Game Nite magazine issue 25

Game Nite

Free

the magazine of tabletop gaming

June 2018

Rob dougherty

designer/publisher

v

Issue # 25

star realms: arena

game reviews

In this issue: Interview 24

Rob Dougherty

game Reviews 08

Dicey Peaks

mobile Review

12

Coldwater Crown

04

18

Thanos Rising

32

Peak Oil

46

Wordoku

Game Designer/Publisher

Star Realms: Arena For Android and iOS

abstract games 42

DVONN

Interview Gallery 46

Index of Past Interviews

Review index 50

Back Issue Index

Push Your Luck Mountain Climbing.

Fishing for Fun.

Mighty Marvel Mayhem.

Drilling for Fun. Fun Spelled Out.

Calendar 58

July 2018

Contributors 49

Game Nite Contributors

Š Game Nite 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

All information contained in this magazine is for educational purposes only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of release. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers with regard to the price of their products. All material remains the property of its respective creators. Opinions expressed by the writers are their opinions alone and may not reflect the opinions of Game Nite. Disclaimer: Game Nite receives review copies of games, but does not accept payment for reviews.

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Game Nite Issue #25

From across the table

Game Nite ISSUE # 25

A

s many of you have probably noticed, this issue has been released later than the scheduled release date and also has fewer pages than previous issues.

What happened? Well, I’m sad to say that my father has passed away and I was caught up in wakes, funerals, etc. and was unable to finish the magazine on time.

Hopefully next issue we will be back on schedule and we will see the return of “Board Game Photography” and other columns.

The July calendar features “Thanos Rising” and provides the release date for issue #26.

Cover Photograph by Serge Pierro.

Thanos Rising © USAopoly

Editor in Chief/Publisher: Serge Pierro

In this issue: Tom M Franklin’s Abstract Games column takes a look at DVONN.

Editor:

Tom also reviews: “Peak Oil” and “Coldwater Crown”.

Special thanks to Rob Dougherty for taking time from his busy schedule to share his thoughts with our readers.

Congratulations to Rob Dougherty and White Wizard Games on receiving an “Editor’s Choice Award” for their excellent “Star Realms” app.

If you are interested in contributing to Game Nite, feel free to contact us, as we’d love to hear from you!

Serge Pierro

Editor in Chief/Publisher editor@gamenitemagazine.com

Eric Devlin Writers:

Photographers:

Tom Franklin Serge Pierro Tom Franklin Jeff Rhind Jeff Rhind

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@GameNiteMag

Game Nite Issue #25

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Mobile Review

By Serge Pierro

Star Realms: Arena

W

hile the Star Realms app has been available for quite some time, with the latest update they have introduced a new feature: Arena.

Arena is a weekly contest in which players will have the opportunity to win virtual prizes. These prizes include virtual trophies, virtual foil cards and ingame credits that can be used to purchase more entries into the Arena. The best part is that each week there is a new format, so the challenges never get stale and it also allows players who don’t have some of the expansions, to get a chance to play with them. Let’s take a look at what is proving to be an interesting, and addicting, upgrade to Star Realms.

While Star Realms already has real time and turn based online play, Arena is only available in real time.

The time for the games have been extended a bit, but make no mistake, you will have to make your decisions within a certain amount of time. I never felt rushed while playing, so the amount of time is generous, though there were a couple of times when I was engrossed in the decisions that were made during the turn where I almost forgot to press the

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“end of turn” icon. Otherwise I was never close to running out of time.

At the start of each new Arena format (on Mondays) you are given a free entry. Any additional entries will cost 20 credits. If you run out of credits and you wish to continuing to participate in that week’s Arena format, you will have to purchase additional credits. The starting price for Credits is $0.99 for 80 Credits and goes up to $99.99 for 14,000 Credits.

The object is to win six games, but you are eliminated if you lose two. Each win grants the player a specific virtual prize. Although you are allowed to play in as many Arena matches as you are willing to spend credits on, you are only allowed to win each prize once. Each of the wins grants a specific prize: 1 win = 3 Credits, 2 wins = one star Trophy and a Season Foil, 3 wins = 7 Credits, 4 wins = two star Trophy and a Season Avatar, 5 wins = 20 Credits and completing the Arena with 6 wins will give you a three star trophy and an Arena Foil.

As previously mentioned, the most interesting aspect of Arena is each week’s new format. For instance one week the “Commitment to the Cause” scenario was used in which Scouts and Explorers produce +1 Trade and Vipers produce +1 Combat.

This led to fast games as players were able to buy expensive cards right from the start. I really enjoyed this format, although when I started to play in 48 hour matches after Arena I miscalculated the amount I had to spend on the Trade Row, as I was still under the influence of “Commitment to the Cause”. So it is probably best to step away from the game for a couple of minutes and adjust your

thinking to the standard game. Another format had each player draw a card at the start of their turn and yet another allowed you to place your first purchase of the turn onto the top of your deck. I now look forward to Monday mornings in order to see what the new Arena format will be.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing Star Realms. When it first came out we played it all the time, but eventually we moved onto other games.

However, now with the addition of Arena to the

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Mobile Review

(Cont.)

game is found for you. In case it takes some time to find the game, you are greeted with a “leave” button in case you want to bail out and try again later. Once the game starts you have 100+ seconds to make your move. The game play is as normal, other than that week’s theme. If you should win you are treated to an animated display that shows the prize that you won and then you are taken back to the main Arena screen where you current win/loss settings are The process for entering the Arena is fairly simple. displayed, as well as the prizes that you have won.

You go to the online games section and click on the You can then choose to play again or leave the area. “glowing” gold box to enter the Arena area of the app. However, it would be more helpful if this icon White Wizard deserves a great deal of credit for was labeled so that players would actually know providing an environment for their games in which that this took you to the Arena. Once there you tournament players and others have the support of the can click on the new game icon and wait until a company, both for their over the board tournaments app, I find myself playing multiple games of it online and felt the need to purchase all of the ingame expansions. I have a feeling that once you play in the Arena tournament that your competitive juices will flow and you will want to play it more often. I know that’s how I currently feel, as I have been filling my online queue with dozens of 48 hour per move games.

