game, the cards should be fine, however, the backs of the cards have different graphics, so if you want to sleeve them you will have to use clear sleeves.

The game’s other components are 28 wooden cubes in four different colors and 4 wooden disks.

To begin the game each player receives a Spaceship card and the seven corresponding cubes (Colonists). One of the cubes is placed on the card and the others are placed in a pool called “Earth”. Players will

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be moving Colonists from Earth to their Spaceship and then from their Spaceship to a Building on Mars throughout the game. They will also receive an Energy marker and place it on the “1” space on the Spaceship.

Each player is dealt four cards. Players will choose two cards to keep in their hand and two cards placed face down to form their Prep Module. Alternately players can use the optional card draft rule to choose the initial four cards.

The cards have two actions printed on them. The top action is triggered when it is played from your hand and the bottom action is triggered when played from the Prep Module.

These cards are the core of the game and choosing what to place in your Prep Module and what to keep in your hand is paramount to doing well at the game.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

On a player’s turn they will perform one of five actions: play a card from their hand, play a card from their Prep Module, play a card from another player’s Prep Module, place a Colonist from Earth onto their Spaceship or discarding a card from their hand or Prep Module and gaining one Energy.

When you play a card from your hand, you use the top section of the card and resolve the effect and then place it in the discard pile.

If you play a card from your Prep Module, you place the card beneath the Building of the same color. Then you compare the number on the card and compare it either to the Building itself (if no other cards are present), or the last card that was played there. If your card’s number is higher, you get to place a Colonist from your Spaceship onto the Building. Then you resolve the effect on the bottom of the card, as well as triggering the Building’s special ability. (see below) Should you decide to play a card from another player’s Prep Module, the player who owned the card gets to resolve the effect on the bottom of the card, but you get to use the Buildings ability.

The place a Colonist from Earth onto your Spaceship action is self explanatory.

The Discarding a card to gain an Energy is useful for those looking to increase their Energy level for endgame scoring or to cycle cards.

Each Building has a special ability. The Ecosystem Building allows you to move a Colonist from a one star location to a two star location, thus doubling the value of the Colonist.

The Energy Building increases your Energy level by 1. The Science Building allows you to place a Colonist from Earth onto your Spaceship. The Water Building lets you take one of your cards and place it at the bottom of the draw deck.

The Construction Building allows you to place a Colonist from your Spaceship onto any Building’s one star space.

The game ends when a player has placed all 7 of their Colonists on the Buildings and then points are tallied.

Players will receive points based on the amount of Colonists on their Spaceship, Colonists on a Building’s one star space, Colonists on a Building’s two star space, if they have a Colonist in each of the four Buildings, four Colonists in one Building and the player with the most Energy. The player with the most points wins.

The game also has a solo variant. This plays very quickly and you are racing against the game to try and amass as many Colonists on Mars as quickly as possible. There are three different levels and it is challenging and has a different strategic approach.

“Pocket Mars” kept hitting the table quite often during the review process. Due to its quick and fascinating card play, players were interested in immediately playing it again after finishing a game. The playing of cards from either your hand or Prep Module was an interesting dynamic, as players had to figure out how they were going to use the limited cards they had each turn and how to prepare for future turns. Due to its size, this game makes an excellent choice for travelers or even just carrying it around with you for occasions when you are looking to play a quick and interesting game that exceeds its size.

Designers: Michal Jagodzinski Publisher: Board & Dice Number of players: 1-4 Mechanic: Hand Management, Cube Pushing Ages: 10+ Length: 15-30 mins.

Recommended www.boardanddice.com

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Game Review

Terra Mystica

By Tom M Franklin

It is a world where Giants battle for land with Mermaids, Witches, Alchemists and Halflings. Where Fakirs can use their magic carpets to skip spaces and Dwarves can tunnel underground. There is land to be transformed, rivers to be crossed, and Power to be collected, moved, and used to gain an edge over your opponents.

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n Terra Mystica, the winner is the player with the most victory points after seven rounds. Point are counted from your placement on the Scoring Track, the Cult Track and any bonuses for having the largest connected city on the Game Board.

board, with the End of Game token covering the righthand side of the topmost tile. Bonus card are laid out, their number being based on the number of players in the game. Favor Tiles are laid out to the side, as are the ten Town Tiles.

