Tabletop Gaming 08/2024 part 2

Welcome adventurers, to the tabletop – where de ck building has nothing to do with the patio, and worker placement isn’t part of a re cruitment agency. If the terminology use d to describe the games we know and love can fe el like tr ying to learn a new language, let our glossar y demystify the terminology, and have you speaking tabletop in no time at all

Words by Emma Garrett

G a t e w a y G a m e

A game that is easy to learn, fun to play, and gets new players hooked on the hobby

Borrowing a term from the world of narcotics is a little on the nose for many gamers. Much like gateway drugs, gateway games can change your life Your social circle dwindles in part, and expands in new directions, as does the way your mind works. Both cut a sizeable chunk out of your bank balance Taking the metaphor back to its origin, these are the games that draw you in The ones that you take off the shelf for a little fun and find it wasn’t just a shelf, it was one of those doors in glamorous libraries Suddenly you find yourself through the gateway, wading into a wonderland of possibilities you could never before have imagined An important quality of a gateway game is that the explanation doesn’t take very long. Whilst reading rulebooks might have become a beloved part of the hobby for us - in the same way as popping out tokens and smelling the new pack of cards straight from the packet - I hear that many people find it a drag. They just want to get playing, they don’t want

to hear any rules Another is simplicity, ideally a new player won’t feel overwhelmed by the experience. Rather, they’ll be enthused by how much more sense it makes by the end of one play and eager to try again Gateway games are the games your non-gaming friends have sometimes heard of. They can be a blessing and a curse, if someone doesn’t enjoy their experience playing one of these, they may be turned off gaming forever Many people in the hobby can look back and talk fondly of which games were their gateway. The games that friends showed them that lit a spark inside them Some of us still think of them fondly, some feel they’ve outgrown the thing they used to love, their tastes having blossomed, refined and branched out. They can be games that stand the test of time and become modern classics, like Catan or Ticket to Ride Or they can be more short term I wonder how many people’s real first gateway game was something in the Mar vel or Star Wars franchise. *

GATEWAY GAMES

THE C RDS

We look ahead at some of the biggest trading card game news of the month and discover what’s on the cards…

Words by Ross ‘The Wossy’ Gilbert

ALL THE T YPES

T he Pokémon Company Int er na t ional t his mont h r evealed t he next expansion of t he Pokémon Trading Card Game t o be Stellar Crown Due f or r elease on Sep t ember 13th it w ill f ea t ur e t he int r oduc t ion of Ter apagos fr om t he Indigo Disk DLC fr om t he Scar le t & V iole t v ideogames as a S t ellar Ter a Pokémon, a br and new k ind of car d

S t ellar Ter a Pokémon ex w ill each have a special s t ellar a t t ack w it h gems t one -inspir ed names, t ha t cos t t hr ee differ ent t ypes of ener g y t o use L apr as, Cinder ace and Gal vant ula have also been confir med t o be coming as

S t ellar Ter a Pokémon ex St ellar Cr own will featur e the usual assor tment of blis t er packs, elit e trainer boxes and boos t er bundles and seems t o be lar gely equivalent t o the Japanese expansion Stella Miracle Although the new St ellar Tera Pokémon ex have awk war d at t ack cos t s, they have ver y power ful effec t s and ther e will be plent y of car ds that will give them suppor t , such as r educing at t ack cos t and sear ching for the car ds you need

ALL THE EMPERORS

OP-07: 500 Years in the Future may have only hit s t or e shelves this month but Bandai have alr eady announced OP-09: Emperors in the New World which is look ing t o be a set t o which fans should be look ing for war d Alr eady confirmed as a second anniver sar y set this will invit e comparisons t o OP-05: Awakening of the New Era which featur ed such beauties as thr ee manga rar es and a car d drawn and signed by One Piece cr eat or Eiichir o Oda

The pos t er -childr en for this set ar e the four emper or s, though canonically the r ecent four emper or s ; Shanks, Buggy, Luffy and Black bear d We’r e also t old that charac t er s fr om One Piece Odyssey (the r ecent video game) will also join in Few car ds have been r evealed at the time of writing but we have seen some ver y enticing leader car ds, such as Black bear d, who turns off both your and your opponent’s [On Play] sk ills That complet ely changes the game! This looks like a set that will shake things up when it r eleases in December

ALL THE ASSASSINS

Magic: the Gathering is gearing up this month for the lat es t r elease in it s Univer ses Beyond series : Assassin’s Creed Based on the popular video game franchise the set will dr op on July 5th with plent y t o please fans of Assassin’s Cr eed and fans of the Magic: The Gathering

Your favourit e charac t er s fr om the franchise will be appearing with Memor y Corridor Frames, each evocative of the charac t er s and their signatur e games Also featur ed ar e serialised Leonar do da V inci car ds that ar e available in Collec t or Boos t er s of any language but will always appear in It alian, r egar dless of the language of boos t er pack fr om which they’r e pulled

Alongside Collec t or Boos t er s fans can look for war d t o St ar t er Kit s, Bundles and Beyond Boos t er s that pr ovide a “curat ed opening experience” wher e the 7-car d packs each include a Bor derless car d and shining foil

ALL THE R AGE

Konami announced the next expansion of the Yu-Gi- Oh car d game this month, titled Rage of the Abyss and due for r elease on November 10th As has become tradition this year for Yu-Gi- Oh r eleases the set includes 24 car ds appearing as Quar t er Centur y Secr et Rar es, and one special car d that is only available as a Quar t er Centur y Secr et Rar e

Rage of the Abyss pr omises plent y of excit ement for WATER enthusias t s that “enhances Xyz Summoning in unpr ecedent ed ways ” Konami ar e t easing new car ds including a new Level 4 Fish inspir ed by Big Jaws which can Special Summon it self fr om the hand as long as a spell car d was ac tivat ed this turn and then add any Fish “Shark” mons t er fr om your deck

Time to look towards the next expansion in Disne y Lorcana : Shimmering Skies

Writ ten by Ross Gilbert

With Ursula’s Return on the tables and making waves in metagames around the world, Ursula has been defeated and it’s time to look ahead

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

In another edition of their popular Lorecast, Ravensburger announced the newest expansion of their hit card game Disney Lorcana with the usual staggered release date that will see it releasing into local game stores, Disney Stores and Disney Parks on August 9th before a mass release on August 23rd This is designed to give local game stores a period where they can build a local scene and, if the hype for Set Championships in local stores is anything to go by, this has been a resounding success.

One of the big selling points of Shimmering Skies is the proper introduction of Wreck it Ralph (a top-three Disney movie and I will not be moved on this!) into Disney Lorcana Technically, Ralph did feature on the Action card “Pick a Fight” in Rise of the Floodborn but in Shimmering Skies we have a whole host of characters going far beyond Ralph, deep into the Sugar Rush roster of racers. We all know Vanellope Von Schweetz and a lot of us could also remember Taffyta Muttonfudge but hands up if you could name Rancis Fluggerbutter off the top of your heads. Ok, hands down, nobody likes a show-off What this really shows is the Disney Lorcana team continuing to celebrate the films and other Disney properties and not being content to just stick to the favourites

Also featured in Shimmering Skies is Frozen 2 and although we ’ ve seen plenty of Frozen in the first five sets (there’s seven unique Elsa cards if anyone ’ s curious) we haven’t seen

Bruni yet and it’s high time that lovely fire salamander gets its time to shine

WHAT’S NEW?

One very interesting development in Shimmering Skies is a tie-in with Ravensburger’s Disney Villainous game New stickered copies of Disney Villainous : Introduction to Evil will actually include an alternate art Prince John promo which, as far as we know, can only be found here. The card is not mechanically unique, it’s an alternate art of one of the new cards from Shimmering Skies but I have long argued that this is the perfect way to do promos ; giving the fans something fun to hunt but not giving a competitive disadvantage to anyone who doesn’t get them. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this could develop in the future and where else we could see Disney Lorcana promos popping up. If you ’ ve been looking to get your friends into playing Disney Lorcana (and you really should be, having more people to play with it always fun) or you ’ ve been looking to pick up the game yourself there’s a new product launching alongside Shimmering Skies which is just for you, the first ever Disney Lorcana gateway. Clearly aimed at beginners this set even includes decks that you play without shuffling to guide you through a game and make the entry as easy as possible It remains to be seen if this will feature any promotional cards,

alternate art cards, or anything else that will tempt veterans of the card game

Of course, with a new expansion we also need some new accessories and Shimmering Skies has got you covered. One of the coolest things coming out of the set is that we are finally getting card sleeves designed to look exactly like the back of the cards. Your opponent won’t even know if you ’ re using sleeves! This has long been a staple accessor y for ever y card game and fans has been asking for this since the launch of the game

More surprising is that we ’ re getting a nine-pocket portfolio celebrating the art of Disne y Lorcana card artist Nicholas Kole

This is notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, nine-pocket binders are another accessor y fans have been asking for as the previous Lorebooks were nice but not big enough to really store your collection easily Secondly, you don’t often see TCGs designing products to celebrate a particular artist The portfolio

features a range of characters such as Moana and Mickey Mouse with the artist being the only connective tissue Along with the numerous artist appearances at tournaments and set launches this shows a real commitment to celebrating artists

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE COMPETITIVE GAME?

With ever y new set though one of the biggest questions is : What does this do for the competitive game? Disne y Lorcana Challenges have well and truly begun with tournaments already having taken place in North America (in Atlanta and Chicago) and Europe (in Lillie and Bochum) fuelling competitive fires and giving birth to a vibrant competitive scene so, will anything in this set be taking home any titles any time soon?

We haven’t seen the whole set list yet, far from it, but we have seen some cards that seen to

have enormous potential. Donald Duck – Pie Slinger is a new legendary card that could absolutely ruin your opponent’s day A 5-cost with 3 Strength and 6 Willpower is ok but if you use Shift to play this onto an existing Donald Duck card (might I suggest the 2-cost Donald Duck – Boisterous Fowl from The First Chapter?) each of your opponents loses 2 lore. That’s significant

There’s also a second skill though, the wonderfully named “Raging Duck” . This says that if your opponent has 10 lore, this

character gains SIX strength. As soon as your opponent is halfway to winning the game you have a nine-strength character that loses your opponent 2 lore for just paying 4 Ink to shift into play! Do remember of course that if your first skill takes your opponent below 10 lore

you will have to wait for the extra 6 Strength

The other L egendar y card show n off w ith the initial reveal of Shimmer ing Skies was the equally exciting Merlin –Intellectual Visionar y Despite being uninkable and having just 3 Strength as a 6-cost it has the fantastic skill O verdeveloped Brain that says if you play this character w ith Shift 5 (rather than paying 6 nor mally) you may search your deck for any card. This is a game-changing skill unlike anything seen before in the game

Remember all those games where draw ing into your Be Prepared to banish all characters would have guaranteed the w in? Remember that game you lost because you got plenty of items into play but Tamatoa – S o Shiny! and its skill that increases your lore value by 1 for each item in play would just not come out of the deck? Well, not anymore!