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and now their digital ones. Both Star Realms and Epic have both caught my competitive attention and I feel drawn to both. I guess it should come as no surprise as Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle are both Hall of Fame Magic the Gathering players and understand the psyche of the tournament environment. Even non-tournament players are going to want to give this a try, especially since your first Arena session each week is free.

Version # Price: Devices:

4.180612.165 ---------Android and iOS Developer: White Wizard Games

Highly Recommended www.starrealms.com

As I mentioned earlier, I was so impressed with the game that I bought all of the expansions. This is something I never do, as I am involved in multiple Chess, Go and other tournaments and I don’t really have the time to take on more… that is until I came across Arena and Star Realms’ online play. Now I’m a believer and I’m looking forward to seeing what White Wizard has to offer in the future.

Game Nite Issue #25

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Dicey Peaks

By Serge Pierro

Push Your Luck Mountain Climbing

P

rolific game designer, Scott Almes, has produced another interesting game, this time with a mountain climbing theme. And while there have been other games that feature this theme, this one is a bit lighter, and has a push your luck element that really captures the feel of climbing up a mountain. Grab you pick axe and join me as we explore Dicey Peaks by Calliope Games.

The game’s rulebook is a single sheet of heavy stock that is folded into 6 sections. The first page is die cut along the edges of the mountain peaks and when opened, reveals a “surprise”. The rules for the game are printed in a vertical format and contain some illustrations. The back has the icons for the Mountain tiles and an explanation of their icons.

The game’s Mountain tiles are made of a very sturdy cardboard stock and are yet another Dicey Peaks comes in a 9 1/2” x 9 1/2” x 2” box example of Calliope Games commitment to quality and has a custom cardboard insert that has two components. The same could be said for the player’s sections for the tiles and a shelved recess area that Oxygen boards. holds the oxygen boards on top and the other components below. There is ample surface area on The game includes 13 custom, frosted dice that top of the insert to hold the rulebook and catalog. enhance the thematic elements of the game, as they have the look of frozen/frosty dice.

And speaking of a catalog, the game includes a beautifully illustrated 20 page catalog that is There are two types of plastic miniatures included. printed on heavy stock and features games from One of them is the oxygen Tank that is used as the the company’s product line. It is the size of the player marker on the Oxygen board and the other box and is quite impressive… enough to take the is the Climbers that the players will use during the time to note it in this review. However, I did find game. Each of these are grouped by colors with each it a bit disappointing to see no mention of the player receiving an Oxygen Tank and a Climber. The artist or graphic designer who was responsible for colors are: red, yellow, blue, green, purple and white. it. That’s a shame, as I was interested to see who was responsible.

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To start at the game each player receives a matching set of Climber and Oxygen Tank and an Oxygen board. The Mountain tiles are placed in stacks, grouped together by the numbers printed on their backs and shuffled. Then they are placed on the playing surface, as per the instructions in the rulebook and form the mountain in which the Climbers will climb.

On a player’s turn they will choose five dice from the pool of dice and roll them. There are three different types of dies to choose from. One is better suited for climbing, another better suited for resting and the third is a combination of both. After their initial roll, the current player will choose to either climb or rest. After stating what they will be doing that turn, they have a choice of either accepting the results of the rolled dice or pushing their luck and taking another three dice and rolling them also.

After each roll all of the dice are placed aside and are tracked to see if they “Bust”.

Should a player choose to “Climb” they will move the number of spaces on the Mountain tiles indicated by the results of the die rolls and subtract the same amount from their Oxygen track. When they land on the final tile they turn it over and take the revealed action. If the tile has already been revealed, you still get to take that action. Actions include: a movement bonus, revealing other tiles, moving backwards and oxygen loss/gain.

If a player chooses to “Rest”, they will count up the number of Tents that were rolled and move their Oxygen Tank the appropriate amount of spaces.

While the “Climb” and “Rest” actions are the main focus of the dice rolling, there are a couple of other results to be aware of. If a Yeti is revealed after rolling the dice, it is placed aside and is not allowed to be rolled again. If three Yeti are rolled, you “Bust”. At the end of your turn, if you rolled Continued on next page>

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Dicey Peaks

(Cont.)

any amount of Yetis, any player behind you gets to move ahead one space, however, they do not get to reveal an unrevealed tile and they do not resolve any already revealed tiles. They get to do this without spending any Oxygen.

Another die face to be aware of is that of the Avalanche. When you are using the Climbing action, any die rolls with the Avalanche face showing are placed aside. If you roll three of these you “Bust” and your turn is over.

Players will continue to move up the mountain until they reach the top section of three tiles. One of these tiles contains the Flag necessary to win the game. In order to reveal one of the summit tiles at the top of the mountain you have to roll five dice and reveal at least one Pick Axe. If you should roll move than one or more Pick Axes, you have to move the Oxygen marker that amount of spaces. However, when you reach this summit area of the mountain, you are no longer able to gain Oxygen, so you need to plan ahead and try to be well supplied, or take a risk and try to find the Flag before you run out of what little Oxygen you have.

If you run out of Oxygen you lose, yet other players may still attempt to find the Flag. The first player to find the Flag wins!

Dicey Peaks is a fun “push your luck” game that is suitable for families and gamers. With the use of Oxygen as a resource and the need to occasionally Rest, the game does a fine job of capturing the thematic elements of climbing a mountain.

Attempts to win the game can be brutal, as your Oxygen can run out before you have a chance to find the Flag.

We found that having to choose between “Climbing” and “Resting” to be the main strategic element of the game. Knowing when to do so can go a long ways towards preparing you for the summit of the mountain. Though there were times when players thought they had “prepared” for the summit, only to reveal a treacherous Mountain tile that stole some of their precious Oxygen. We found that this was a nice touch, as players became more cautious in the later part of the game, which nicely reflected the experience a real mountain climber.

We appreciated the replayability of the game by the provision of multiple tiles of each of the levels with only a set number used each game. This was another element that added to the theme of the game, as additional plays revealed different obstacles on our attempt to find the Flag at the summit and made for a different playing experience each game.

Overall this is a light game that would be a welcome addition to a family gaming library, though interesting enough for a gamer to also enjoy. While mountain climbing is not an uncommon theme, it is also one that is not common, so it is nice to see a nicely implemented game capture the theme, while also making it accessible to a wide audience. Scott Almes continues to be a prolific designer and this is yet another quality offering.

