Reviews

The Old King's Crown is a tough but fair asymmetric card game that needs a group willing to learn its peculiarities. Once the early learning games are out of the way, I found in it much of what I wanted Arcs to give me.

Angel's Share is a dry, clean economic game themed around Scottish single malt, and it won me over from the first few plays. For me, it belongs to that rare category of games that genuinely want five players at the table.

Azul: Queen’s Garden was my revelation of 2026: a game that sat unopened on my shelf and then got me completely hooked. Even though I am not usually a big fan of abstracts, this one has exactly the right mix of thought, risk, and pace.

Nippon: Zaibatsu brought me back to a game that once hit the table often, and its new edition has given it a meaningful refresh. For lovers of economic euros, it remains an easy recommendation.

Stupor Mundi is a euro packed with cards, cubes, and assorted bits that, for me, ends up overly dry and painfully forgettable. I did not have a bad time, but it is an easy pass.

Sanctuary retains the flavour of Ark Nova, but serves it in a much more approachable and streamlined form. It is very pleasant at the table, even if I would usually choose its bigger sibling.

A light hidden-squad-placement game of magical knights, missions, and dice that reminded me of Argent: the Consortium in a much simpler form. It has an interesting foundation, but its player interaction is not as developed as I wanted it to be.

Forestry is a tight resource-management euro that, despite my reservations about its “best with 2” reputation, worked wonderfully with four players. Its diverging paths to victory and crushing endgame make it far more interesting than I expected.

Ayar: Children of the Sun is a euro that dares to tighten up rather than open out as the game progresses. With an original tableau-building grid and meaningful indirect interaction, it asks for more than one play before it reveals what it can do.

Galaxy Trucker felt more like a game that needs the right group and the right moment than a space trip I will be eager to revisit. My would-be successor was not tempted by it either, so I am holding out for one final four-player attempt and a bit of chaos.

Stone Age is one of those older, clean worker-placement games that still makes it immediately clear why the genre became so popular. I do not consider it equal to modern games, but it remains a very good, approachable choice with real competition.

Skybridge is not the forgotten revolution that BGG unfairly overlooked, but it is a strange, decent resource-management game that left us in a good mood. It does not melt your brain or show off any originality; it simply makes for a good time.

Cross Bronx Expressway is a very distinctive, strictly three-player COIN that moves conflict away from the battlefield and into ideologies and the historical trajectory of the Bronx. Tight, demanding, and initially somewhat remote, it rewards persistence with serious gameplay and metagame.

Keyside made me take back the pessimism left by the rather strange, mediocre Keyper. It may be the best game in the Key series, and for my group it is one of this year’s strongest experiences.

Recall is a lighter, breezier dudes-on-the-map eurociv that keeps the interest high without demanding the same brain-burn as Civolution. At three players, it delivered chaos, competition, and tension right to the end.

Arcane Portal keeps Sword & Sorcery at the top of my list of GM-less dungeon crawlers: tense, action-packed, and very willing to kill you. It does need an experienced hand at the table, though, because teaching it is not the friendliest process in the world.

Molly House is a bold, idiosyncratic game with plenty to say, provided the group is willing to study it seriously. I appreciated its ambition, but I did not find that its difficulty automatically turned into fun.

Puerto Rico 1897: Special Edition reached me embarrassingly late, and in the end it won me over more as a lavish table production than as a game I will be desperate to replay.

Quorum is a satisfying half-hour filler with teeth: smart drafting and combos without turning into chaos. It does not quite reach the fuller small boxes from Devir for me, but it is certainly not forgettable.

On my third encounter, Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon finally showed me its best side: a full, satisfying heavy euro with plenty of conflict. The crucial factor is which three corporations enter the game, because they can noticeably change the experience.

Castle Combo is a youthful little game that, surprisingly, also held up perfectly well with the senate. I recommend it without hesitation for children aged 8–10 who are not looking for anything heavy or “unhealthy.”

A solid two-player game of production, set collection, and cards that need to be weighed before you spend them. It does not reinvent anything, but its reverse draft provides the friction it needs.

Echoes of Time is an odd action-programming game with interesting ideas, but also enough aggressive interaction to ruin your plans. It did not leave me indifferent, though there are better options in the same style.

Lightning Train has a confusing rulebook and did not win me over visually, but on the table it proved to be an excellent, tense, playful pick-up-and-deliver game. After Dune Imperium, Lone Wolf is clearly no one-trick pony.