More exciting still is the thought of what this could lead to in the game moving forward Searching skills before now have looked far more like Scuttle – Expert on Humans that lets you look at the top four cards of your deck and find an item just from those four Merlin goes so far beyond this that it makes us question the kind of searching skills we may see from now on

There’s plenty more cards to be revealed and a lot of testing to be done when they are but this Wreck it Ralph fan is ver y excited to jump into the driver ’ s seat for a ver y comprehensive test drive.

If you love Disne y Lorcana , stay tuned next month for an extremely exciting special issue! *

around the world in 80 plays

Words by Chad Wilkinson

So far in our epic tabletop journey we have encountered two out of the three Baltic states situated in Northern Europe; Estonia and Lithuania This month we return to tackle the third and final state, Latvia.

Sandwiched between the two aforementioned countries, Latvia has been populated for over five-thousand years, initially by the ancient Latgalians alongside three other Baltic tribes Later, rule of the countr y was tossed around between Germany, Poland, Sweden, and Russia before gaining independence in 1918

Despite this tumultuous ‘ownership’ of Latvia over the centuries, the country has retained its Baltic identity Of particular note is the survival of the Latvian language - one of just two surviving Baltic languages - plus the incorporated Latgalian and Livonian dialects. Jolanta Keiša is a philologist and designer of Cipierkstneits ; a game created to promote the use of the Latgalian language amongst young people and families At the game ’ s launch in the village of Rekova, school teams competed upon a jumbo-sized board, answering questions on Latgale culture, history, nature, and geography

Other designs hoping to highlight aspects of Latvian culture include Kartupelis; a game concerning the ‘legend of how potatoes entered Latvia’ and promising ‘exciting potato battles for two players, and Abra; a party game featuring nine-hundred Latvian folk riddles. Games such as Dagnis Skurbe’s Mission to Mars 2049 and Janis Gruzinskis G oldingen, conversely hope to appeal to more global audiences

Brain Games, founded in 2004, are the leading publisher in the Baltics Their origins can be traced back to a group of friends playing an imported copy of Catan, whose enthusiasm led to them all forgetting to show up at work The company ’ s vision is for tabletop gaming to become one of Latvia’s most popular pastimes, which they’ve

pursued through the production of localised modern classics and new releases, as well as purely Latvian designs.

Brain Games’ first homegrown hit was 2016’s award-winning dexterity penguin-flicker

Ice Cool Working collectively under the pseudonym ‘Brian Gomez’ , Ice Cool’ s four Latvian designers later produced a sequel plus the 2024 reimplementation, Ice Cool Wizards The fantastic illustrations come courtesy of Reinis Petersons whose work has been a mainstay through much of Brain Games’ output.

Their latest title is the notably penguin-less Iron Forest; another dexterity game but this time played out across several fantastical scenarios, upon a multi-leveled arena, with players flicking wolves, hedgehogs, rabbits, owls, and the mysterious ‘Iron Forces’ instead

In 2014 Brain Games presented Wash Dash at Essen This curious game of

hanging adorably dinky washing on three-dimensional drying racks was designed by a group of Latvian students as part of their ‘The Young Can Do It’ social project Brain Games have ensured that a percentage of the game ’ s profits are put back into this youth initiative

A smaller but nonetheless fascinating publisher is Thought Tower Games Their mission is to raise awareness of and have people engage with issues surrounding mental health Saving Sanity is their debut title; a strategic card game that helps players understand negative thoughts and behaviours The English language edition can be purchased from their website.

Aside from being Latvia’s prominent publisher, Brain Games also have two physical shops in the country’s capital, Riga, although the city is home to several other gaming stores, clubs, and cafes too including MegaGame, Yuranka Games, and Darkwood.

Boasting both the largest, most populous city, and most prolific publisher, Latvia - and perhaps Riga more specifically - has established itself as the hub of tabletop gaming culture in the Baltic regions. Thanks to an admirable combination of culturally distinct designs alongside globally recognised titles, Latvia has proven to be a valuable stop as we bid farewell to the countries on the Baltic shore *

LE T’S GO! T O JAPAN

Planning your perfe ct holiday is Japan-easy

Designer: Josh Wood | Publisher: Alderac Ent er t ainment Gr oup

45m 10+ £50 1-4

What’s more, as if all this wasn’t enough, the activity cards will also move experience tokens along a tracker. This is important because the final activity card on each day will have a ‘highlight’ that may give you a bonus score if you ’ ve met certain

Does the thought of planning the perfect holiday fill you with joy? Do you tremble with anticipation at the idea of scheduling day trips, selecting restaurants or taking a stroll around new locations? Perhaps you love booking train travel to get you from place to place and squeezing as much as possible into a week-long holiday. Well, this could be the game for you!

In Let’s G o! To Japan (as the name might imply) you ’ re planning a dream trip to Tokyo and Kyoto. The problem is that you ’ ve only got six days to cram in a whole host of activities, like eating the best food, visiting shrines, experiencing the nature of Japan and, of course, buying a whole bunch of manga collectables that will gather dust when you get home The result is a drafting and set-collection game in which you tr y and build combos of activities

There are 13 rounds and each one sees you drafting Activity cards in var ious ways, then popping them into the days on your player board We’re aware that 13 rounds sounds a lot but it ’ s actually pretty snappy once you get going It ’ s wor th noting here how absolutely gorgeous the illustrations are. Whether you ’ re visiting an anime museum or shopping in Shibuya, each activity is brought to life w ith some stunning visuals and bonus facts

Throughout the drafting process,

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ 160 Ac tivit y car ds

◗ 24 Favourable Condition t okens

◗ 20 Experience t okens

◗ 4 Str ess t okens

◗ 4 Happiness t okens

◗ 4 St ar ting Train t okens

◗ 21 Train t okens

◗ 20 Wild t okens

◗ 24 Resear ch t okens

◗ 16 Walk t okens

◗ 4 +12 t okens

◗ 4 Mood t okens

◗ 4 Player boar ds

◗ Round Tracker t oken

◗ Round Tracker boar d

◗ Rulebook

◗ Scor epad

you ’ ve got to be mindful of the end-game, which is when you star t scor ing and moving the var ious tokens around your player board. As a result, you ’ ve constantly got to be planning ahead when drafting to make sure you max imise your score. Of course, sometimes the choices w ill be limited by what you draft, so you’ll just have to make the most of a bad situation. However, this is negated slightly by the oppor tunity to ‘take a walk ’ If you don’t like any of the cards, you can discard them to draw a random card, which is placed face dow n on a chosen day and only revealed in the end-game. It ’ s a gamble that can pay off!

When placing your card you can tr y to match up activities with randomly chosen experiences, e g on Monday you might be tr ying to visit shrines, while Thursday is dedicated to stuffing yourself silly By matching these bonuses you’ll be able to increase your happiness or gain additional bonuses, like luxur y train travel Happiness is particularly important, as stress will decrease your final score, while joy will increase it. There’s a gentle balancing act between grouping together the same type of activity or ignoring the theme to boost a different element of your final score

requirements, such as the ‘shopping/ goods’ token being on position three of the experiences track. However, with all this to think about, Let’s G o! does feel a little like ever yone is solving their own puzzle with little player interaction Yes, there’s the drafting element where you pass cards to players but it’s worth considering that it can feel a little solitar y ROB BURMAN

Both have a s tr ong theme and gor geous ar t work , plus ther e ’ s that sense of put ting t ogether the per fec t trip t o boos t your final scor e ❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

The theme of Let’s Go! To Japan does mos t of the heav y lif ting her e The illus trations and fac t s on each car d ar e an absolut e delight and pr ovide many of the game ’ s t alk ing point s Meanwhile, the gameplay is light and br eez y with a quick playtime

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… PARKS

INGENIOUS

The popular modern classic gets a new version

Designer: Reiner Knizia | Publisher: KOSMOS

Ingenious is not a new game. There have been a number of editions since it first appeared in 2004, but it’s become a staple of many families and game groups and a new edition from KOSMOS provides an opportunity to look again at what makes it so compelling

As an abstract strategy game, Ingenious first brings Dominoes to mind Ever y player has a hidden hand of six double-ended tiles, and each turn you play a tile to the board, matching one of its symbols to one already on the board However, these dominoes are hexagon-based, so fitting the tiles together onto the board will eventually create a mosaic of shapes, colours and scoring opportunities.

It is in both building and controlling the scoring possibilities where the clever design of Ingenious comes through Each half of the tile will score a point for each matching symbol in straight lines from itself. So, rather than creating fat clusters of matches as in many tile-laying games, additional thought is required in order to keep the colours lined up

However, while you can easily gain massive points for any of the six colours/ patterns, your final tally is based on your lowest score only Therefore the only way to win is to both build good scores with each move, but also to make that placement support your other colours later It’s no good running away with combos in red if you only have one green point. Scoring is a careful balance

Ultimately it is that

mix of incredibly simple turns and deep tactical possibility that make Ingenious such a modern classic And it’s a delight for newcomers, too; many modern games offer a first experience where, by the time you ’ ve realised how the game is played you ’ ve slipped into an unwinnable position With Ingenious, the implications of scoring become clear ver y early on and even a newbie will have a shot at victor y

So, what’s different about the new version? The most significant change is that this is a slimmed-down, fully cardboard and – significantly –cheaper edition of the game. Gone are the “Scrabble-style” holders for your tiles, replaced by a set of slots in the board which will hold six pieces by their corners (which are

innovative, if not great). The score counters are now wooden cubes on a printed tracker as opposed to the slot-in pegs found in other versions. Importantly, though, there is still a bag provided to draw out pieces! The end result is a significantly cheaper edition of Ingenious The box size is smaller and the weight reduced by around a third. All this makes the list price almost half of previous editions This puts Ingenious into a bracket with the £15 titles, rather than being among the £30-£40 bigger titles – and that feels like a ver y generous prospect given the table presence of the game and its pedigree. It’s a reverse makeover : removing the frills to provide the clever gameplay at as low a bar as possible.