Designer: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Scott Almes Calliope Games 2-6 Push Your Luck 8+ 20-50 Mins.

Recommended www.calliopegames.com

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Coldwater Crown

By Tom M Franklin

Fishing for Fun

A

lways one for games with different themes, I was intrigued to find one about a fishing tournament. While not a fisherman by any stretch of the imagination, I still appreciated the idea of turning fishing into a game of casting and reeling in actions and was eager to give it a try.

The board for Coldwater Crown is a busy, colorful array of locations and areas reserved for cards and point tokens. The main three areas on the board represent the three, separate fishing in the tournament: The Lake, The River, and The Shore.

In each area four smaller cards with the names of different fish that are found in that environment are laid out on set spaces, numbered three through six. Full sized Master Angler Challenge cards are set out along the bottom of the board. These can be gathered and completed during the game for additional points.

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The different hex spots on the board each represent additional scoring opportunities throughout the game: capturing three of a kind in the Master Angler species cards, capturing four different Master Angler species, catching three specific Small Species of fish, being the first to catch eight different species of fish, and the first to capture twelve fish in total.

At the start of the game each player is given a smaller board divided into sections three through six, with each section corresponding to one of the four fish card spaces in each fishing region. Each player then draws three pieces of ‘bait’ – small colored plastic pieces – from the provided draw bag and places them in area three of their board. They then take four pieces of ‘bait’ and fill area four on their board.

Rounded wooden markers are placed in predetermined spots on the board. Then each player is

Photo: Tom M Franklin

given one of the remaining markers. Markers are denoted with the number 1 on one side and 2 on the other. All markers start the game with the 1 side showing.

On each turn, players take two actions. The first is to ‘cast’ their wooden marker on an empty space on the board and take that action. The second is to ‘reel in’ or remove another marker and take that action as well. When markers are taken off the board they are turned over and placed in front of the player until the start of that player’s next turn.

Each region has two colors associated with it: The Lake has blue and red; The River has yellow and black; the Shore has purple and green. All of the bait in the draw bag is in matching colors. If you place or remove a wooden 1 token on/from either of the two matching color spots to the side of the fish cards you may remove all of the bait in that color from one of the four areas on your bait board.

If you place or remove a 2 on/from either of these spots, you remove all of the bait in that color from your bait board, regardless of region.

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Coldwater Crown (Cont.)

When you clear all of the bait from one of the four regions of your bait board you take a look at the last color of bait you removed from that region. Match the color of the bait with the fishing area on the board. Then match the numbered region on your bait board with the corresponding number in the fishing region. This indicates the fish you’ve just caught. Take the card and place it in your area. Depending on circumstances, it is possible for a player to catch more than one fish on a turn.

Any fish cards ‘caught’ are immediately replaced by other fish cards for that region. Fish cards are always placed weight side down, meaning no one knows the exact weight of any of the fish until ‘catching’ that fish.

Bait removed from your board goes into a bait discard pile until someone draws the lone clear ‘bait’ piece. At that point, all discarded bait is placed back into the bag.

The exception to immediately discarding bait is to acquire one of the Master Angler cards. This is done through a special location that either allows you to acquire one of these cards or restock one of your bait regions on your bait board. With a Master Angler card, you can place discarded bait on one of the three or four matching color squares on these cards. When the card is full, you officially discard the bait and move the Master Angler card to the right of your bait board. These cards are each worth one point at the end of the game and worth extra points if you can collect three of a kind or four different species.

When a player catches twelve fish or when one of the three regions can no longer restock up to four fish, the game begins to end. All remaining players get one additional turn and then scoring begins.

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Photo: Tom M Franklin

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Coldwater Crown (Cont.)

Points are awarded in descending value (5 through 2) for each of the three regions to the player with the heaviest catch. A player may only submit the heaviest of each species of fish for that region for weighing. Again, the weights of your catch are unpredictable, much like fishing itself.

If you’ve caught three salmon, you only get to submit one of them at the end of the game. At the same time, if you catch one salmon and it’s tiny, do you try for another or move on to other fish?

Scoring then becomes a matter of tallying up the points on all of the hexes you’ve collected and any Master Angler cards you have completed.

Our first playthrough was a lengthy reading of the rules which left us confused. Once we started playing the game, though, we fell into the rhythm of casting and reeling in as our two actions per turn.

Since each turn consists only of those two tasks there isn’t much downtime between turns – typically just enough time to allow you to scope out options for your next move. With a variety of choices on each turn, you’ll rarely find yourself without a helpful move during your turn.

Coldwater Crown is a lightweight game of fishing in the abstract. With the luck of the fish weights and the blind bait pulls from the bag, the level of randomness is high. This means there is no effective best strategy to winning – in our experience, better point accumulation from the offerings on the board have been outdone by heavier catches across regions.

However, this doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun game. We enjoyed all of our plays, frequently finding that, despite different strategies, the point difference between the winner and everyone else was only a matter of a few points.

Designer: Publisher: Players: Mechanic: Ages: Length:

Brian Suhre

Bellwether Games 1-4 Worker Placement, Set Collection 14+ 40-90 Mins.

Recommended www.bellwethergames.com

Photo: Tom M Franklin

I do have a few issues with Coldwater Crown. The rule book, while thorough, isn’t written to allow players to start playing quickly. For a lightweight game, I had hoped to get to playing sooner than we did. The board itself is far too busy at first glance.

We’ve learned to only focus on what’s important on the board, but the background artwork, while adding visual context to the game, is distracting.

Having colorblind friends, I was disappointed to learn just how color-dependent Coldwater Crown is. Anyone with colorblindness is not going to be able to play this without substantial support from other players. It would have been nice to give some visual texture or icons to the three areas and shapes to the two colors of each region that could have matched the corresponding colored bait.

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Thanos Rising

By Serge Pierro

Mighty Marvel Mayhem

A

lthough I am primarily known as a teacher, musician, photographer, writer, etc. There are few people who know that I originally wanted to be a comic book artist. In particular, a Marvel comic book artist. But as life moved forward I pursued other goals, but comic books have always been of interest to me, including owning two comic book stores in the 1990’s. So when USAopoly released Thanos Rising, I knew that this was going to be a game that I would be interested in, from both the viewpoint of a gamer, as well as a comic book fan. And I know that many of you are also interested in gaming and comic books, so ‘Nuff Said, let’s see what the game has to offer.

