Reviews

The Deluxe Nova Collection finally gives Star Realms a handsome permanent home on the shelf. The delivery delay was hard to excuse, but the finished box is beautifully made and its card mix keeps the game light on its feet.

Europa Universalis: The Price of Power is a dense historical game that demands not just time, but a group willing to learn it together. Its rules are heavy, yet remarkably willing to meet you halfway.

Starship Captains is a light gateway worker-placement game with one promising idea in its crew queue, but too little energy to make that idea matter.

The King's Dilemma is a terrific legacy story wrapped around a voting game that too often forgets to be a game. It creates memorable table politics, then regularly takes the steering wheel away from the players.

The Silver River is an honest, generously stocked euro that wakes up when players stop being polite. Conflict is not an unfortunate side effect here; it is the seasoning the game needs.

Stationfall is a space-station panic game of secret identities, leverage and very deliberate nastiness, built around a superb character system and burdened with manuals that do not especially wish to meet you halfway. Once it clicks, the station becomes a wonderfully volatile place to ruin somebody’s plans.

Mosaic: A Story of Civilization arrives as a lavish table presence, with careful production and a rather needless amount of cardboard along for the ride. Beneath the spectacle is a sound light-medium civilisation game that asks players to watch one another properly.

Rolling Heights aims for a Suburbia-like city builder with bag building, but turns its central novelty into a chore and its table presence into an eye test.

Immortality is a proper expansion for Dune: Imperium rather than a box of extra material: it sits neatly beside Ix and changes the game’s priorities in meaningful ways. Most importantly, it gives the deck-building side the weight it was asking for.

Angel Fury is a relaxed, near-symmetrical take-and-hold brawl of angels, demons, dice, and repeated violence. It is not a game to take terribly seriously, but it makes a very agreeable hour of it.

Mage Noir initially looks very familiar to anyone who remembers the CCG boom, but its mana system is a real variation on the formula. The central idea is fresh; the basic set around it is less so.

Oh My Goods! packs a credible production chain into a very small card game, and its basic structure is admirably easy to teach. Time has made its limitations clearer, though: it works better as a light introduction for children than as a regular choice for adults.

Crossing Oceans is a cleaner, more legible version of Transatlantic, but not such a radical revision that it displaces the older game. It is an easy recommendation for anyone who does not already own its predecessor.

Kill Team v2 is a lean, affordable skirmish game with proper scraps and a substantial campaign library for anyone able to use it. Its faction balance, however, is liable to wander off before the game begins.

Woodcraft has a wonderfully ambitious central wheel and all the hallmarks of a strong Suchy release. At four players, though, the waiting and the card randomness kept me at arm’s length.

Skymines takes the core of Mombasa, gives it a theme one can actually read, and adds a second map distinct enough to earn its place. I still prefer the original map, but the package comes recommended without reservation.

Endless Winter: Paleoamericans is a lavish, welcoming euro that makes a very comfortable introduction to the genre. Its handsome surface and gentle scoring systems, however, do not quite deliver the sharper tension its reputation suggests.

Dark Ages: Holy Roman Empire is an ambitious medieval 4X that takes the genre’s familiar ailments seriously, though it does not cure all of them. With the right group and a shared idea of what sort of game they are playing, its large combined map is remarkably manageable over six hours.

Even once the rules are settled, Weather Machine is the Lacerda game I like least. Its running time is reasonable; its setup material and balance are not.

Impression gives worker placement an unusual two-phase structure, then uses it to power a satisfyingly aggressive engine. Its iconography is so poor, however, that it can spoil a first encounter with an otherwise very worthwhile euro.

This game of 1861: Railways of the Russian Empire & 1867: Railways of Canada stayed sharp, but the people around it did not. It came down to $98, and a little sporting mercy made the tension better rather than softer.

Atiwa is a brisk, honest Uwe Rosenberg engine builder, but its “advanced” label oversells both its weight and its finish. It has a useful place as a bridge to heavier euros, though it does not quite arrive as the polished Lookout release one expects.

Lacrimosa gives an unusual subject the structural discipline of a medium-weight Euro, with action selection and deck development speaking the same language. A second play confirmed that the first impression was not a flattering accident.

Space Station Phoenix builds a confident euro from familiar systems, then gives them real tension through its consumable action spaces. It asks for one teaching game, but repays that investment with unusually clean pacing.