Now, that approach won’t be for ever yone: In a hobby where gamers will happily shell out high prices for deluxe extra components, metal coins and 3D printed plastic pieces, this isn’t a beautified edition for hardcore fans of the game. What it does do is open the game up to a wider market It may now find its way into your collection as an impulse buy; a family gift ; or even a stocking-filler It’s a production which focuses your appreciation ver y much on the strategy puzzle at its core and says “I’ve stripped away all of the distractions – look at what makes me

Ingenious ” CHRIS JARVIS

❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

At this new price, ther e ’ s almos t no r eason no t o it Cer t ainly, if you like abs trac t tile -laying games with a Dominoes feel and a clever scoring s trat egy, then you should definit ely tr y this if you haven’t alr eady

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED... QUIRKLE

A similar abs trac t tile laying game, another modern classic

TAM ASHII: CHRONICLE OF ASCEND

Mind, B ody and Data

Designer: Kamil ‘Sanex’ Cieśla, Rober t Plesowicz, Łukasz Włodar cz yk | Publisher: Awaken Realms Lit e

In Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend players are transported into a postapocalyptic c yberpunk universe where an evil AI Ascend is tr ying to wipe out the humanity Players take on the role of Tamashii, who are able to transport their minds into different bodies and attempt to stop the Ascend To do this, they will complete a series of scenarios based around the tiled modular board, fighting and hacking their opponents, searching for clues and information

The main mechanism of the game is programming which takes place on the players’ individual gridded boards, called the launchers. Each round they will pull out a number of data tokens from their data bag and place them on the board. They will then programme –rearrange tokens’ positions – to create certain combinations to perform actions, like hacking the enemy robots or even inhabiting a new, more powerful body The programming starts fairly basic, with only a few options available to players, but as the game progresses, characters level up and unlock more powers, the choices and powers available become more

interesting. While there is randomness in which tokens players will draw from the bag, players will get opportunities to improve the odds by adding specific data tokens to the bag However, they can also gain corrupted tokens, which will block spaces on their launcher and will make it harder to arrange the patterns Even so, programming never feels overly complex. The puzzle doesn’t come from the challenge of making the pattern, but in deciding which data tokens to spend, which could potentially limit the number of future actions

Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend takes an interesting narrative approach: it has an overarching story, however except for the prologue mission, which must be played first, and the final scenario, which has to be played after all others are completed, missions can be played in any order. This means that while Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend has the feel of a campaign game, it has the flexibility of a scenario-based game. Players can choose missions based on complexity or the length of the scenario They can play solo, with the same group or with different players each

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…

ANDROID: NETRUNNER

No other game has managed t o captur e theme of cyberpunk as Android: Netrunner While having a ver y differ ent gameplay appr oach, Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend offer s an int er es ting t ake on this theme that is similarly immer sive

time without much barrier to entry As a consequence, the narrative is not incredibly deep It gives players the feel for the cyberpunk world and various factions in it, rather than delivering a solid plot and character story progression However, players will still get to make choices within the game and see different sides of the world based on the decisions they make The biggest downside of the game is that players can feel a little isolated. Programming happens on the individual boards and is simultaneous, which helps to bring the game ’ s run time down, but doesn’t improve player interaction Enemies also attach themselves to individual players and there are limited options for players to help each other This can actually become a problem, especially if the players body is not very brawny and struggles to dispense with enemies quickly enough before getting overwhelmed. Yet, luckily, the death of the body doesn’t necessarily mean the game is over, as most of the time players get to reset and inhabit a different body. Character death is just one more thing that Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend does differently to other scenario games Frankly, this game doesn’t lack for interesting ideas. Whether that is a unique approach to performing actions through programming mechanics, or an interesting way to present the narrative, while giving players plenty of choices on how they want to explore the game, Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend may not get ever ything perfectly right but it certainly delivers on the ambition

ALE XANDRA S ONE CHKINA

❚

PL AY IT? Y E S

Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend offer s a new t wis t on the dungeon-crawlerlikes s t or y games It s cyberpunk world deliver s thematically and an int er es ting puzzly pr ogramming mechanic that makes this game feel like no other

139 Scenario car ds

1 Solo mode car d

13 Body car ds

12 Help car ds

13 Learning pr ot ocol car ds ◗ 62 Scenario generat or -r elat ed car ds ◗ 52 Class augment car ds

◗ 48 Fac tion augment car ds

◗ 2 Boss sheet s ◗ 16 Body t okens

2 Boss t okens

16 Open data tokens ◗ 16 Corrupt ed dat a t okens ◗ 8 Cor e dat a t okens ◗ 16 Lock t okens ◗ 8 Success t okens ◗ Fir s t player t oken

4 Player boar ds

11 Scenario sheet s

Pr ogr ess sheet

4 Dat a bags

40 Universal markers

40 Exp marker s

40 DMG marker s

4 ITG limit er s

4 Enemy dice

12 Player dice

Rulebook

IN THE FOO T STEP S OF DARW IN

The B eagle Has Lande d

Designer: Gr égor y Grar d, Mat thieu Ver dier | Publisher: Sorr y We Ar e Fr ench

The work of Charles Dar win is undoubtedly some of the most important scientific literature of all time, and the game In the Footsteps of Dar win asks the question “could you have done it better?” Navigate the Beagle around the world and create a scrapbook of colourful creatures, scoring points for sets, groups and families that you acquire.

In this simple game, players take turns grabbing an animal tile from the board, adding it onto their own personal “research journals” and then moving the Beagle marker around to allow the next player to do the same. Animals are scored based on completing rows of specimens on your player board, or for collecting many from the same region.

Some actions will unlock bonus scoring objectives, each representing a chapter from “On the Origin of Species” and the game for the most part is about managing efficiently picking up tiles that score you points without giving your opponent easy opportunities to get one of their own

This must be one of the most wellproduced games I have ever played. The level of care in the production is astounding From the highly detailed drawings of the animals and people who helped Darwin on his journey to the gorgeous look and feel of the player boards. Each player gets a personal board, mainly for set collection, that folds down into what looks like a leather-bound tome. They’re also decorated with gorgeous line drawings of animals found in the game

No expense has been spared on the overall production. There’s copious amounts of extra information, detailing the history and science of the setting An extra rulebook dedicated to explaining the theme and context of Darwin’s story It does all this without any of it compromising on the easy-tofollow gameplay

It’s not the deepest of strategy games, gameplay is ver y gentle, and most turns are taken quickly Consequently, it plays out over a short

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ Journey boar d

◗ 5 Naturalis t’s not ebook

◗ 69 Animal and Charac t er tiles

◗ 28 Theor y tiles

◗ Beagle figur e

◗ Dar win t oken

◗ 41 t okens

◗ Cloth bag

◗ Scor e pad

◗ Rulebook

◗ Appendix book let

period of time but never gives players time to get bored It’s basically always about to be your turn and you have just enough time and information to effectively plan ahead Having said that, there’s plenty of tension to be found within the moment-tomoment actions It’s the little things, like hoping that no one notices that you really want that Bullfrog Tile and lines the Beagle up in just the right spot for you to get it easily, or deciding whether you want to commit to birds this game, and grabbing for ever y winged friend you can see

It’s lovely that the game is so approachable, but I would have liked to see more depth and replayability offered up in some form of optional rules or more challenging scoring Normally I’m more than happy to let a simple game be simple, but it feels like a shame to have this gorgeous product made with all that love and care to only contain a gentle and low-complexity puzzle which can get somewhat stale after a few plays I can wax lyrical about the production forever, and it’s to be commended I do enjoy the gameplay

too, though I must admit that it doesn’t grab me as something that I’d want to play too many times Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to play, but I would prefer my filler games to either be smaller or offer some extra depth beyond the core rules However, it is absolutely perfect for families and people looking for a light game that has great table presence

DAN YORK

❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

A splendid design with undeniably lovely visuals wrapped ar ound a modes t but engaging game

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… KINGDOMINO

JOR AKU DELUXE EDITION

An unpre dictable race to rule Kyoto

Designer: Iori Tsuk inam | Publisher: Moaideas Game Design

Joraku is a game of territoryholding, trick-taking and pointgathering set before Japan’s Edo era. Can you unite Japan or, at least, rule over all the other lords? To gain the allimportant Reputation points, you must progressively seize areas of the board with your army of Samurai Blending several common mechanics into one tight little game, Joraku is a unique and refreshing experience; quite unlike anything else I’ve ever played

The board is split into seven areas, beginning with Kyoto at 0, then moving up in number order Play starts with each player getting assigned a number to place their “Daimyo” (a regional feudal warlord) This location is important, since the Daimyo counts as two pieces for the purposes of holding a majority, and can also remove opposing Samurai pieces

Turns involve playing a skirmish card, numbered 0-6 in three coloured suits Aside from some simple rules regarding card selection, you either win with the highest number or with the “Ninja” card, which is the only thing that can beat a “6” Winning the hand pays out Reputation points for the majority holder in the winner’s Daimyo’s territory; and yes, that does mean you can win the hand, but actually

not get any points if your Daimyo is outnumbered in their location!

Players also use the number on their card to either place new Samurai down in the matching territor y, or take a number of actions matching the number ; options include moving your Samurais or your Daimyo, and removing an opposing Samurai “Ninja” cards don’t get to take an action, but they can place up to three Samurai tokens anywhere on the board; even directly in the numberless Kyoto space.

The broad structure of the game falls into three rounds, each broken into five or six card turns. At the end of each round, majorities are counted up, with Reputation points for first, second and third place in each. In the first round, points are highest in territor y 6, then in territor y 2 in the next, and 0 in the final. This causes a conundrum ; do you deploy troops early in a concentrated manner at one end of the board, or bide your time to dominate in later rounds? Do you remove enemy Samurais, or is that actually an advantage for your opponents, free to redeploy them in another, more valuable area?

The satisfaction opportunities in Joraku are many and varied; placing

down a single Samurai in three territories on the last turn of a round to swoop up the third place points ; defeating an apparently unbeatable “6” card with a “Ninja”; removing all the enemy Samurais from Kyoto and storming through the final round with a monster 15 victor y points ; even if you don’t win overall, there are lots of smaller victories to provide some conciliator y dopamine Kudos to Moaideas for putting this game into a smaller box than most European publishers would have done Taking up half the space of Ticket to Ride, with piles of variability too, with a set of rules variants that subtly shift the mechanics in tilting but not game-breaking ways

I’ll admit the game has two main weaknesses Firstly it’s a little

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

4 Player count er s

challenging to teach ; lots of vital concepts to convey, even if the core game is actually very easy to get your head around once the pieces fall into place. Secondly, going last during later rounds can be very powerful; although players do have quite a lot of control over that order with their card choices. Even so, this game is superb; many paths to victory, and lots of moments of deep contentment - Joraku deserves a place in every home.

CHRIS LOWRY

PL AY IT? M U S T - P L A Y I think ther e ’ s something her e for gamer s at almos t any level; I’ve intr oduced beginner s and advanced eur o-heads t o Joraku, and all of them have had a gr eat time

6 Varient rule car ds

8 rules r efer ence car ds

Rulebook

Game boar d 10m 14+ 1-4 TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… ROOT Ther e ’ s ver y lit tle asymmetr y in Joraku but both include ar ea contr ol in a s t yle you ’ ve never seen it befor e I pr obably pr efer Ninjas t o foxes t oo, although Samurai- Ot t er s might be the per fec t collaboration bet ween the t wo games

M A XIMUM AP OCALYP SE: 2ND EDITION

An Apocalypse a Day

Designer: Mike Gnade | Publisher: Rock Manor Games

The title Maximum Apocalypse doesn’t lie This card game drops players in pretty much any end of the world scenario one can think of Want to see if you can sur vive a zombie plague? Or maybe a vicious mutant attack? Can you avoid being abducted by aliens? Or shot by robots? In this cooperative scenario-based game, players are tr ying to complete objectives by exploring a map composed of randomly dealt tiles, fighting monsters, looking for equipment and tr ying not to star ve to death

At the beginning of each game, players will choose a character, each with their own unique deck of weapons and abilities They will then pick a scenario – which will include their choice of the world-ending adversary – and collect the tiles needed for the scenario, using them to build the game ’ s map Then they will use a combination of actions and card play to try to survive. Which could be hard or easy: depends on the tile draw! Creating a map out of a random arrangement of tiles is both the game ’ s strongest and weakest point. As a plus, the game has a really strong sense of exploration and discover y A turn of the tile can be a nice reprieve, or it could add a whole bunch of enemies There is a good variety of tiles so revealing one is always a little exciting Could it be a gas station where players can find some fuel? Or is it a monster infested city? The game also has an interesting monster spawn mechanic Each tile is numbered and each round players will roll the dice and spawn a monster on the tile that equals a value rolled This means that the more tiles are revealed, the more chances of monsters spawning and the more likely that a character may get stuck, surrounded, on the other side of the map!