Thanos Rising comes in a 11” x 11” x 3” box that features spot varnishing on the box top and sides. Included is a custom, glossy, black plastic insert that has four storage areas, including one that is contoured to hold the impressive Thanos figure. The design also has some cutaways which hold the two boards in place, which in turn help keep the components from moving around.

The 12 page rulebook measures 10” x 10” and contains several illustrations and examples. One thing to note is that the back page section featuring the faces of the “Thanos Die”, the illustration for the “roll the Infinity Stone die again” die is different from the icon printed on the production die, but it’s easy enough to just get used to the new face.

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The Infinity Gauntlet board is made up of two The cardstock for the cards is a bit thin, but that’s layers of cardboard, with the top layer having glossy not a problem, as the cards are only shuffled once cutouts in which to place and hold the Infinity to randomize them and are not exposed to any real Gems. The board is very sturdy. physical handling throughout the game. Although sleeving is optional, it is recommended for those The Deployment Zone board is made of a decent who may view the game as a future collectible. cardboard stock, but isn’t as sturdy as the previous one. Though it is fine for its use, which is mainly as All of the included dice have custom faces, with a rotation point for the Thanos figure. each of the different color dies having different icon distributions. The colors are: red, blue, green and Continued on next page>

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Thanos Rising (Cont.) black. The Thanos related dice are larger than the Roll and resolve the Thanos and Infinity Stone others and have a glossy paint finish within their dies: After the token is placed the dies are rolled recesses. and resolved. The Thanos die has two faces that move Thanos “to the right” and two that move him Of course the main eye catching component of “to the left”. One of the faces is dedicated to an the game is the large Thanos figure. Measuring an icon of the Infinity Gauntlet, which triggers the impressive 4 3/4” tall, the figure has some “heft” abilities of all of the villains currently in play at the to it and really captures people’s attention when Deployment Zone and the remaining face is for they walk by the board. The figure does come “pre- rolling the Infinity Stone die again and applying painted”, however, those who have the artistic skills the new results, as well as the previous results, to might want to spray a primer coat and paint it in a the relevant sections of the Infinity Gauntlet board. way to really do it justice.

And speaking of the Infinity Stone die, each of the faces on the die correspond to one of the colors on To start the game each player chooses a team and the Infinity Gauntlet board. Each time a color is takes the associated Base card, Deployment token rolled, the corresponding section of the Gauntlet and starting Hero. The Infinity Gauntlet and receives a cube. When a section received five Deployment Zone are set up as per the instructions cubes the Infinity Stone card is turned over and is of the rulebook and the Asset cards are shuffled and now active, the next time the color is rolled, the the top nine are dispersed around the Deployment corresponding effect takes place.

Zone.

After rolling these dice any Heroes in the sector A player’s turn consists of: Placing their that Thanos is in receives a Damage cube. If your Deployment token onto one of the three sectors team happens to also be in that sector, then each of on the Deployment Zone. Roll and resolve the your Heroes on the team also take a Damage cube.

Thanos and Infinity Stone dies, Roll their Power dice, Recruit Heros/Battle Villains and finish up After the Thanos dice have been resolved, the with a cleanup phase. current player will roll their Power dice and attempt to either Recruit heroes or Damage Villains. The Placing the Deployment token: The first thing a way that this is done is that at least one of the rolled player does on their turn is to place their Deployment dies has to be placed onto one of the three cards in token on one of the three sectors. Thanos will be the sector. After placing at least one of the dies, you facing one of the three sectors and you will have re-roll the remaining dies and continue as before, to choose to either place your token in the sector until you no longer have any dies to roll. where Thanos is and hope he moves or place it in one of the other sectors and hope that he doesn’t Printed on each card is a set of icons. If you match move there. While avoiding Thanos is a good thing, each of the icons with the specified amount of dies, but you will wind up choosing the sector that has you either Recruit (in the case of a Hero) or Damage the Heros you want to hire or Villains you want to (in case of a Villain). When you Recruit a Hero you battle.

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remove any Damage tokens on it and place it in your tableau. If you Damage a Villain, you place a Damage marker on it and take a Bonus tile. If you happen to “kill” it by placing the last counter, you remove it from the board and place it aside, as it now counts as one of the Villains towards the victory condition. Any spaces left from a Hero or Villain leaving the Exploration area is refilled with the appropriate amount of cards from the deck.

The play continues around the table in the same fashion until the players either win as a group or Thanos has beaten them. For the players to win, they have to defeat 7-10 Villains, depending on the difficulty chosen for the game. For Thanos to win, there are more instances: If Thanos collects all 6 Infinity Stones, the players lose, if 10 Heroes are killed, the players lose and if one of the players loses all of the Heroes on their team, the players lose.

At the end of a player’s turn, any Heroes who have all of their Damage areas filled are removed from the board and replaced with the top card from the deck. These Heroes are placed aside, as one of the losing conditions is if 10 Heroes die.

These days I’ve grown somewhat bored with the concept of Co-op games, but I must admit that I really enjoyed Thanos Rising. It is a fairly light coop that takes a theme that I enjoy and marries it to a fun design that will appeal to both gaming adults and their children, as well as proving to be quite challenging.

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Thanos Rising (Cont.)

Since there is a great deal of dice rolling, players who don’t enjoy the randomness of dice rolls might be turned off, however, I am usually one of those players and I thoroughly enjoyed the game. You just have to accept that there is a random element to the game and enjoy the chaos and potential “post roll” depression it can cause. I am happy to say that there are Bonus Tokens that can provide ways of mitigating some of the dice rolls, providing additional dies on your turn, and means to healing Heroes.

strategic game plan. There is no way to plan against Thanos’s movement, as there are only three spaces and he either moves left, right or stays where he is currently is. It’s best to ignore him and just play to recruit the Heroes that will help your team defeat the Villains.

I found the difficulty level of 7 Villains to be a bit too easy and have only played with 10 Villains since… and have not won yet! With 10 Villains the game becomes quite interesting and challenging.