Each player starts with the player board for their faction, along with all the player pieces that correspond to the color of their faction board. Those pieces include Dwellings, Trading Houses, a Stronghold, Temples, a Sanctuary, Priests, Markers, and Bridges, which are placed on their corresponding positions on the player’s board. In the top left corner of your board you distribute twelve purple Power tokens as indicated. The top right of your player board indicates the number of Workers and the amount of Coins you start with, as well as where your Cult Marker(s) are placed on the Cult Board.

Players begin by placing an initial number of Dwellings on the board, based on their Faction. These Dwellings will be placed on a hex of your own color, keeping in mind that you’ll need to balance the cost of terraforming those colored hexes next to you with being close to the Dwelling of an opponent.

This is because while much of Terra Mystica is a game spent building your own economic engine, it is far cheaper to do so when upgrading buildings next to a building of your opponent. As the same time, though, your opponent can benefit from your upgrade. And, when you upgrade a building, you may gain the resources Six end-of-round scoring tiles are randomly chosen for the new building but you lose the resource associated and placed on their respective markers on the game with the replaced building

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Photo : Tom M Franklin

Each Round consists of a player taking one turn, then passing to the next player in order. Play continues in this manner until all players have finally passed. The first player to pass becomes the first player in the next round.

unleash the ultimate power of your Faction, while Temples and Sanctuaries gain you Priests and Favor Tiles. Priests allow you to climb the Cult Tracks while Favor Tiles unlock Cult Track placements and either single or ongoing special abilities.

On each turn, you can do as many things as you can, given the number of Workers, Coins, and Power available. You could, for instance terraform a hex next to one of your Dwellings and build a new Dwelling.

Or you could upgrade a Dwelling to a Trading House or a Trading House to a Stronghold‚ or a Trading House to a Temple or a Temple to a Sanctuary. Strongholds

The extra element here is Power. Represented on your player board by purple markers, Power allows you to claim extra movements from the board (more Workers, Coins, terraforming abilities, etc.) or convert them directly to Priests, Workers, or Coins. This mechanic, and the way Power is collected throughout the game, helps to elevate Terra Mystica from other worker placement games.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Photo : Tom M Franklin

Terra Mystica was a surprise gift from my wife, one I’m not sure I would have chosen for myself after reading the initial description. After the first play-through it became the only game since Agricola that I thought about for days after the game was over. How could I have played better? What wasn’t I seeing? It wasn’t until over a dozen games played online at http://lodev.org/ tmai/ that I began to feel confident about my strategies.

Then I played with my weekly gaming group again and found I still so much more to learn.

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This is a game where your actions all have consequences, where building your economic engine needs to be balanced against scoring points, and after a quick six rounds (six rounds?!) it’s all over. I will happily play Terra Mystica whenever the opportunity arises‚ and will happily lose if only to learn how to play better.

Designer: Helge Ostertag & Jens Drogemuller Publisher: Z-Man Games Number of players: 2-5 Mechanic: Engine Building, Worker Placement Ages: 14+ Length: 30 mins. per player

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Highly Recommended www.zmangames.com Photo : Tom M Franklin

The boards, tiles, and coins are all of thick cardboard; the pieces are all painted wood. The artwork, throughout, is professionally done. The number of Factions, along with their differing powers, means this game has considerable playability. (The detailed analyses of Terra Mystica in Board Game Geek forums attest to this) The 20-page rule book is detailed and features examples from the player board as well as explanations for each of the tiles.

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Game Review

Hafid’s Grand Bazaar

By Serge Pierro

Bidding and Trading Frenzy

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ne of the ideal mechanics for social game nights is that of bidding and negotiating. This usually leads to playful banter as players try to bamboozle their opponents into possibly trading favorably towards themselves, while at the same time trying to mask their intentions. Rather Dashing’s latest release “Hafid’s Grand Bazaar” provides a canvas for this type of gaming experience… and it plays up to 6 players!

The game comes in a 8 3/4” x 8 3/4” x 3” box and contains a custom, black plastic insert. There are four wells provides, as well as a special section for the custom shaped board, which also serves as the cover for the underlying well.

The 12 page rulebook is the size of the box and clearly breaks down all of the relevant information.

The game’s board has a unique shape and is made of a very sturdy cardboard stock.

All of the cardboard tokens are of a solid cardboard stock, though not as thick as the board and the 125 cards are made of decent card stock and shuffle nicely. Also included are 36 wooden cubes, broken down into six cubes of six colors.