On the other hand, randomly dealt tiles can lead to some uneven gameplay. Sometimes players will need to explore most of the map before they can complete

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ 14 Sur vivor charac t er car ds

◗ 7 Sur vivor figur es

◗ 6 Health dials

◗ 14 Sur vivor

s t andees

◗ 6 Refer ence car ds

◗ 180 Sur vivor car ds

◗ 13 Ally car ds

◗ 108 Mons t er car ds

◗ 12 Divider s

◗ 54 Scavenge car ds

◗ 38 Map tiles

◗ 6 Hunger dice

◗ 30 Mons t er t okes

◗ 3 St ar t okens

◗ 12 Fuel t okens

◗ 20 Poison t okens

◗ 60 Hit point t okens

◗ 24 Bullet t okens

◗ 52 Mons t er spawn car ds

◗ 2 Spawn dice

◗ 3 St orage trays

◗ Rulebook

the objective. In this case, they get to experience ever ything Maximum Apocalypse has to offer : the over whelming enemies ; the management of hunger, which if not dealt with quickly, can lead players’ character to a swift death ; working with other players Do you stick together to sur vive or do you split up to tr y find the objective quicker? This feels like a true co-op experience: challenging but rewarding if players win together

And sometimes, a tile needed is found within the first minutes of the game The objective is quickly completed, the enemies never really bothered anyone, and you barely felt the tinge of hunger End of the game feels anticlimactic and the win unearned.

These examples are the two ends of the spectrum, and the reality is that the game will deliver something in

between. As most of the levels are quite large, the chances of tougher games are higher than the possibility of an easy win. And unlike a lot of scenario games, heavy on set up time and components, Maximum Apocalypse has a ver y practical game storage and a sensible number of components to make sure the game is easy to unpack but that it still offers a good level of variety and replayability. So even if one round of the game ended too

quickly, it is easy to tr y the next one or maybe switch out to a different scenario or apocalypse altogether and tr y something new.

ALE XANDRA S ONE CHKINA

PL AY IT? Y E S

An easy t o get t o the t able cooperative scenario game, Maximum Apocalypse offer s plent y of variet y of charac t er s, mons t er s and locations, although it s gameplay can feel a lit tle t oo swingy

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… ZOMBICIDE

HE ALTHY HE AR T HOSPITAL: 3RD EDITION

Cubes Cube d

Designer: Scot t Nelson, Anna-Marie Nelson | Publisher: Tablet op Tycoon

Athird edition of Scott Nelson’s and Anna-Marie Nelson’s 2015 game Healthy Heart Hospital tasks players with, as the name suggests, running a hospital. It’s not an easy job, the waiting room fills quickly as do the spaces in the morgue! Doctors’ healing capabilities are the luck of the draw - drawing colourful disease cubes from the bag, that is, although doctors can get some training to improve their chances of miracle healing There is a lot of admin work to do and occasionally there will be a spare minute to research improvements for the hospitals. With new patients pouring in through hospital doors each round, players will have their work cut out for them. Luckily, they will be working together, and if players manage to last six rounds without running out of hospital funds or killing too many patients, the game considers it a win.

Healthy Hear t Hospital is a game where things go badly quickly, and the player ’ s main job is identifying the most potentially per ilous situation and tr ying to deal w ith it as soon as possible. The game ’ s main mechanism is a re-c ycle of the colour ful cubes between the

draw bag, the board and the discard pile In this game, the cubes take on many roles They represent patients, awaiting to be treated in the waiting room. They are also used to check if patients being treated get worse, which happens if the cube matching colour that represents the affliction is draw n out of the bag But cubes are also used to per for m healing actions, although in this case, draw ing matching cubes out of the bag is good as it symbolises patients getting better. Finally, they are also used as par t of the research action to deter mine which improvement options are available to players. This economy is quite interesting For example, if a lot of red cubes are out on the board, it is riskier to attempt to heal the patient in the redcardiovascular - ward, as the chances of drawing cubes of that colour are low. Practically, however, the constant drawing of cubes is taxing Draw cubes out of the bag, then put cubes on the board game board, remove cubes from the board and replace them with a token, discard cubes, re-fill the draw bag with the cubes, on and on, and on Unlike games like Pandemic, where you manage cubes, cards and

pawns, which offer a bit of variety, the management of cubes in Healthy Heart Hospital is relentless You do it so often it dulls down the tension of reaching into the bag and revealing the cubes. To balance the challenging, at times stressful gameplay, Healthy Heart Hospital has a lot of humour. Like, for example, the names of the player characters Who wouldn’t let Cooke de Buchs run hospital administration? Dr. Acula must be here to help you feel better! Even the rulebook is full of little quips and jokes Character illustrations look suspiciously similar to some of the well-known pop culture doctors which is also hilarious Yet despite this, the game doesn’t go far enough to eliminate the sense of dread that the idea of hospitals, sickness and death evoke This game feels similar to hospital simulation video game Two Point Hospital, also about running a hospital. Ever y aspect of this game is ridiculed beyond any sense of realism The diseases are made up – you, for example, treat people for having light bulbs instead of heads, light-headedness The medical equipment is made up, offering ridiculous treatment procedures. And dead patients sometimes haunt the hospital as ghosts Nothing about this game feels remotely real and so it feels like a fun escape Yet, Healthy Heart Hospital does humour only halfway Parts of it are funny, but others are too serious : the diseases are real, the image of the overcrowded waiting rooms, patients dying because the doctor didn’t get to them in time… this is such a downer that even the most hilarious pun won’t save it

ALE XANDRA S ONE CHKINA

❚ PL AY IT? M A Y B E

Healthy Hear t Hospital is a challenging cooperative game that adds humour t o alleviat e the game ’ s heav y t opic Unfor tunat ely, the gameplay feels t oo monot onous t o sus t ain t ension and the humour doesn’t go far enough

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ Game boar d

◗ 30 Patient marker s ◗ 8 War d abilit y t okens

◗ 2 Money tracker s ◗ 18 Training marker s ◗ 12 St aff marker s ◗ Round marker

◗ Cloth bag ◗ Rulebook

◗ 5 Adminis trative t okens

◗ 10 Medical ac tion t okens

◗ 88 Wooden cubes ◗ 20 Resear ch car ds

◗ 14 Doc t or car ds

◗ 7 Adminis trat or car ds

◗ 14 New r oom car ds

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… PANDEMIC

If you like your disease cube management in Pandemic, you get that and much mor e with Healthy Hear t Hospital!

SHIPW RIGHT S OF THE NOR TH SE A: REDUX

This Re dux deser ves a Replay

Designer: Shem Phillips | Publisher: Garphill Games

At the start of the rulebook for Shipwrights of the North Sea : Redux there’s a message from the designer apologising for the flaws in the original version, a rare insight into the mind of a creative revisiting his past works Shipwrights : Redux aims to be a tonic, smoothing out the issues and bringing it into line with the rest of the series.

Rounds are split into two phases

First, a draft where you can choose exactly what cards you’ll be using this round The early picks are a lunchbox of treats with many options, leading into the end of the phase where you ’ re just tr ying to make the best of the scraps left behind

Secondly, the action phase, use your drafted cards to hire workers, create buildings and ultimately craft some fine sea vessels. Ever yone plays simultaneously now, turning cards into resources or workers, or placing workers on cards to get more resources. Cards come in many forms and can either be discarded for a burst of economy or installed onto your board, unlocking permanent access to spaces and icons needed to build high-scoring boats

There’s a great flow of energy to this game, rounds alternate between quiet contemplation, tr ying to evaluate the best pick with each hand passed to you and a flurr y of activity as ever yone puts their plans into action This is

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ 50 Worker s

◗ 160 Wooden r esour ces

◗ 50 Car dboar d silver coins

◗ 15 Player marker s

◗ 5 Per sonal player boar ds

◗ Main boar d

◗ 192 Car ds

first and foremost an engine-building game in the vein of Furnace where each round takes longer than the last as you give yourself more stuff to do with your workers and cards, more buildings to store craftspeople, more gold to trade with the market

The cards are ver y flexible, each giving you multiple options for how to use them, leading to a lot of important choices in the draft phase and a decent amount of taking away good cards from others, if you want to do that Drafting is always fun and interactive, and it works well here The real meat of the game is in running your engine to convert resources into cards that make points and further income which can be incredibly satisfying if things come together It’s possible, however, for a player to stumble in early turns, either from poor drafting or some bad luck and find themselves a step behind the cur ve, a result of the snowballing nature of the engines. You can either see this as a good, skill-testing feature or a new-player unfriendly bug in the system. I don’t mind it too much, though it’s not for ever yone, the difficulty of the game really scales with the people at the table.

There’s a fun mechanic in which

certain actions gain you progress up a central track, unlocking bonuses and powerful effects that only one person can use per round The central board conflicts with the idea that most players will spend their turn staring down at their own puzzle, and we found that some players forgot entirely that they could use it. Regardless, it adds an extra dimension of interaction, steering you to specialise and push ahead

Shipwrights : Redux is a lot of fun. I enjoyed it immensely and always want to go back for another round It feels more streamlined than other entries in the Garphill catalogue which I appreciate The art is fun and characterful as always, making it a pleasure to get to the table Finally, it’s great at all player counts and it’s easy to teach. If you like drafting or enginebuilding, it marries the two well and can be a gateway from one into the other, if you ’ re looking to dip your toes into a new genre.

DAN YORK

The decision t o r emake this game was well wor th it! A clever blend of car ddraf ting and engine -building set within colour ful charac t er s and appealing pr esent ation

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…HADRIAN’S

Wall

BL ADES & ROSE

Bluffs, double bluffs and suspicious bishops

Designer: Yu Wang | Publisher: Moaideas Game Design

Social deduction games are all the rage in the UK , even more so since The Traitors was on television During the Euros football tournament, we even heard the England players’ goal celebration was based on one of their backroom staff member ’ s reactions when playing Werewolf. I was eager to tr y out a new social deduction game It was a sweltering summer evening when we gathered in our Friendly Local Game Shop Cafe to witness the battle of Blades & Rose We were hot off the back of some now infamous games of Blood on The Clocktower in which half of the players had proven themselves to be relentless and brilliant liars There was a lot at stake.