There were several times when we thought we had things under control and then a Gauntlet effect would be triggered and we were wondering how we could have lost. I would only recommend the 7 Villain difficulty setting for learning/teaching the game, but you’ll want to then jump right to 10 so that you can experience the game as it is meant to be played. Though the idea of progressing from 7 to 8 to 9 and finally arriving at 10 is also a fun approach.

Thanos Rising is an excellent game for parents to introduce their children to the world of co-op games, as it makes for a solid gateway game and the Marvel characters will keep them interested. Most licensed games tend to fall a bit flat with their gameplay, but this one proves to have a well thought out design that will provide a pleasurable playing experience (especially if you like co-ops that are tough to beat) and has a great table presence. Whether or not you are a Marvel Comics fan, this game is worth taking a look at if you are in the market for a fun co-op game with a superhero theme.

The game does a good job of capturing the theme.

The Hulk card has the ability: “For every two Damage on Hulk, Roll an extra Battle die”. This nicely captured the Hulk’s anger as he took damage.

However, the others are less than thematic and although they had interesting abilities, they didn’t really seem to be thematic to the characters.

As previously mentioned, there is a great deal of luck in the game and other than recruiting Heroes, there is little in the means of implementing a

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We were a bit surprised that there weren’t enough Damage cubes supplied for the game. You might find the need to use additional cubes, especially with higher player counts.

Excelsior!

Designers:

Andrew Wolf Publisher: USAopoly Players: 2-4 Mechanic: Co-op Ages: 10+ Length: 45 Mins.

Recommended www.usaopoly.com

Interview

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By Serge Pierro

• Star Realms • Hero Realms • Ascension

• MtG Hall of Famer Rob Dougherty - Designer/Publisher Did you start designing games at an early age? If When the opportunity presents itself, what games so, do you remember what your first game design have you currently been playing? was like?

I did game development at a young age. I did modifications to Risk, Monopoly and Sinking of the Titanic when I was 8-10 years old. I started designing games when I was a teenager. My first design was a Risk-like war game.

We like to constantly try new games. We played Fireball Island at PAX East and it was super fun. We spend a lot of time playtesting our own games. We like to play Codenames, Werewolf and Two Rooms and a Boom as a family. I play Pirates Stratego with my 3 year old, she has her own variant :) I like King of Tokyo and Bunny Kingdom. I play Clash Royale and Star Realms on my phone.

What games over the years have you enjoyed most, from both the point of personal enjoyment, What do you think defines your “style” as a game as well as those that influenced your growth as a designer, is there a specific mechanic or rule set designer? or… ?

I enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons a lot as a kid and Champions Super Hero RPG which had a pointbased character creation system. I played Axis and Allies a lot when I was in my teens and Warhammer Fantasy Battle in my teens to twenties. Titan in my twenties, various role playing games and lots of Magic: The Gathering, of course.

Exhaustive game development is the real signature of the games that I publish. We put the games through the ringer and if people aren’t dying to play them, we keep improving them. Because we have professional competitive gamers as designers and developers, our games can withstand very high level play. We also of course make sure they are fun for casual players.

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Interview

(Cont.)

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

Star Realms, because it is so accessible to such a wide audience but yet also very deep in strategy.

Seeing as how you are both a publisher and designer, how does the business side influence your game designs and how does your game design influence your business decisions?

Knowing what types of games can sell and be profitable influences which ideas I pursue. I often let the perfectionist Game Designer in me run rampant when I shouldn’t. A good example of that is the Hero Realms campaign, we kept adding awesome stuff to it even though it wasn’t necessarily cost effective because it would be really cool for the game.

How does being a former store owner influence You have specialized in designing card games thus your design and marketing strategies for your far. Do you plan to design any board games? games and company?

I know game store owners don’t have the time to promote every game out there, and they have limited funds to keep inventory, so we try to make our games inexpensive for them to stock and try to build up demand through convention demos, our apps, social media. We also provide game day packs and tournament kits to make organized play easy for stores.

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Even though I love board games, I think boards are overrated in games. One of the most interesting elements of board games are cards. You can add a ton of new mechanics in a small space. Ascension was a card game with a board or a board game with cards. Star Realms has a virtual board but no actual board in the box. I like to make games that I like to play, so anything is possible.

What was your role in the designing of the Ascension card game?

I was involved in the initial product concept.

Justin Gary and I were discussing game ideas and we came up with the base mechanics for Ascension.

From there, Justin did the primary design work and I did the business and production side and game development.

With the latest update of “Star Realms” (at the time of this interview) you have introduced “Star Realms Arena”. The weekly tournaments are a great idea. Are there any plans to have any turn based tournament games, as opposed to real time?

Asynchronous tournaments are challenging due to the wildly varying playtimes. We have kicked around some ideas but we don’t have any shortterm plans to implement this.

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Interview

(Cont.)

What were your thoughts when designing “Hero Realms”, in order for it to stand on its own merits and not be labeled as a Star Realms clone?

I was really excited about the concept of combining deckbuilding with RPG elements. The complete Hero Realms vision comes into play with the Campaign Deck with its multi-session play, gaining experience and permanently improving your character.

In our previous issue we took a preview/review of the “EPIC” card game app and I was impressed with the Constructed format play. When you were designing the game, how much of the design process was dedicated to the Constructed format, as compared to the “straight out of the box” format?

Most LCG-style games focus primarily on Constructed. To me the most fun part of TCGs has always been limited formats, sealed and draft. With Epic, my primary focus was to make the out of the box play super fun. Once I had that down, Constructed was the easy part.

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I love the fact that you have a series of tournaments for EPIC. Both the card game and its digital app have events this year. What can you tell our readers about the tournaments and how they can take part in them?

We are redesigning Epic’s organized play to have a seamless melding of the digital and physical games. We are running large tournaments at Origins and GenCon. Watch for announcements in the coming months for additional digital and physical.

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Interview

(Cont.)

“Sorcerer” is going to be White Wizard’s first “big box” game, what can you tell us about it at this point?

It is awesome. We have had a phenomenal response to demos at conventions. Check out the Kickstarter page for a general overview. The development process has been super fun. The gameplay is awesome and fresh every time because of the multi-deck character creation at the beginning of the game.

