Reviews

Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy is still a remarkably strong 4X design, provided its exploration does not pick a loser before the game has properly begun. When the opening conditions cooperate, its research and upgrade combinations are superb.

Navegador is a dry, intelligent German euro with several routes to victory and a clear family resemblance to Hamburgum. It is soundly built, but it does not quite match its sibling for me.

Brexit: The Real Deal knows it should not be treated as serious political simulation. Unfortunately, that is also its only joke.

Radiant: Offline Battle Arena brings MOBA-style card combat to the table with clear care paid to balance and strategic depth. It needs a regular opponent who is willing to learn it with you, though; without that, much of its appeal stays locked away.

Era of Tribes is a dense semi-civ game that is not bad, but demands to be approached on its own terms. Miss the intended line, and its awkward systems leave you in the dark.

With every expansion in play, Trickerion: Dahlgaard's Academy becomes a deeply satisfying euro that finally smooths out its rougher edges. It is not a game for a casual teach, but it rewards a group willing to learn its language.

Jagged Alliance: The Board Game gets a surprising amount of the computer game’s character onto the table in a co-operative campaign. Its AI rules are needlessly hard work, but the campaign has enough laughs and personality to keep Arulco worth liberating.

Everdell is a cheerful worker-placement engine builder with enough bite to keep the table alert and enough restraint to finish at a sensible hour. It does not need to reinvent anything to be a thoroughly lovely play.

Ecos: First Continent gives bingo an engine-building shell, with worthwhile drafting and almost no downtime, but an experience gap that can leave newer players merely turning cards while someone else runs away with it.

Circadians: First Light is a cute, busy dice-placement game with asymmetric powers and far more going on than its compact box suggests. It makes for a pleasant session, but not one I am eager to arrange again soon.

Key Flow takes the familiar appeal of Keyflower and makes it much easier to bring to the table. It is a lighter visit to the rivers and roads, rather than a whole evening spent unpacking them.

Aristeia! offers a deep, satisfying skirmish without demanding a second hobby in metagame study. Open the box, choose a scenario, draft, and start trading blows.

Teotihuacan: Late Preclassic Period offers committed Teotihuacan players more material to work through. With modules 1 and 3, though, it feels less like refinement and more like removing the guardrails.

Hansa Teutonica is a tightly engineered worker-placement and engine-building game with very little downtime. Its opening feels overly prescribed, however, and its displacement system can hand an unfair lead to two players willing to assist one another.

El Grande is still a lively, clean grandfather of area control: straightforward to learn, brisk at the table, and fully capable of producing a proper fight. Its age shows mainly in five-player volatility and the risk of an early runaway leader.

La Stanza is well produced, brisk, and free of downtime, but its decisions are left at the mercy of unforgiving randomness. It feels like a poor Newton imitation with little reason to return.

Snowdonia: Deluxe Master Set is a brisk, old-school Euro with a huge range of scenarios to keep it fresh. It shows its age in places, but the sheer amount gathered here makes it outstanding value.

Town Builder: Coevorden is an easy-going city-building game with a notably polished production and just enough interest to keep its lightness from feeling empty. It is not trying to astonish anyone, which turns out to be one of its nicer qualities.

Continental Divide wants to make Cube Rails feel more serious and weighty across its east-west frame. For me, that weight mostly arrives as dry friction.

Wingspan is light, quick, and pleasantly undemanding: an engine builder for a table that does not want homework. The European birds add clever powers, but their extra variety also adds more chaos than the design can comfortably hold.

The Rich and the Good is a compelling Broker variant in its own right: stock manipulation, incomplete information, and a final cull with real bite.

Extra! Extra! is an unusual, properly thematic worker-placement game for anyone who hears “newspaper” and immediately thinks deadlines, front pages, and manageable disasters. Its flow takes a little getting used to, but the game is a pleasure once it finds its rhythm.

Key Market (Second Edition) is a tight economic euro where the market is never merely a market. It has replayability, real friction, and enough pressure to make its two hours feel properly full.

Aeronautica Imperialis: Wings of Vengeance looks like a straight dice-heavy dogfight until it asks you to fly properly. There is real positional depth here, provided list balance has not settled the engagement before anyone takes off.