Cadence

SpaceCorp with Ventures is a tight, lively full package, and it is notably better at three, where blocking and close scores make every move matter. You may complain before realising how dangerous your company becomes in the final phase; that is part of the pleasure.

EPOS: A Gentes Game gives the much-loved Gentes a modest polish and a campaign of scenarios that seems ready to pull it in fresh directions. Its one serious demand is a properly organised box.

Red Dust Rebellion may be the most demanding COIN I have played, and perhaps the best. Its wildly asymmetrical factions look liable to collapse into nonsense; instead, they form an unusually well-balanced whole.

Imperial Borders takes Napoleonic warfare and turns it into a cleaner, more symmetrical wargame rather than a historical simulation. We did not complete a full game, but the preparation, demonstrations, and lengthy opening analysis made a persuasive case.

Bunny Kingdom Town is a quick, strictly two-player city builder with resources, small engines, and a fair bit of luck in its objectives. It does not reinvent anything, but it teaches fast and plays pleasantly.

Cold War: CIA vs KGB is not the last word in games about its subject. But for a child trying to understand a war with no famous battlefield attached, it is a gentle and useful place to begin.

SpaceCorp with Ventures is a tight, lively full package, and it is notably better at three, where blocking and close scores make every move matter. You may complain before realising how dangerous your company becomes in the final phase; that is part of the pleasure.

EPOS: A Gentes Game gives the much-loved Gentes a modest polish and a campaign of scenarios that seems ready to pull it in fresh directions. Its one serious demand is a properly organised box.

Red Dust Rebellion may be the most demanding COIN I have played, and perhaps the best. Its wildly asymmetrical factions look liable to collapse into nonsense; instead, they form an unusually well-balanced whole.

The list wins by making every trade slightly bad for the other side. Here is what that means turn by turn.

Shields, sentinels and a lightsaber: the oldest deck in the format still punishes greed.