Reviews

I love the original Undaunted and War Chest, so I was eagerly awaiting North Africa and its vehicles. So far it has not disappointed me, though it has not blown me away either.

I returned to Scythe with nearly all of its material on the table and found the exact same elegant disappointment. It is gorgeous and brisk, but its pacing still feels broken and several of its choices still seem senseless.

Robotech: Force of Arms is a spare two-player filler built around hidden card placement, but it drowns in its total symmetry. Two games, two 8–8 draws, and no desire whatsoever to give it a third chance.

Robotech: Crisis Point is a noticeably better second game in the series, fixing several things that left me lukewarm about its predecessor. It does not reach the great names of fast two-player games, but it has a place as a Robotech filler.

Tekhenu feels like a more brain-burning relative of Teotihuacan: a tight dice-placement point salad that asks for constant optimisation beneath all its thematic chrome. The first encounter is heavy, but after a few rounds the system starts to click and makes a second play feel very tempting.

The Cost was another evening of economic panic: coffins filling up, beers opening, and a photo finish separated by only $3-4. For our group, it remains the foie gras of economic games.

Flying Colors seems cursed whenever it reaches my table, but that does not diminish my appreciation for the game itself. For anyone who loves a dice-fuelled blowout, it is an honest pick.

Crystal Palace has an interesting, refreshing system for choosing and paying for dice, but my first play also left me with several reservations. I would play it again; it just did not win me over as much as I expected.

Rolling Stock, played as the full game in the first All-Aboard edition with the purple companies, gave us a wonderful economic sandbox — while also making a very convincing case for why the 2038 companies attract complaints.

Cosmic Colonies is a lean, well-produced puzzle game of around 40 minutes: it did not blow me away, but it gave me the right amount of brain-burn for its size.

Point Salad is a quick, clever little drafting game of vegetables and scoring goals that gave me fifteen minutes of pure joy. Better still, that strong first impression held up when I brought it to four players.

Fallout Shelter: The Board Game faithfully brings the mobile game to the table, including its boredom and repetition. Its worker-placement core works, but everything around it feels like it left the Vault before construction was finished.

Freedom! is an honest, bloody siege game with approachable rules, dice, and enough fighting to avoid becoming the usual dry stronghold exercise. It has a few production sins, but it tells a story on the table.

An honest pick-and-deliver game with hand management and a small deckbuilding twist, which gains tension when time-sensitive contracts send everyone racing. It is dry and somewhat tiring, but for me it remains an enjoyable train game with unusual pacing and a core worth developing.

Foothills is a small, polished euro for two, with the feel of a mini Snowdonia. For anyone who loves compact two-player titles, I consider it a very easy blind buy.

Expedition to Newdale initially struck me as a rather flat campaign game, but its third scenario finally gave it some of the character I was expecting. It does not reach the classic designs of the “Great Alexander,” yet it has more substance as a light Pfister than my first play suggested.

Glen More II initially left me rather cold, but a second session with a chronicle raised it considerably in my estimation. It still asks for patience with setup and rules, yet I now want to see what it can do when its big box is properly used.

Pandoria is a cute, fast tile-placement game with a pleasantly tight economy. It did not deeply impress me, but it is a good time for as long as it lasts.

A peculiar, almost abstract economic game in which the players themselves shape prices and market balances. It needs repeat plays to be read properly, but for fans of the genre it is absolutely a must-play.

A heroic dusting-off of Sword of Rome from the Shelf of Shame, fully justified by the full day, the preparation, and the dry rations. At our table it became a bloody, ridiculous, and intensely personal Italian campaign, with the Greeks pulling ahead at the end.

A reissue with a small cult past, without pretending to be more complex than it is. Space Infantry: Resurgence sets up a clear, time-pressured infantry mission with a very recognizable military sci-fi flavour.

A four-player game of Star Trek: Ascendancy with the Vulcans and Andorians was my highlight of the month. It has not completely won me over as a game, but with the expansions on the table it is easily my favourite 4X.

Europe Divided is a pleasant, compact take on the tension promised by a TS-Light game, with asymmetry that gives both sides genuine character. Its open selection of future scoring objectives adds bluffing and strategy without stretching the playtime.

Giga-Robo! is a long-suffering Kickstarter that, thankfully, justifies the wait with deep customization, plenty of violence, and more depth than I expected. My second encounter with it even corrected my initial reservation about its game modes.