To begin the game, place the board in the center of the table and deal 2 Merchant cards face down next to each Foreign Market. These should be placed so that players can see what types of cards are available. Each player will receive 6 bidding cubes and dealt a hand of 10 cards. One player is chosen as the “first player” and receives the “Hafid” marker.

A game’s round has four phases: Bidding, Caravan, Trading and Selling.

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The Bidding phase has players placing their 6 bidding cubes on various areas of the game board. Each turn they may choose 1 or more cubes to place on one of the Market Areas of interest. These areas include: Caravans, Influence and Customers.

The Caravans area is used for choosing the order in which the Market Cards are chosen from the Market Areas around the board. The player with the most bidding cubes in the “1st� space will have the first opportunity to choose the pile

of cards that interest them. It should be noted that if you are outbid for one of the Caravans, your bidding cubes remain on that space and are unavailable for the remainder of the turn.

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Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

Game Review (Cont.)

The Influence Area section is broken down into 3 sections: Informant, Free Trader and Negotiator. Each of these have unique abilities. The Informant allows you to look at cards in the Market Areas and then draw a card, The Free Trader allows you to draw cards when a Caravan is claimed and the Negotiator allows you to trade cards with other players who bid on the Negotiator.

The Customer Area also has 3 sections: Haggler, Collector and Guild Master. This is an interesting area, as you need to place a cube on one of the areas in order to be able to score points. The Haggler allows you to trade in 2 or more of a particular good for 2x the value. Example: Sheep are worth 1pt each, so a set of 4 Sheep with the Haggler will score 8 points. The Collector allows you to trade in one of each type of Merchant card for the face value of the cards +5 points.

The Guild Master lets you trade in 5 unique cards from a particular Merchant set for 30 points.

After each player has placed all their bids, the Caravan phase begins. Caravans are claimed in order and any of the other areas that affect the Caravan phase are used during this phase (Informant and Free Trader). Each claim allows a player to take the two cards from any Market Area. Players who were outbid on a Caravan will draw a card from the deck as compensation.

When all of the bidding cubes have been removed from the Caravan, the Trading Phase begins. This allows players to trade with other players who bid on the Negotiator. This is a freeform trading phase where “anything goes”, though lying is not allowed. When you are finished trading remove your cube from the Negotiator area to indicate that you are finished Trading.

When all the cubes have been removed from the Negotiator area the Selling phase commences. This is where you cash in your cards for points. You can only score cards in areas that you had previously placed a bidding cube. However, if you did not bid on any of the Customer areas you can use the “Ply Your Wares” ability to sell 5-10 cards for their face value.

These are placed in the discard pile.

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Play continues in this manner until each player has had the opportunity to be the first player. Then the final scores are tallied.

“Hafid’s Grand Bazaar” is a fine family/party type game, as the freeform trading phase will be both chaotic and provide lots of laughs (and frustration) for all of the participants.

I found the bidding to be the most interesting part of the game, as there only 6 cubes and 12 potential areas to bid on (6 Caravan spaces, 3 Influence spaces and 3 Customer spaces). Trying to figure out what to bid on and how many cubes to invest was interesting, especially as more players started to place their bids. There was also a bit of “push your luck”, as there were times when you could be bidding on the “Collector” or “Guild Master” and not having the cards in hand to use them, but hoped to be able obtain them via the Trading phase.

If you are an extroverted gamer who enjoys bidding and free form trading, then this game should be right up your alley. However, if you are an introvert you might find that the trading can be too chaotic for you. Not surprisingly, the game excelled at the higher player counts. Overall, this is a fine game for players who enjoy these types of games.

Designers: Mike Richie & Grant Wilson Publisher: Rather Dashing Number of players: 2-6 Mechanic: Bidding, Trading Ages: 12+ Length: 30-90 mins.

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Recommended

www.ratherdashinggames.com

Comics

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Solo Gaming

Shahrazad

By Jeff Rhind

“Scheherazade had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of bygone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers.”

- Sir Richard Francis Burton’s translation of 1001 Nights

S

hahrazad (an alternative spelling of Scheherazade) is a small box, cooperative tile-laying game for one or two players designed by Yu Ogasawara and published by Osprey Games. The game features beautiful, lush art on 22 tiles by illustrator Kotori Neiko who also did the art on the small box game Birdie Fight! Each tile is numbered 0 to 21 and each belongs to one of four suits or colors.