And it didn’t disappoint Blades & Rose feels dark, and like most social deduction games you’ll doubt the good guys can win - until they do Players start with a rose and a ghost card in

their hands To complete the hand of three they are then dealt a card that also tells them which team they are on, either Roses or Blades Everyone closes their eyes and certain players are instructed to open them, knowing the list of characters who have opened their eyes, but not who is which character specifically. Someone on the good team can learn that one of the players with their eyes open holds the White Rose, the most important card that must be played without being caught by a blade, but that same person could be the Double Blade, the character who is able to pick up a second blade card and become the most dangerous player on the evil team Judging which is which comes down to social reading alone.

There will be as many rounds as there are players, so with a hand of only three cards each, when to not play a card is as strategic as when to play one. It’s a brilliant game of small pieces of information If you opened your eyes, you know that someone who didn’t open their eyes isn’t holding the White Rose, but anything more comes from what is said around the table. If you didn’t open your eyes, you are relying on reading the people around the table alone Their looks, their words and on occasion their plays At the start a random player is given a coin, they get to decide who plays first in the next round and whose cr ystal token power will be activated from the Book of Magic These cr ystals are one of the unique things about Blades & Rose, ever yone is given one at random and plays it on their round They each have a different power like forcing another player to play a card or preventing cards being shuffled before revealing Using them wisely can be a vital part of winning.

I’m fairly new to social deduction games and thoroughly enjoyed some of the differences in this one to others I’ve seen The crystals are brilliant They have an effect on each round, meaning something unpredictable happens every time. On the other hand, the group unanimously agreed the text was too small on the Book of Magic cards, and that we couldn’t tell the 6 crystal from the 9 crystal Otherwise, they were engrossed!

Blades & Rose creates a brilliantly tense atmosphere of mistrust and misdirection It’s an addictive play, you want to keep tr ying, have a go at all the different roles and perfect your bluffs There’s enough gameplay through choosing what to play and when that if you aren’t an excellent liar you can thrive in the game just by reading the others. It was incredibly enjoyable to enter the world it creates and I hope to play again soon

E MMA GARRET T

S It’s t ense, it’s dramatic, and the cr ys t al power s can r eally mix things up and scupper a well laid plan

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… LOVE LETTER

SHEEP IN DISGUISE

Flocking G ood Fun

Designer: Ledger Gibbs, Emily Hogan | Publisher: Sk ybound

Set in a not-so-distant dystopian future where our woolly friends are under constant threat from other worldly attacks, these farmyard heroes have taken serious measures for sur vival They’re hiding in plain sight, behind an array of costumes fit for any primar y school theatre performance Your job is to herd pirates, Vikings, detectives and various other definitely-not-sheep into matching groups before your opponents do Underhand tactics are encouraged, with yoinks, yanks and exposures leaping around the field These rival shepherds are causing more chaos than the actual enemies

It’s a beautifully simple family card game that nevertheless reliably descends into chaos almost immediately Each player starts with a hand of five cards made up of sheep cards and action cards Any time you have three matching sheep, they are played automatically in front of you as a flock Don’t forget though, these sheep aren’t in costumes for

fun, they’re in disguises to keep them hidden away from the untold dangers of the cosmos. As well as sheep and actions, the pack contains six instant cards (including a Spontaneous T-Rex and a Cube of Confusion) that cause immediate problems When one of these is revealed, any flocks that are ‘exposed’ will be discarded. Your flocks get exposed when your rival plays an expose card on them, outing them as sheep rather than pirates!

On your turn you’ll be playing action cards that help you collect matching sheep and some that endanger rival flocks. It’s not that you can’t plan and strategise, you ’ ve just got to be strapped in for things to change Each play has been incredibly entertaining, both with two players and at higher player counts There’s nothing ver y taxing about anything that happens, it’s all explained on the cards themselves It’s a fun game to learn to play because the useful text of the cards merges seamlessly with its quirky jokes The creators fully

committed to the bizarre and pulled it off Their website talks about the search for an artist to do justice to the concept and it really does The light hearted fun of the game becomes contagious. In one play, my friend’s son suggested that instead of clockwise or anticlockwise we play in a figure of eight, which was simple enough until an instant card asked us to change the direction. Throughout the game, children and adults alike were laughing at the artwork, text and silly gameplay.

Sheep in Disguise is a compelling, gentle game that entertains the young and the young at heart It makes you smile A small amount of strategy is possible as you can draft cards from a faceup ‘field’ , and keep action cards in your hand to use when you need them. There is some take-that play that competitive children might struggle with, but on the whole, we found the back and forth, up and down nature of the game meant that no one was ever being picked on or singled out. No one is ever losing (or winning) for ver y long before something changes The three Golden Sheep that are optional to include become an obsession, like the mermaids in Sea , Salt and Paper. Sure, you could win normally, but setting your heart on collecting all three golden sheep can become the most satisfying way to win. On occasion, we found it went on a little too long and we did call it quits without a winner Regardless, the rollercoaster had been fun to ride. It’s a great game to introduce to new players, and one to bring off the shelf when you want a laugh.

E MMA GARRET T

L O T US

Petal by colourful petal

Designer: Jor dan Goddar d, Mandy Goddar d | Publisher: Renegade Game Studios

The old saying goes that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and the same has been said for games. It stops you from making assumptions about something from how it looks, and prevents you from writing something off before giving it a chance On the other hand, both industries dedicate a ton of research, talent and money to making it as easy as possible for you to do just that With Lotus, they have succeeded The box art shows a feminine character surrounded by colours and petals, with flowers in their hair, breathing in the magic of a flower floating in their open hands. Beautiful and calm, natural and enchanting this game is ever ything it says on the tin

At its core, Lotus is a set collection card game But it is so much more than that Yes, you have a hand of cards and want to compile sets, but not in your hand You are turning your table petal-by-petal into a garden, w ith the flower sets visible and available for all players to add to and claim S ome of the cards come from your ow n pr ivate deck, which includes at least one of the symbols of your guardian S ome are drafted from a shared deck that helps complete flowers but isn’t ow ned by anyone The player w ith the most symbols when the flower is completed claims the petals, which score one point each at the end of the game As well as the guardian symbols on your deck, you have two little animal tokens to place on petals too When a player plays the final petal to a flower, they score points as well, regardless of is they control the whole flower or not They can also choose instead of scor ing points to take one of four special power tokens that allow you to activate extra powers in future turns

The gameplay is strategically competitive whilst remaining relaxed and peaceful I really enjoy that each species of flower requires a different number of petals and that the petal cards show you at what angle to place

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ 155 Game Car ds (124 Pet al Car ds, 20 Wildflower Car ds)

◗ 7 Solo Car ds

◗ 4 Player Refer ence Car ds

◗ 30 Scoring Tokens

◗ 8 Insec t Guar dians

◗ 4 Elder Guar dians

◗ Rulebook

them to create the final flower. The cards are beautiful and come together really nicely on the table There’s a lot to remember when you activate the special powers As well as playing more petals, you are able to steal petals from incomplete flowers to score an extra point We repeatedly forgot to do this, and felt silly we’d missed out on points when someone remembered There’s a bit of drafting, which naturally means a bit of luck, for both you and your opponents. Each part of the game oozes quality The tiny guardian bug-meeples are bright and fun. The special power tokens are solid quality tiles, with ethereal artwork on one side and useful explainers on the other The colouring on the tiles has an odd kind of thumbprint look on the corners, which I assume is to make it look like you were working in the garden just

before picking them up, but really just makes it look a bit grubby The cards are great, they’ve been designed wonderfully to fit together to make flowers, with leaves or sky in the background It’s a small thing, but the backs are bright and clear, which really helps because by the end of the game you need to separate them back out into each player deck and the communal deck

It’s set collection with a twist With a lovely theme and charming gameplay, it’s definitely worth looking into Especially if you like games with a solo option, or favour something endlessly photogenic.

E MMA GARRET T

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… ARBORETUM

E AT THE REICH

Laugh uproariously with a gory background

Designer: Grant Howit t & Will Kirk by | Publisher: Rowan Rook & Decar d

We all love vampires, right?

Just about as much as we all hate Nazis. Eat the Reich is, thus, the perfect game for all of us A rules-light game of comedic bloodshed and nazi-destroying adventure, this is probably the funniest game I’ve played this year

Created by Rowan, Rook and Decard, the near-legendary indie design studio that has brought us Spire, Goblin Quest and Heart, this beautiful game has definitely come from the sillier end of the spectrum The basic pitch is this; it’s 1943, and you are a team of handpicked vampire commandos, ready to be dropped into occupied Paris Once there, your ultimate job is to hunt down Hitler and kill him - ideally by drinking all his blood It’s savage, ridiculous and extremely compelling Who would want to watch that film? Imagine Blade mixed with Leon, and add more than a few sprinklings of Iron Sky (Although, if you have my players, it’s probably going to end up with heavy-handed Tropic Thunder overtones too)

Each player selects a pre-generated character ; ranging from “ an East London wideboy necromancer ” to Flint, a non-verbal “half-bat monstrosity” . They are then thrown out of an aeroplane in “tactical drop coffins”; steel boxes containing your

72

vampire and pressurised c ylinders of top-quality nun ’ s blood As they crash into the ground at terminal velocity, the vampire is pulverised, then instantly revived by the holy sanguinity sprayed on them.

Characters must then defeat a series of locations, working their way through the city towards the Eiffel Tower, and Hitler ’ s lair in a Zeppelin tied to the top There’s a flexible structure to the missions ; you could conceivably play the entire game in a couple of sessions ; ideally, it splits into three, giving players time to cut a blood-soaked swatch of fascist destruction through wartime France The game map has three main areas, beginning in the outskirts, facing down an Übermensch (boss monster); the last of whom is the most-evilperson-ever, Adolf Hitler himself.

Now, I came into Eat the Reich absolutely sold on the concept, but I was still amazed by just how well this game works. The Havoc engine underneath uses a simple dice-pool system, where players roll a number of dice matching their stat ; using “Brawl”

to fight, “Con” to lie, “Fix” to repair, and so on; then add any dice for equipment and abilities Being a vampire game, some of the abilities of course require an expenditure of blood. Players then roll their entire dice pool; the GM does the same for attacking enemies 4+ results are used to cancel out GM rolls, destroy enemies, activate special abilities or collect blood It’s agile and interesting; “do I let the soldiers hurt me so that I can cause even more mayhem instead?”

Grant Howitt’s flavour notes guide the GM perfectly; aim for things to be “ultraviolent” , “imprecise” and “over-the-top” . Locations have no maps, no storyline; just a paragraph of description to set them up and a few bits of interesting loot For example, take the “Open-topped Italian speedster (++stunts)” That means that players get two extra dice if they attempt to do a stunt. This literally makes it easier to succeed at shooting a machine gun at the baddies whilst jumping a car between buildings than it would be doing it on foot Obviously this would be an unreasonably far-fetched way to simulate reality, but it makes for nonstop cinematic comedy-action

Eat the Reich is a fast, fun and foolish game, but also keeps itself in check well too. Murder, civilian casualties, fascism ; all of these are red button topics, and the book includes several sections addressing this, as well as an “Evil Calibration Checklist” to help balance the game between a riotous battle between good and evil and an active celebration of the worst aspects of humanity Finally, this game looks amazing. Will Kirkby’s art and layout are exceptional, and added a significant amount to my enjoyment of the game; the production is incredible too, with three, maybe four types of foiling on the cover, and a coffin-style cutaway revealing a vampire within.