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

Sorry, they are all top secret :)

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What advice would you have for would be game publishers?

Keep in mind that most games fail, plan for that in your budget.

What advice would you have for aspiring game designers?

When you ask your friends to test your game and they are asking you to play again, then you have something worthwhile. If they aren’t, you need to keep developing the game.

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Peak Oil

By Tom M Franklin

Drilling for Fun

I

n Peak Oil you are the head of a large oil company working to exploit the remaining oil resources across the world while also planning ahead to invest in the most lucrative future, alternative energy technologies. This all plays out on a board with shipping routes and pirates, Agents to be assigned, and a Black Market that can win or lose the game for you. Add in a push-your-luck draw bag filled with the world’s last barrels of crude oil – and damaging public relations disasters – and you have the makings of an interesting game.

To set up the game, each player starts with a Headquarters (HQ) card and two Agent tokens of a matching color. Each player also receives one black barrel of crude oil and a Private Portfolio card with three of the available Technology Track technologies listed.

tokens. Each of these tokens is two-sided, with an indication on the bottom of each side showing what the opposite side reveals. With the larger tokens for the Refinery areas, these numbers denote how many barrels of oil that Refinery can accept – barrels that you then claim on your HQ card for later use. The smaller Risk Spot tokens show what problems you’ll encounter while trying to ship oil from an Oil Region to a Refinery: pirates may claim some of the barrels, while other routes might be closed off altogether. In some instances, you’ll be forced to blindly draw a certain number of barrels from the bag to complete the journey. Black barrels are safe, while red or yellow barrels mean you draw a Public Relations Crisis card which will hamper your ability to play the game and cost you points at the end of the game.

Around the board you’ll place cards for the Oil Fields, the alternative energy Start Ups, and the On the board you randomly populate the Refinery Consultants. Each of these will help contribute areas with larger round markers and the Risk Spots towards winning the game. along the shipping routes with smaller round

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Photo: Tom M Franklin

Players take turns one at a time and immediately resolve their actions. On a turn, a player must: (a) either assign an Agent from their HQ to an available spot on the board or take an Action by removing an Agent from a location on the board and placing it back on your HQ card and (b) reassign a different Agent – either from your HQ or a place on the board. (Later in the game, once you have accumulated more barrels of oil in your HQ, players may spend two barrels to reassign an additional agent) Agents cannot be reassigned to the same spot the player just played, nor can they be added to any spot with five agents already occupying it.

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Peak Oil (Cont.)

To take an Action you must either have the majority of Agents on that spot or be tied for the majority. If you have the Majority in an Oil Region you are the only one who can ship from that region. If you have the Majority on an Action Spot along the bottom of the board, you can take both of the Actions listed there.

On these spots you can Expand (by adding a third or fourth Agent to your HQ and/or dispatch all Agents on that spot to another available spot on the board and, if you have the majority, immediately take that Action), Develop (claim an Oil Region card and add oil barrels to that Region, and/or get rid of a PR Crisis), Invest (by buying an alternative energy Start Up from the available cards and/or inflate the value of one of these energy-types by adding one of your barrels to their Technology Track), and/or work with the Grey Ops (by acquiring a Consultant who gives you special abilities for the remainder of the game and/or moving all barrels on the Black Market into their associated alternative energy Technology Track and thereby inflating their value).

Reaching into the black bag and blindly pulling out barrels is a regular feature of the game, whether to resolve ties on Oil Regions for shipping, resolving a Risk Spot for shipping or by resolving a tie on an Action Spot. At other times you’ll look through the bag and take black barrels to add to Oil Regions.

As you do so, the number of black barrels steadily decreases and the likelihood that you will pull out a yellow or red barrel and trigger a PR Crisis increases.

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Photo: Tom M Franklin

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Peak Oil (Cont.)

When the last black barrel is pulled from the bag The limited color and sharp angled artwork has a the game goes into a final round. After each players’ 1950’s Vision of the Future vibe that works well. final actions are taken, the game ends.

The board and all of the pieces are well made and durable. As a bonus, Kickstarter participants With so much of the board made up of a selective received extra barrels of all three colors so that oil map of the world and shipping routes it can future games could be tailored for either longer be easy to concentrate on collecting oil to the and/or riskier play. exclusion of the alternative technology Start Ups, the Technology Tracks, and even the Drilling cards. Peak Oil is a game where an experienced player The catch is, once the world runs out of oil, oil will can easily win over newbies. However, once new be all-but useless. Instead, these areas and cards will players learn what to watch out for, the game can decide where the next fortunes will be made. quickly become competitive.

In keeping with this, in the final scoring any remaining barrels of oil in your HQ are worth no points. The only points come from the Technologies that were invested in by all players and the Start Up and Drilling cards (both of which have Technology icons) you gained throughout the game.

My weekly gaming group and I liked it a lot.

After our first play-through everyone wanted to try it again right away. One of the things we have enjoyed is that as equal players there is no single path to victory. We’re all aware of not only what’s happening on the board but what the other players are maneuvering themselves into position for. I This means during the course of play you must suspect Peak Oil will remain in our regular rotation keep an active eye on all of the facets of Peak Oil. for a long time.

You will need barrels to influence the Technology Track, but you’ll also need to add Oil Field cards to your inventory, along with the Start Ups. Oil Designers: Tobias Gohrbandt & Heiko Gunther Field cards are “free”, only requiring an Action Publisher: 2Tomatoes on the Develop spot; Start Up cards initially cost 2-5 Players: nothing, but that’s only because there are no barrels Mechanic: Worker Placement, Set Collection in their corresponding Technology Track. As the game progresses, Start Up cards will each cost you 10+ Ages: the number of barrels in their Technology Track.

45-75 Mins.

Length:

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Highly Recommended www.2tomatoesgames.com Photo: Tom M Franklin

Given that each player’s turn consists of only two actions, Peak Oil moves along at a brisk pace. The blind choosing of barrels from the bag adds some fun tension and uncertainty to the game.

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Wordoku

By Serge Pierro

Fun Spelled Out!

A

s someone who is a voracious reader, it should come as no surprise that I enjoy word games. Because of my interest in words, I’ve written 1,000+ book reviews on Goodreads and continue to write/publish this magazine.