The solo (and 2 player) game is played over two rounds. The goal is to score as many points as possible by arranging tiles in columns across the table in a checker board fashion with no more than four tiles in a column. To start, a random tile is placed in the center of the gaming area and the player takes two tiles from the shuffled, face-down stack. The player will place a tile every turn adjacent to a previously placed tile and then draw one tile back up to two. The player may choose instead to replace an existing tile with another from her hand. In this case, she would then place two tiles on her next turn.

You cannot replace tiles in two consecutive turns.

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Photo: Jeff Rhind

Once all the tiles are placed, tiles are scored but first some may be eliminated from scoring. First, tiles touching must increase in value from left to right. If one does not, it is flipped over and does not become part of the scoring. Second, tiles must form a valid path from the left side of the field all the way to the right side, in increasing value. If any do not, they are flipped over.

Then, you identify the largest group of each connected color and score a point for each of those tiles and subtract one point for each empty space where you may not have paced a tile in a column. You then leave one

column behind, shuffle the remaining tiles together and begin round two. This followed by another scoring phase which is added to the previous score for your final tally.

Mechanically there is nothing wrong with the game.

Shahrazad is a light, puzzley sort of tile layer; a solid filler perfect for couples and a nice little distraction for the soloist. Although you do have some choices in placing tiles, it is somewhat random in so far as tile draws are concerned and only slightly mitigated by the choice of placing one or two tiles, or replacing one all together

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Solo Gaming (Cont.)

Photo: Jeff Rhind

When I first opened the box, I was hoping the art would feature characters and places from 1001 Nights as told

by Scheherazade and that the style of artwork be more indicative of Persian culture even if only a westernized version. Instead, it features the names and art suggestive of the 22 tarot cards of the Major Arcana. Plus, most of the illustrations feature famous folklore and fairy tale characters like Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood’s Wolf, and Gepetto and Pinnochio. I get the “story telling” idea but it’s sort of mish mash. As nice as the art is, I was a little disappointed with the disconnect of the art from the title and what I was expecting.

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Osprey seems to be on a roll with its small box games like Odin’s Ravens, The Raven’s of Thri Sahashri, and The Lost Expedition. The component quality is outstanding.

The included scoring tiles where one overlaps another to keep score is gimmicky and unnecessary. In fact it’s just easier to use pen and paper.

I can’t imagine anyone pulling this game out often for solo play trying to beat their own score, but all things considered, it is still a solid addition to a gamer’s library especially as it fills a dual purpose as a light co-op, couples game, filler niche.

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Photo: Jeff Rhind

to assist in your strategy. There is no theme here as it’s more of placing increasing numbered tiles and trying to get large groups of like colors.

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Contributors

Serge

Serge Pierro

has playtested numerous games for several companies, including Wizards of the Coast and AEG. He has also written for Duelist, Inquest and Gamer print magazines. His award winning photography has appeared in both newspapers and magazines. He has self published a game, and has several other designs scheduled for a 2017 release.

Eric Devlin

Eric has been the North East Regional Representative for Wizards of the Coast, the brand manager of Legends of the Five Rings, as well as working with Sabretooth and Third World Games. He has an extensive background in playtesting for top companies. He has also written for Games Quarterly, Duelist, Inquest and others.

Bill Braun Bill has been a contributing writer for PSNation and High-

Def Digest, an Editor and Publisher Relations Director for 30PlusGamer, and the co-creator and podcast host of A Band of Gamers.

Tom M Franklin Tom lives in North Carolina where he and his wife are staff to their

five cats. His writing has appeared in his agent’s Inbox and the occasional hand-written letter to friends. He grew up playing Abstract Strategy Games (back when they were simply called games) and still regards dice of all kinds with suspicion. His Board Gaming Claim to Fame is having taught over 300 kids how to play Chess. Considering he’s been playing board games for over 50 years he really should be much better at them than he is.

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Jeff Rhind Jeff is a single father raising a 19 year-old son and a 8 year-old daughter, and slowly coaxing them into the world of tabletop gaming. He has been gaming for many years and shares his love and appreciation for the hobby by reviewing and talking about games on his web site: completelyboard. com as well as his You Tube channel at youtube.com/completelyboard.