CHRIS LOWRY

GIRL BY MOONLIGHT

Magical girls kick butt with friendship powers

Designer: Andr ew Gillis | Publisher: Evil Hat Pr oduc tions

Girl by Moonlight knows what it wants to be; magical girls resisting an oppressive world whilst finding who they are. You can see this in the various playbooks of the game, from Guardian and Harmony in the character, with a range of genres for a magical girl, and with attributes such as confess and empathise The different aspects come together to make a fantastic player experience that’s beautifully laid out and well communicated Ultimately, Girl by Moonlight is a complete tabletop system with moxie, unique ideas,

how to make my own, it took multiple sessions for me to get in the right mindset for the sessions to either not feel wooden, or not break the structure.

We began with the stor y of a time traveller giving the magical girls their powers, before realising that the format only worked when their powers were already established so that the double life was well defined. Then we flashed for wards and followed the structure to a T but the sections felt separate It took until the third to know that the scene that you show at the start needs to set up the

short sessions, this may be the perfect game for you

My advice is, firstly, don’t expect epic fight scenes as the combat mechanics are the weakest part of this system, it’s more of a puzzle game for finding out how to make the best of bad situations, get through to the villain, and work as a group to create cool cinematic descriptions.

Secondly, don’t play this game as a one shot All of its best features come from its progression ideas and you miss out on a lot without it. My favourite part is that each setting

and beautiful art It’s just unfortunate that they don’t support their director (Games Master) to run it

Girl by Moonlight uses Blade in the Dark rules as a base; a flashback heavy system for heists I see potential in this mashup but as the system is usually used for such a different genre, it needs even more guidance to help the director, and there’s barely any at all

So picture this: I’ve set up a world with my players very easily using their step by step instructions, their character sheets are sorted and we have finished introductions Now what?

There’s a structure given of obligations, downtime, mission, and fallout However, with no pre-made session plans and no guidance for

first magical events, so that the end could wrap both plot lines up at once.

Working out how to balance the stress and complications system along with the different positions of desperation for rolls was a whole extra mind game When a character fills their stress bar, they don’t die, they eclipse. This means that they lose to the insecure parts of themselves and they self-destruct, with a roleplay prompt to pull them back out. This is a gorgeous stor ytelling moment, but balancing it so that this has the chance to happen but doesn’t happen constantly and lose impact is tricky

However, if you can get past the teething issues and love the idea of a rules light, episodic, stor y driven game with almost no combat and

playbook comes with a unique mini rules system like a base to explore or a skill tree of dark fates for the world

Character progression is also unique through lots of “clocks,” trackers that define when longer running story beats resolve or you finish projects, or when you ’ ve used an ability in a desperate enough situation to level it up.

Overall, this is a system that knows its niche, but your enjoyment relies on how quickly your director can work out the structure and balancing that’s missing from the rulebook

ARLIE PALL ANT

VAMPIRE THE M ASQ UER ADE: PL AYERS GUIDE

Even more Children of the Night, to help haunt your play sessions

Designer: Kevin Schlut er & t eam | Publisher: Renegade Game Studios

Vampire the Masquerade is an interesting beast. Relatively light in mechanics, but ver y heavy on interpersonal conflict, morale choices and lore. In that respect, it is almost the opposite of Eat the Reich (see our review on page 70); since it’s ver y hard to convince yourself that you are playing “the good guys ” in a game of Vampire Instead, you are hidden horrors in a World of Darkness, forced to do terrible things, as you unstoppably prey on humanity just to continue your unlife

This latest Players Handbook is an expansion which ver y much requires the core book That could be better explained; it took me until page 18 to realise this isn’t a slimmed down quick start! Unlike many RPG sourcebooks, this one is designed for Stor ytellers and Players alike, adding many ideas for background and setting that all players can draw upon. This is the strength, and potential weakness, of the World of Darkness games - the depth and intricac y of the world histor y and politics are voluminous

This Players Guide attempts to condense some of the many expansions into a single volume, whilst also adding some additional new content. Which, in itself, is somewhat of a contradiction; summar y and supplement The first few chapters are dedicated to bringing ever ything into one place, starting with “Words to Unlive By” , ten paragraphs that jump-start the reader into the mindset of this alternative reality There are brief explanations of all available Clans, and summaries of “ new ” clans such as “The Ministr y and “Ravnos” , which were in previous editions of Vampire

One chapter is devoted to Characters, with an excellent singlespread fully explaining character creation and the character sheet. This is followed by a list of Discipline Powers, such as “Animal Messenger ” ,

or “Thrown Voice” Demonstrating the slightly uneven job this book performs as a reference summar y, rather than being a summar y of all available Powers like in the Clans chapter, the Powers in Players Guide are only additional ones to the core book “Weaving ” , for example, is a level 3 Power with the prerequisite of “Rapid Reflexes” . Neither the entr y nor the index told me that the details for Rapid Reflexes were actually in the Vampire the Masquerade core book. Which is fine, it’s just, you know, it was a confusion that could have been avoided with a single sentence at the start of Powers Whilst I’m griping about things, that Power : “Weaving ”? Not in the index . That’s a “C minus, should do better ” in information architecture

Aside from these and the fairly detailed reference sheets at the end of the book, the biggest additions are rules for “Coteries” - basically Vampire gangs - and Chronicles - a focus on Vampire play styles, campaigns and sessions The coteries are an optional extra that I doubt I’d

ever use, semi-formalising the uneasy group cohesion which is part of the fun of play inside the Masquerade As the book says “Belonging to a coterie is less like chilling with friends, and more akin to swimming with fellow sharks” - I like that relationship being undefined and changeable. That said, the we-all-met-at-a-tavern problem in Vampire could be solved with some of the shared goals here, such as “Blood cult”; controlling and feeding on a fragile group of mortals together, or “Day Watch”; patrolling the sun-lit world, whilst the rest of the Kindred sleep unaware

The Chronicles chapter is a thoughtful section that explores just how wide the practical play opportunities are within this hobby, both in venue; exploring Actual Play, play-by-forum, L ARPing and even TikTok, and in format ; group, solo and - an idea that really intrigued me“ Troupe” play, where one PC is placed in the narrative centre each session, revolving the group around a highlighted player, one at a time.

As with many source books, Players Guide will naturally appeal to anyone who loves Vampire the Masquerade and wants more I wouldn’t say it is a vital addition - the core book has some of the best writing and flavour pieces in our hobby - but if you need more blood in your bunker, this will do the trick.

CHRIS LOWRY

❚ PL AY IT? M A Y B E

Par t r efer ence, par t new ideas, the Players Guide doesn’t have ever ything you need t o play, but it will be a useful addition t o seasoned vet erans and might pr ovide some gr eat ideas for those unsur e how t o s t ep int o these murk y wat er s

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… SHIVER

DUNE: FALL OF THE IMPERIUM

Atreides will rise. But will you follow?

Designer: Various | Publisher: Modiphius Ent er t ainment

To adapt Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking science fiction epic, the Dune saga, into liveaction, was always going to be a difficult feat The influential and wide-reaching franchise seems even more absurd in an RPG format, considering the ambition required to make this universe work in a tabletop context Yet, what we saw from Dune: Adventures In The Imperium, the core RPG rulebook, was nothing short of exceptional The follow-up to the 2d20 title, Dune: Fall Of The Imperium, is a rich and detailed campaign book that attempts to place the player in the events of Herbert’s earlier works in the universe.

Dune: Fall Of The Imperium therefore doesn’t trouble itself with the title’s varied rule set and punchy mechanics Players will have to purchase the roleplaying game core rulebook for that. However, what Fall Of The Imperium might lack in the specifics of the gameplay, it more than makes up for in its narrative potential.

What strikes us first is the gorgeous illustrations that accompany this fruitful experience Inspired more by the visuals the original novels paint, as opposed to the cinematic

equivalent of the Denis Villeneuve movies, the campaign sourcebook goes to great lengths to depict vital NPCs, major moments of conflict, and locations of interest in stunning, yet harrowing ways Maps and charts help to navigate this haunting world, and there’s no shortage of stat sheets, providing all the information the player could possibly need concerning the people of this campaign and their most lethal skills

The campaign book is organised into four distinct acts : The Gathering Storm, Muad’Dib, Fall of the Imperium, and War Across a Million Worlds Each moves the narrative along at pace, as the iconic moments of the series, such as House Atreides’ destruction and eventual rise to power, present the player with opportunities to make choices of their own

With the player getting a selection of which major house to inhabit, the sourcebook details how they can make alliances, seek out revenge, and navigate the massive power struggles that impact the entirety of the empire This is no small-scale adventure, with the player ultimately forced to choose whether their house stands with the

new Emperor, or against him. The book does its best to support the Gamemaster in their running of the campaign, but both player and Gamemaster alike would benefit from a deep knowledge and understanding of the Dune universe and the events that take place The Gamemaster in particular may attempt to add some custom elements of their own to the stor ytelling and the text encourages this But there’s also a warning attached that as events unfold quicker, there is less room for such manoeuvring This is ver y much a title for the diehard fans, but its dedication to that group is second to none.

Choices and consequences are at the centre of this campaign, with Fall Of The Imperium detailing the rewards and punishments that may come from each decision But with so many avenues to explore, it’s hardly surprising that this is such a dense text to get through Each major act is broken down again into smaller segments, each of which has branching timelines of its own Whereas RPGs are so often about inventing and imagining, the scale of this adventure means that each step for ward must be calculated and measured. Keeping track might be hard, but how all of those elements come together for the final act is nothing short of masterful as the last scenarios play out in full, to their glorious or catastrophic end

Dune: Fall Of The Imperium is much more of an experience than a conventional campaign, and Dune fans will find they will gain much from this playthrough. But, they must first get to grips with the literally and figuratively heavier core rulebook, to make a true run at the title.