So when a new word game hits the market, I’m always curious to see what it has to offer. Wordoku piqued my curiosity since it uses a Sudoku-like mechanism to enhance the scoring system. Let’s see if it is bibliophile approved.

The game’s main components are the 150 wooden game tiles (120 Basic and 30 Expert). The letters and symbols are silkscreened onto the tiles and appear to have a light coating over the top, as I tried to scrape off the paint with the corner of another tile and there was no wear whatsoever, so the tiles should hold up for regular game play.

The game’s rules are printed on a glossy, heavy stock paper that is folded into a four page rulebook.

The rules themselves are pretty straightforward and take up three of the pages, with the fourth being the cover. There are several illustrations, as well as a scoring example. Oddly enough, in the scoring example they give the word eKE (lower case “e” is a wild letter), scoring 2 points, when the word KEF is right next to it, and would score 3 points.

Also included is a custom double sided score pad and a cloth storage bag. The black back has “Wordoku” silkscreened in a light grey and has two drawstrings.

The bag is not used during the game, but it could be used to carry the components to the beach, etc.

The award tokens are made of a heavy cardboard stock that would have been acceptable at half the thickness. This is yet another example of the Wordoku comes in a 9 1/2” x 9 1/2” x 2” box and component quality in Calliope Games products, includes a printed cardboard insert that has two every game of theirs that I’ve played has had a high shelves and a large storage area in the middle. production value.

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The rounds of the game are timed (5 minutes for the 4x4 grid and 10 minutes for the 5x5 grid) and you will need to supply a timing source. We used the timer app on a phone, but, Calliope Games recommends downloading the official app, so that is something to consider.

To start the game all of the tiles are separated into groups of similar symbols, with the letters facedown. If you are playing the Expert variant, then you would do the same with the black symbol tiles.

Each player will take four tiles of each symbol (five, if playing the Expert variant) and keep them facedown in front of them. When all players are ready the timer is started and players flip over their tiles and start to construct their grid.

What makes the game interesting is the use of the symbols printed along with the letters. If your row or column uses one of each symbol, the words contained within score double the points, even if one or more letters aren’t used in the word. Example: Our previous example of “CATL” would score 6 points, if one of each of the symbols was used in that row. If the row used two (or more) of the same symbol, the word would be scored normally (one point for each letter: CAT = 3 points).

After the time has expired, each player will add up their score by tallying the words in each row and column. The player with the highest score receives the Victor Award token. The game is played over the course of three rounds.

In the basic game, a 4x4 grid is used and players will place words in a crossword-like fashion. Words are to be formed by going across and down. So, in theory you will have four words going across and four words going down. The words don’t have to be four letters long. You can have the word CAT with A unique feature of the game is that in the an “L” at the end and it still counts as a three letter subsequent rounds there is also a Personal Best word, the “L” is ignored.

Award that is given to a player who beats their Continued on next page>

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Wordoku

(Cont.)

previous high score. This makes things a little more interesting, as it is possible to accumulate multiple Personal Best Award tokens, which as we will see below, can prove to be important.

After the three rounds are over, the number of tokens (the sum of the Victor Award tokens and Personal Best Award tokens) that each player has won will determine the winner. The highest score is only used as the first tiebreaker.

allow me exchange the one tile symbol for another of the same type, and I drew yet another “Y”. Yes, it was obviously a terrible draw/redraw, but it made me question the letter distribution at that point.

I would have preferred that at each player count that there was a specific number of tiles used. The distribution of the blue circle tiles contains six tiles each of: H, F, B, K and Y. In a two player game each player will draw 4 tiles for a total of 8 and they can each trade in one circle tile for a different circle tile, so only 10 tiles are used out of a pool of 30.

Wordoku has earned its way into my collection of word games. Although the tile distribution can be I feel that the 4x4 grid is a good game to learn annoying at times, the game does present a fun and with, especially with children, however, it is the 5x5 different challenge. grid that proved to be the most interesting, as there It is the balancing between word length and was a greater variety of words that could be formed, symbol distribution that gives the game its charm, though it was a bit tougher to get all five symbols as players have to decide on what path to pursue on for a five letter word. the construction of the grid. I found myself often If you enjoy word games, then this is a game that trying to open with a four letter word up and down you will certainly want to take a look at. And with that used all of the symbols so that I was off to a the included cloth bag, you can take it with you 16 point start and worked the other words around wherever you go. Perfect for parents to play with that. Though there were times this wasn’t feasible their children, as well as competitive wordsmith/ and I had to adapt to what tiles I had to work with. gamers. Bibliophile approved!

I also thought that the awarding of tokens made for a more interesting means of scoring, though I Designer: Boyan Radakovich can’t help but think that there is perhaps a potential Publisher: Calliope Games sandbagging problem somewhere in there, primarily Players: 1-6 the first game, especially if you are able to see how your opponent is doing, thus being able to score Mechanic: Crossword, Grid, Sudoku just enough points to win the round, but leaving Ages: 8+ yourself enough room to beat that round’s score Length: 20-30 Mins. with a higher score in the following round(s).

The only downside I had with the game was that in one game I drew 4 “Y” tiles and used the rule to

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Recommended www.calliopegames.com

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Abstract Games

By Tom M Franklin

DVONN

D

VONN is a game about stacking. Throughout the game, each move you make moves a piece or a group of pieces atop another piece or a stack of pieces.

The fourth game in the GIPF Project, DVONN was first released in 2001. The next year it won an International Gamers Award, was a Mensa Select winner, and a Spiel des Jahres recommended game.

In 2003 it won Games Magazine’s Game of the Year.

Unlike the other games in the series, DVONN has a board three times as long as it is wide. There are 49 spaces for pieces. If viewed as hexes, the board is only five hexes wide and nine hexes long on the edges and eleven in the center.

Players start the Placement Phase by putting their pieces on the board, one after the other. The person playing White goes first and begins by placing a single, red Dvonn piece anywhere on the board.

Black follows by placing the second red Dvonn piece on any vacant space on the board. White

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then follows again with the third. Black then puts the first black piece on the board, again, on any vacant space, followed by White placing the first white piece. Players continue in this way until the board is filled.