You can also follow him on twitter @jeffrhind

David Niecikowski David is a published game designer and recognized expert on using traditional games with families and students. Since 2000, over two dozen of his board games, role-playing supplements, books, and articles have been published. He has also worked as a freelance marketing and event consultant with scores of industry companies such as Alliance Game Distributors, Gen Con, Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck, Mayfair, Rio Grande, AEG, and Out of the Box.

Kevin Lauryssen Kevin has a Master in Audiovisual Arts and majored in Animation. He works as a Freelance Draftsman for multiple companies in Belgium. He’s an avid gamer who has created a web-comic about boardgaming. His work can be found at www.game-night.be

Steve Krause Steve is a newspaper designer based out of Pontiac, michi-

gan. He first became enchanted with modern board games with Betrayal at House on the Hill, and it’s been downhill ever since. His work on board games has appeared in slate, and he runs the @boardgamesofinsta instagram account and you can follow him on twitter at @steve_krause.

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Game Review Index

• • • • • •

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the 2-4 of Us Small World Stella Nova Shoot-Out Postcard Cthulhu Postcard Empire

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Tile Chess Cards of Cthulhu Samurai Spirit Golem Arcana Pairs Sutakku Timeline

• • • • • • • • •

Baseball Highlights 2045 Samurai Sword Paperback For the Crown Trench Firefly Cutthroat Caverns Rise of the Zombies Shadow Throne

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• • • • • • • • •

Rhino Hero Attila Spurs and Sprockets Chaosmos March of the Ants AquaSphere Fidelitas Rise of Cthulhu Maha Yodah

• • • • • • • • • •

Animal Upon Animal Sushi Draft Stones of Fate WWII: Stalingrad Stockpile The Magnates Sentinel Tactics Flip City Space Movers 2201 Dark Tales

• • • • • • • • •

Nevermore Gold West Arcadia Quest Dragon Flame New York 1901 Lift Off! Tesla vs. Edison Yashima Targi

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• • • • • • • •

Outer Earth 1944: Race to the Rhine Runecast Cycling Tour Witkacy Firefly: Fistful of Credits Dozen Doubloons King Down

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Game Review Index

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Steam Works Web of Spies Cartography Xia: Legends of a Drift System Orleans Raiders of the North Sea Hoyuk Wizards of the Wild Myths at War Ring It! Hogg Wild for Wealth The Martian Investigations

• • • • • • • • • • •

Cosmic Run Imperial Harvest Under the Pyramids (Eldritch Horror Expansion) Bomb Squad Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization Luna Biblios Dice Trekking the National Parks Fuse Skulldug!

Horrible Hex

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Cuisine a la Cart Foragers The Shadow Over Westminster Scoville Valeria: Card Kingdom Onitama Knit Wit Worlds Fair: 1893 Flip City: Reuse Gruff The Walled City Empires at Sea

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

JurassAttack!

Oh My Gods!

Looting Atlantis 13 Days Apotheca Tiny Epic Galaxies Automobiles Daxu Slaughterville Kheops Scoville: Labs Ancient Conflict Treasure Chest

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Dr. Eureka Stockpile: Continuing Corruption Sugar Gliders Dawn of the Zeds: Third Edition Vast: The Crystal Caverns The Networks Grifters Trajan Conspiracy!

Secrets of the Last Tomb Best Treehouse Ever Matryoshka

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Imhotep In the Name of Odin Centauri Saga Draconis Invasion Dastardly Dirigibles Flamme Rouge Haspelknecht Hansa Teutonica Star Trek Panic Theomachy Commissioned San Ni Ichi Small City Issue #17

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Game Review Index

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Kanagawa Lunarchitects Hero Realms Santorini Vinhos: Deluxe Colony Sun Tzu Bermuda Crisis Tavarua Explorers of the North Sea America San Allies Crisis

• • • • • • • • • •

Hanamikoji Element Villages of Valeria Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition 7 Wonders Duel Oceanos Herbaceous A Feast For Odin Schotten Totten This Belongs in a Museum

• • • • • • • • • • •

Ninja Taisen Space Invaders Dice!

The Dresden Files Card Game Pyramids Quests of Valeria Amun-Re Cultists of Cthulhu Magic Maze Knot Dice The Cohort Crazier Eights

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

7&7 March of the Ants: Minions of the Meadow Honshu Web of Spies Saga of the Northmen Tournament at Camelot Haspelknecht: The Ruhr Valley Plague Inc. Zephyr Terrible Monster 5ive Duress

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