GE ORGE CHRY S O STOMOU

❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

Epic and nuanced, Dune: Fall Of The Imperium is a per fec t follow -up for franchise fans, placing them in the centr e of the ac tion But , this is not a title for newcomer s

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… WARHAMMER 40,000 ROLEPLAY: IMPERIUM MALEDICTUM Warhammer 40K fans ar e familiar with the influence Dune has had on the Games Workshop franchise, and those who played the RPG Imperium Maledictum will love the grit and dys t opian complexit y of Fall Of The Imperium

V IJAYAN AGAR A

E xtend your influence

Designer: Saverio E Spagnolie, Mathieu Johnson, Cor ey Graham, Aman Mat thews | Publisher: GMT Games

ver y much ‘solo design first’ . This isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes it feels like it wants to get out of your way so much that you ’ re not quite sure what to do The game is almost too logical, almost too perfectly fitting together As a consequence, the solo mode where two factions are controlled by the non-player sheets is extremely robust. One of the issues however is that, because each faction has its own non-player algorithm, you get the sense that this is ‘advice’ on how to play for human players. It isn’t really a

Many of us in the UK can’t picture the histor y of the Indian subcontinent before the British Empire enters stage left and starts popping statues of someone called ‘Queen Victoria’ about the place. Which is a shame because this feels like the Mediaeval Indian period is a setting that could spawn hundreds of games if given the attention of hobby games studios Luckily Vijayanagara offers us a glance at a rich and intriguing histor y. In Medieval India the Delhi Sultanate wishes to extend its influence to the rich Deccan kingdoms and empires of the south – and gain tribute from them Naturally, these two factions aren’t interested in that. Players take one of the three powers; the Bahmani Kingdom, the Vijayanagaran Empire and the Delhi Sultanate. Each has their own twist. The Delhi Sultanate has to fend off the Mongols in the north while putting down the rebelling factions in the south. The Bahmani, with plentiful cavalry, control and fortify with force The Vijayanagara spread their message through temples and conversion. It’s a simple matter of area control, event cards, and a ‘rebelling/loyal’ flip of the two southern faction pieces to display whether an area is in open revolt This is GMT’s attempt at an

even lighter version of the COIN series – first one of their Irregular Conflicts Series – and it feels like a strong primer Each turn begins with flipping a card which will tell you the order in which the factions act and they will then have a chance to take the event on the card, use a simple command and a powerful decree action, or take a lesser move like ‘limited command’ Committing the first two on that list often leaves that player in the ‘ineligible’ box for the next card, meaning that when you do something powerful you ’ re stuck in the sin-bin until the next round. Players move around the board, muster new troops in whatever flavour available to them, and attempt to take control and resources from the other factions The interdependence of factions is one of the most fun parts of the game – as optionally the Bahami and the Vijayanagara can pay an extra coin to release their troops from an influence track – and reduce the position of their opposite southern kingdom This, and the fun of either of the southern factions controlling the Mongol attacks from the north makes for plenty of tasty back and forth

The game was developed during COVID-19 lockdowns – and like many games made during this period it feels

negative, just a strange feeling. Taking the role of the Delhi Sultanate in the solo mode is the most satisfying as it’s got the best ‘tower defence’ vibe by making you the filling in a rebellingkingdoms-and-mongol-sandwich Outside of the solo mode we enjoyed rotation through the factions during our games to explore the variety and depth the game offers.

Vijayanagara is a great first step for those who want to get into historically themed wargames and an absolute must-buy for those whose regular gaming group is three people exactly CHRISTOPHE R JOHN E G GET T

❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

An excellent theme and set ting that you’ll be able t o spend plent y of time in because of the depth and r eplayabilit y on offer

WHAT’S IN THE BOX? ◗ Game Boar d

66 Car ds

129 Wooden pieces

Rulebook

Learn t o Play Book

Non-Player Rulebook

6 Six- sided dice

7 Player aids

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… ROOT

This has much of the same irr egular player positions as Root but at a much light er level

DUNE: WAR FOR ARR AK IS

Does the spice flow?

Designer: Francesco Nepit ello, Mar co Maggi | Publisher: CMON

The recent Dune films have sparked a new appreciation of the classic Frank Herbert science fiction book series. A surge in franchise-related material was inevitable, and a modern board game in the War of the Ring-style equally so CMON duly delivered, bringing a typically minis-rich mega box to market with a price tag rivalling that of the spice itself. This raises the question, is it worth fighting for?

While the game is solid at one to four players, I’m going to walk through it as a two-player exper ience and add a little about the solo and three/four-player modes at the end The game feels like a twoplayer game to me, which is where differences between it and the likes of War of the Ring and Star Wars : Reb ellion begin to show themselves

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ L ar ge t wo-piece boar d

◗ 7 player boar ds

◗ 129 plas tic miniatur es

◗ 125 car ds

◗ 24 cus t om dice

◗ 86 car dboar d t okens

◗ Rulebook

S o, let's get those par ticular elephants out of the room early

For the uninitiated, War of the Ring and Star Wars : Rebellion are sweeping three-plus hour board games with a similarly epic scope to Dune: War for Arrakis. All three feature card-and-dice-based actions and combat, asymmetric sides, and scenarios that beautifully encapsulate the epic stories they represent. However, those expecting a game as deep when playing Dune: War for Arrakis might (and I stress the ‘might’ here) be a little disappointed

After your initial plays, completing Dune within its two-hour box playtime suggestion is likely With War and Rebellion, you’ll want to put at least the afternoon aside for what can easily stretch to a four-hour (but hugely satisfying) marathon I

clearly remember epic moments from old plays of both games However, my plays of Dune are already starting to meld into one. Again, this sounds like a criticism, but I don’t mean it to be It’s just different

All this points to the two rather than four-player experience The epic nature of these longer titles completely lends itself to long team chats and the tensions of having a teammate Dune: War for Arrakis is a more fluid experience; a fast but satisfying battle experience that will still see two hours fly by, just in a slightly different way

A game of Dune is likely to last just three to four rounds, but each round has plenty going on I’ll come on to the asymmetric bits later, but the meat of each round revolves around using dice and cards to take actions Each

player starts a turn by rolling action dice that set how many actions of each type they’ll have available that round While there’s a lot of luck to this, there’s also plenty of mitigation, making it a key part of the experience as you tr y to do what you want with the limited actions available

Using Action Dice largely allows you to deploy and move legions, attack neighbouring regions, or draw Planning Cards. Each dice will have one or two standard action choices, while leaders you have in play will add an additional option to the action space they’re associated with. These are usually powerful but can only be used once per turn

Instead of using a dice action, you can instead use a dice you ’ re happy to sacrifice to play one of your Planning Cards. These powerful and often situational effects allow you to introduce leaders, extend movement, force discards, and enhance attacks. Generally, they add the special sauce to rounds while also allowing you to

mitigate dodgy dice rolls.

As anyone familiar with the Dune universe would expect, playing as the Harkonnen and the Corrino is noticeably different from playing as House Atredies and the Fremen. The Harkonnen player needs to har vest spice to gain extra action dice and Supremac y Points. They have vehicles at their command for additional movement as well as numerical supremac y, but their forces are visible and so vulnerable They also need to take out the Fremen Sietches to gain the Supremac y Points required for victor y

The Atredies player will draw a random card at the start of play to find out their victor y condition

This revolves around getting three markers to specific points on their own progress track, but the Harkonnen player doesn’t know the exact targets. These points are obtained by meeting the conditions on randomly drawn Prescience Cards, which are face up So while the Harkonnen player doesn’t know what the Atreides player must do to win, they know roughly how to stop them. If the Attreides player has fewer action dice available than the Harkonnen player a set of desert powers becomes available This is where the Sandworms come in, making powerful attacks and movement abilities available to the Fremen and their allies All this means that playing as Attreides is more complex and challenging, which gives the Harkonnen player a bit of an advantage in the first games you play as you learn the rules

While nothing here is particularly revolutionar y, and there is a typically meaty war game-style rulebook, what immediately becomes obvious is how well-streamlined the mechanisms are. There are different troop qualities and plenty else to remember, but movement and combat are simple and fluid, helping the game flow as well as the spice I was surprised at how little I was bothered by the simplicity of the combat (roll dice, take/block wounds, move on), but it was getting to the battles in a position

to win them that provided the larger rewards

This difference in complexity is borne out by the solo rules. They’re titled the Mahdi Solo Mode, seeing you play as House Atreides rather than the Harkonnens ; a clear nod to the fact one is a bit more interesting to play than the other However, you’ll play both sides, so get the best of both worlds You can also play this mode with two, as one can take Atredes and the other the Fremen, which leads us nicely onto the four-player experience.

Dune: War for Arrakis only has a few extra components for the four-player experience, but they do enough to make it work perfectly You’ll play as two teams, with additional player boards included so you can split up into the four key factions. You can chat as much as you like, but can’t reveal individual cards So, you can hint at what you can do without giving your teammate any exact details However, there’s a nice additional twist

Most of your tactical conversations have to be had at the table, which adds a fitting atmosphere of intrigue and a feeling of being watched to proceedings However, each team is given three Cone of Silence Tokens, allowing them to speak privately for three minutes. Little rules like this help bring home the attention to detail on show throughout the rules, while highlighting that the game is clearly intended to move on at a relatively fast pace

I was a little skeptical coming into Dune: War for Arrakis but what I found was a solid asymmetric twoplayer miniatures war game with some satisfying euro-style overtones It certainly won’t be for ever yone, but lovers of the series should appreciate the attention to detail while fans of the game ’ s genres will find a fun, fastplaying game. You then just need to decide whether you can stomach the price tag It’s a game-breaker for me, but Dune fans who enjoy wargames should probably start saving.

CHRIS MARLING

❚ PL AY IT? M A Y B E

It’s pr et t y and well-designed and feels like Dune in a box However, war games ar en’t for ever yone and the price t ag will make anyone on the fence think t wice

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… WAR OF THE RING

An obvious but apt comparison, which could jus t as easily have been Star Wars: Rebellion

This is a slightly shor t er experience with the same asymmetr y, s tr ong s t or yline, and war game feel

REBEL FURY

The streamline d Civil War

Designer: Mark Herma | Publisher: GMT Games

Back in 2018, prolific wargame designer Mark Herman crafted the innovative Gettysburg, a small title that was packaged as part of C3i magazine number 32 It focused on the famous American Civil War battle of the same name, and was heralded due to its intriguing take on movement and battle. The success of this design would lead to GMT’s fully-featured Rebel Fury, a 2024 release that expands upon its predecessor’s concepts and increases the scope to encompass the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, and Fredericksburg.

What’s remarkable about this system is how it captures elements of simulation accompanied with thoughtful strategic considerations, while utilising a ver y straightfor ward and minimal ruleset. Unlike many of its peers, this is a relatively clean and short experience that can wrap up in one or two hours, with all of the core rules easily internalized after a single play The magic is in the emotional impact and tactical stimulus provided with such simple scaffolding. This is a remarkable wargame, one that avoids the trend in recent years of espousing complexity over playability.