From there the game moves in to the Stacking Phase: on their turn, players must move any of their pieces that are not surrounded on all six sides on top of any other piece within reach. A single piece may only move atop any piece or stack of pieces one space away. A stack of two pieces may move atop any piece or stack two spaces away in a straight line.

A stack of three may only move atop a piece or stack three spaces away in a straight line.

At no time may a piece or stack of pieces move onto an empty space on the board.

Stacks are controlled by the player whose piece sits at the top of the stack. A stack surrounded by several single pieces may, therefore, change hands quickly, from turn to turn.

Photo: Tom M Franklin

As with all of the Project GIPF games, DVONN is a complex, interesting game that is made even better by the addition of a fairly simple rule. In the case of DVONN this comes via the three red DVONN pieces that are the first to go onto the board.

For any piece on the board to be considered ‘live’ it must remain in contact with one of the three DVONN pieces – that is, pieces must be linked directly through any uninterrupted chain of other pieces to at least one of the red DVONN pieces.

Any piece, or more likely, group of pieces, not connected to a DVONN piece will be immediately removed from the board and returned to the box.

The end of game scoring is one of the simplest I’ve seen. When neither player can move, each player takes all of their ‘live’ stacks from the board and places then one atop the other to create a single stack of pieces. The player with the tallest stack is the winner.

DVONN is another simple to teach and easy to learn game that quickly shows its depth and complexity within the first few moves. As the board begins to condense and empty spaces begin separating the board, opportunities for moving pieces become fewer. The pressure of keeping pieces in contact with one of the DVONN pieces begins to build.

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Abstract Games (Cont.)

Photo: Tom M Franklin

DVONN pieces themselves are neutral. It doesn’t matter who placed them on the board, they are in play for everyone. While you cannot pick up a DVONN piece and use it to capture an opponent’s piece or stack, you can move one of your pieces or stacks atop a DVONN piece and, thereby, control where it resides on the board. Also, any stack that contains a DVONN piece will always be considered ‘live’ as it possesses a DVONN piece within itself.

If you control such a stack, you should work to find ways to move it away from your opponent’s pieces and towards your own.

One of the keys to winning DVONN is in keeping your pieces mobile. Large stacks can quickly become difficult to move and, therefore, easy to cut off. Resist the urge to own tall stacks. Since they can only move a distance equal to the size of the stack, their movement options become restricted very quickly. Once stuck, they can be cut off from a DVONN piece far more easily.

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In general, in the Placement Phase you’ll want to keep your own pieces along the borders of the board so they can be mobilized early on. Keeping the DVONN pieces spread across the board will help both players, but you’ll still want to try to position your own pieces around them as advantageously as possible.

The number of legal places to move on the board will quickly diminish. Keep this in mind as you look for opportunities to limit your opponent’s movements and maximize your own.

The game ends when neither player has a legal move.

However, if one player cannot move they must pass, thus allowing the other player to continue making moves, if possible. This continued end game mobility can often be the deciding factor in who wins a game of DVONN. DVONN is typically a relatively short game. The 49 pieces shrink quickly, limiting movement opportunities and threatening to eliminate pieces from the board. I have yet to play a first game of DVONN with someone who has not wanted to immediately play it again. And again. Highly Recommended!

Photo: Tom M Franklin

You may have more stacks than your opponent, but if they can successfully cut those stacks off from the DVONN pieces, all of those stacks are removed from the game and count for nothing.

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Interview Gallery

Steve Jackson #1

Dan Verssen #1

Paul Herbert #1

Reiner Knizia #2

Franz Vohwinkel #2

James Ernest #2

Mark Copplestone #2

Reiner Knizia #3

Peter Adkison #3

Brom #3

Chenier La Salle #4

Ryan Dancey #4

Brian Snoddy #4

Beth Sobel #5

Bruno Faidutti #5

Tom Jolly #6

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Antoine Bauza #7

Dennis Lohausen #7

Ryan Laukat #8

Chad Hoverter #9

Matt Leacock #9

Greg Isabelli #9

Ignacy Trzewiczek #10

Jacqui Davis #10

Johan Koitka #10

Jamey Stegmaier #11

Michael Menzel #11

Kay Wilke #11

Vincent Dutrait #12

Mike Fitzgerald #12

Sandy Petersen #13

Mihajlo Dimitrievski #13

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Interview Gallery

Bruno Cathala #14

John Ariosa #14

Friedemann Friese #15

Joshua Cappel #15

Eric Vogel #15

Mac Gerdts #16

Keldon Jones #16

Steve Finn #17

J. Alex Kevern #18

Richard Ham #18

Ludovic Roudy #19

Bruno Sautter #19

Phil Walker-Harding #20

Luke Peterschmidt #21

Mike Richie #22

Grant Wilson #22

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Contributors Serge Pierro Serge 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 ready... but, currently finds his free time devoted to doing Game Nite.

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.

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

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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Game Review Index

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• • • • • •

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

• • • • • • •

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

• • • • • • • • •

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

• • • • • • • •

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

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

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

• • • • • • • • • • • •

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 Game Nite Issue #25

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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 Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu

• • • • • • • • • • • •

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

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Fantasy Realms Space Race Isle of Skye Unearth ION Escape from 100 Million BC Battle for Souls COG Near and Far Terraforming Mars Caverna: Cave vs. Cave Pocket Mars Terra Mystica Hafid’s Grand Bazaar

• • • • • • • •

The Climbers Whistle Stop The 7th Continent Witches of the Revolution Viral Sentient Road Hog PeltaPeeps

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Game Review Index

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• • • • • • •

Mini Rails Nightmare Forest: Alien Invasion The Ruhr Summit Seikatsu Tulip Bubble Covalence

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Joraku Michael Strogoff Minute Realms Castle Dukes Rajas of the Ganges Cytosis

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Ancestree Exodus Fleet Tak Mistborn: House War Expedition: RPG Card Game

Game Review Index

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ShutterBug Divinity Derby Wakening Lair Planet of the Apes

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Vast: The Fearsome Foes Vast Miniatures Expansion Vast Bonus Cards Wildcatters Alexandria Tzolk’in

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Gretchinz!

Button Men The Flow of History The Game of Nines

Game Nite Issue #25

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Issue #26 Release Date

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