This division-level game features snappy turns for a design of this ilk Players alternate activating units, moving them through hexes and attempting to outflank the opposition

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ Rulebook

◗ Playbook

◗ 2 count er sheet s

◗ 3 22” x 34” paper maps

◗ 2 player aid car ds

◗ Off-map display

◗ Game turn display

◗ 2 t en- sided dice

◗ Cus t om six- sided die

This is where most of the dynamism is located, with units in either a marching or battle state. They maintain the former for much of their travels, moving at a higher pace and zipping along roads. If they push into rough terrain or, more commonly, edge close to an opposing division, they must flip over to battle mode. This results in more sluggish manoeuvring and results in units that are pinned to a degree This interactive zone of control system is novel in how it influences a unit’s status and affects movement It directly leads to strategic considerations that are nuanced and weighty. Combat is a little more straightforward Following the activation phase, players then select units to attack Again, mimicking the “I go, you go ” structure commonly found in miniatures games, players go back and forth opening fire on each other Here, it’s all about how you ’ ve set yourself up for the bloodbath. Ideally, you have supporting units adjacent to your firing division You also may expend your limited artillery support to enhance the offensive. Once the battle rating is determined a couple

of charts are referenced similar to the classic combat results table (CRT), and the outcome of rolls are calculated

This battle system is a little obtuse. Beyond the need to decipher its subtle details, there is a stubbornness to the ruleset when it comes to attacking fixed positions. Many maps feature fortifications or units well-dug in Attacking these positions of strength is appropriately deadly and mimics the at times hopeless situation if you are not well supported with a massive front. However, the modifiers in such an endeavor are befuddling, as it’s very easy to crack up against the upper limit of the CRT. This happens frequently in certain scenarios, and it results in turns where the attacker is tossing dice willy-nilly, simply hoping for luck to swing their way. Often, you don’t have enough time to truly outmaneuver a ridge-line or come around from the rear, so you ’ re stuck in a meat grinder and just praying for the best result

Thankfully, this problem only afflicts certain scenarios, and is not omnipresent in the design The result of the conflict system flows beautifully from the maneuvering, allowing for dynamic charges where a unit is allowed to make multiple attacks and occasionally achieve a cinematically heroic feat. This adds a touch of unpredictability to the game while not veering outside the plausible boundaries of each historical battle. Rebel Fur y is a wonderful design, but ultimately, it ser ves to lay the groundwork for a continuing series from GMT with much greater promise I’m eager to see what comes next in this Civil War Heritage series, for this first release is certainly compelling and inviting

CHARLIE THE E L

❚ PL AY IT? Y E S

This is an innovative and clever game that manages t o combine simulation with cinematic ac tion in a thor oughly enjoyable way While the combat sys t em is not per fec t , it of t en pushes play in a dramatic fashion

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…CONFLICT OF HEROES: AWAKENING THE BEAR

On the sur face this may be an odd comparison as these t wo games cover differ ent time periods and war s, but they shar e a similar spirit Both seek t o s tr eamline and modernize traditional war game experiences, capturing a novel experience that is exciting and full of flair

OT TOMAN SUNSET: 3RD EDITION

“ If you ’ ve a date in Constantinople, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul”

Designer: Darin A Leviloff | Publisher: V ic t or y Point Games

Ottoman Sunset is the sibling game to Hapsburg Eclipse, a game I reviewed in this ver y magazine in a previous issue Instead of a setting in the colder East, this game takes place in central Europe, and it surprised me how much difference this adds to the feel of the game To me, as a British person playing, I felt more of an affinity with what happens in the game

a tower defence game The enemies come storming in from Greece, Russia, Arabia and other Allied nations, and all that stands between your beloved Constantinople and ruin is a deck of event cards and a die Once again, the odds are stacked against you, and with each roll of the bouncing fate cube, you ’ re more likely to taste failure than victor y, but that’s what powers this game ’ s engine Being a solo game, the temptation to cheat and reroll ever y

inevitable, potentially game-ending attack up the narrows is coming, it’s just a question of when, and how badly ill-equipped will you be when it happens.

Of the two games - Ottoman Sunset and Hapsburg Eclipse - I think Ottoman Sunset is the better game, but only just It feels like you get slightly longer to get your feet under the table, and not as harsh in the way some of the rolls play out. There’s ver y little to pick between them If thriving in the face of adversity is your

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

That’s not to say it like “I remember when I was there”, but the game being set in places we see as tourist destinations now is both jarring and familiar, especially if you know little of the game ’ s setting.

Ottoman Sunset is set at the outbreak of the First World War, and it puts you in the role of the ruler of what was the great Ottoman empire In the act of rebuilding, the newly named Young Turks sided with Germany, and at that point, the die was cast The outcome of the game is nearly inevitable You will almost certainly lose, imitating what happened in real life, and just like in Hapsburg Eclipse, it’s a case of seeing how long you can hang on.

If you ’ re not familiar with the format, Ottoman Sunset is, at its heart,

failed die roll is strong, but in doing that you’d be watering down what it is to play a States of Siege game Be honest with yourself, take your licks, and see what the game has to offer

Imagine being stood in a dr y, dead forest, the floor littered with tinderlike pine needles. In all directions, all at once, someone sets fires Your job is to tr y to stamp all of the fires out at once while they burn towards your campsite in the middle Except your shoes have been replaced with ice skates, and someone ’ s put a blindfold on you That’s what playing this game feels like But you know what? It’s good. Ever y tiny victor y when things didn’t go quite as badly as the last turn feels joyous You know the

thing, if you like tr ying to hold out against near-impossible odds, you’ll have a good time with Ottoman Sunset. Even if you ’ re not a histor y buff and have no real knowledge of what happened to provide some kind of narrative, the game is good on its own merits. If, however, you don’t enjoy having it handed to you while you thank the person for doing it, you might not have much fun with this

ADAM RICHARD S

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… HAPSBURG ECLIPSE

If you can play one of these games, you alr eady k now how t o play the other In fac t , the t wo games int egrat e t o offer a single, bigger game ❚ PL AY IT? M A Y B E

If you enjoy being the under dog with a queue of bullies jus t waiting t o t ake a swing at you, Ot toman Sunset is a t r eat

IS NOT NEW

Games that stand the test of time

Writ ten by Chris Marling

The explosion of new board games in the last decade has massively overcrowded a market that already had rich depth While this level of choice has many positives, one of the negatives is that newer players can easily overlook games that should be in ever y collection (or at least be tried) despite their vintage That gives us some great games worth the time to track down, and here I’ve gone for games first released at least 30 years ago (1994 or earlier) but that should still be relatively available; whether that’s still in print or common and affordable on the secondar y market. They’re all games that still come off the shelves regularly; and that still delight new players when they’re exposed to them

CAN’T STOP

Sid Sackson was one of the pioneers of modern board gaming and Can’t Stop is the perfect example of why Despite being released in 1980, this push-your-luck dice-rolling filler remains well ranked on Board Game Geek. It plays in 30 minutes and while the box says 2-4 players, you can easily add more with some extra components. Fast, fun, and timeless.

ACQUIRE

Staying with Sid, this classic 1989 2-4-player economic family game was semi-recently reprinted with Renegade Game Studios with only a few updates It’s hard to believe a game simulating being a share-owning hotel tycoon is still a winner, and it doesn’t look much on the table But the cutthroat and competitive challenges arising from ever y game keep it fun, replayable, and relevant

COSMIC ENCOUNTER

Originally released in 1977, this hilariously unbalanced 4-6-player sci-fi-themed negotiation

game is an absolute hoot with the right people. Each player is assigned an alien race with a ridiculous unique ability, which they then try to use to control the universe Bluffs, outright lies, and battles ensue as everyone jostles for the win.

WEREWOLF/ MAFIA

Modern social gaming hits such as The Resistance and Avalon, bigger games like Battlestar Galactica, and online smash Among Us owe a large debt to Werewolf (1986) A moderator gives roles (werewolf, villager, seer, etc) to the (eight or more) players who then tr y to work out who the werewolves are, through discussion, before the wolves take ever yone out.

THE ROSE KING

Lovers of two-player abstracts should seek out this 1992 release that pretty much started the highly regarded Kosmos 2-player collection we still love to this day The Rose King has all the hallmarks of classic abstracts, with its draft-like pieces and simple squares grid But your moves are limited to visible but randomly drawn cards, taking the learn-the-moves chess problem out of the equation

6 NIMMT

This is the poster child for games people say are ‘just luck’ but that good players somehow win much more often than others. Released in 1994, 6 Nimmt is the perfect filler to pop in your carr y bag, being simple to teach and playing well from 3 to 10 players. Play cards while collecting as few as possible, guessing which row to place on to avoid picking up.

MANHAT TAN

Describing a game as mathsy abstract area majority might not sell it too well, but you have to call a spade a spade I’m not a big area majority fan and usually love some theme, but I adore Manhattan Place your variouslysized pieces widely to control areas, but also upwards to gain bonuses, with placement positions restricted by a small hand of cards

WIZ ARD

While Wizard is Contract W hist with a couple of extra rules, it deser ves a place here regardless. Released in 1984, it’s classic card game W hist with bells on Look at your hand, announce how many hands you’ll each win, and then tr y to do so The total can never equal the amount played, so you can’t all succeed; while points are added up over several rounds *

PLUCK THE OWL

Pluck the Owl was a gambling game popular in Western Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, first appearing under the title Pela il chiu in Rome in about 1590 But it may have been of G erman origin, given that most of the later examples from G ermany, Holland, Flanders, France, and England, prominently feature the design of an owl and a looking glass as the goal or winning throw of the game. ‘Owl and looking glass’ in G erman is the literal meaning of Eulenspiegel, the name of a folkloric trickster probably based on a real-life character said to have been born in Brunswick around 1300. Despite superficially resembling the 16th-centur y game of G oose, it is not in fact a race game Rather, it’s a highly decorative instruction sheet specifying the pay-offs for casting all possible combinations of three cubical dice. In theor y there are 216 possible permutations but in practice only 56 actual combinations, namely: six possible triplets (1-1-1 to 6-6-6), 30 possible doublets (1-1-2, 1-1-3 etc up to 6-6-5), and 20 singlets (1-2-3 etc up to 4-5-6)

Any number of players start by each contributing an agreed number of counters to a notional pot in the middle of the board Each in turn then rolls the dice, notes the resulting combination, and obeys the instruction matching it printed on the board The instructions are either to take from the pot a specified number of counters, ranging one to 12 or more, or to pay a specified number to it For triplets you either take or pay one half the contents of the pot (leaving any odd one where it is), except for 6-6-6, which means you sweep the pot and so end the game. If at any time the pot empties naturally, ever yone again pays an initial stake into it

The board consists of two concentric circles, the outer of 36 spaces showing all possible doublets and triplets, the inner showing all the singlets Each space illustrates the dice throw, states ‘Pay’ or ‘ Take’ however many, and is accompanied by some sort of icon The iconography varies in detail from countr y to countr y but exhibits certain commonalities. All the triplets, for example, show an owl, accompanied by a mirror in the Germanic games and sporting a crown in the

Italian ones An ass, typically, is associated with the greatest payment into the pot. In some versions, one space is marked with the equivalent of ‘Do nothing ’ (i e neither take nor pay, bringing to mind Monopoly’s ‘Free Parking ’ space) and is variously illustrated with a lady’s hat or a flight of bubbles.

In his exhaustive study of the game, Adrian Seville* notes that the rule for the oldest Italian version, requiring a throw of 666 to finish, runs counter to that of most other games, which allows for cashing up whenever the pool is exhausted, so that those players who wish to leave the game may do so at that point. The Italian rule, he points out, could well be used to trap the unwar y into a long game where refreshment of the pool was needed several times, perhaps magnifying the stakes unexpectedly Pluck the Owl - or fleece the punter - indeed! *

LEF T A 19th Centur y Fr ench O wl Boar d

*Adrian Seville’s Study is named The Game of the O wl, and can be found online at Academia eu

David Parlett is a games invent or and his t orian, author of The Oxford History of Card Games and it s sequel on boar d games, and a visiting pr ofessor of games design at the Univer sit y of Suffolk