Reviews

Speakeasy is a tight, unforgiving heavy euro that binds a mass of systems into a clear, thematic criminal machine. For anyone who can handle its designer’s style, it is one of the year’s most rewarding experiences.

Nemesis: Retaliation retains the series’ thematic spectacle, but my first play felt heavier, more static, and less tense than I expected. It may impress newcomers, but I still prefer the original Nemesis with Aftermath.

Covenant is a lavish, hefty medium euro with thoroughly familiar dwarf theming, but enough cardboard and acrylic splendour to create an occasion at the table. It does not reinvent anything, yet it is consistently entertaining and leaves a pleasant Caverna-like aftertaste.

Railway Boom is a tight cube-rails/euro hybrid that builds its tension around auctions, variable objectives, and light but meaningful engine building. With four rounds and plenty of room for optimisation, it is the sort of game I immediately want back on the table.

Episodes 3 & 4 of Perseverance raise the series into a lavish, tight heavy-euro climax: heaps of material on the table, dinosaurs everywhere, and decisions that demand a serious brain. It is not for everyone, but for the right group it is one of the year’s experiences.

Port Royal: Big Box is a light pirate-flavoured push-your-luck card game, well suited to ending a game night on a pleasant note. It does not reinvent anything, but it knows how to make everyone laugh when greed blows up spectacularly.

Aldebaran Duel is a tight, quick two-player tableau builder that fits perfectly into an after-work session. It does not reinvent the wheel, but its drafting has depth and provides just enough reason for some good-natured swearing.

A well-made, old-school hex-and-counter space wargame that does not pretend to be more complicated than it needs to be. The deluxe edition may sting at its suggested retail price, but at a discount it is very easy to say yes to it.

Bier Pioniere is a tight, medium-weight worker-placement euro that earns its keep through a clean production chain and an unusual ending. It has the charm of a classic German euro, even if its design may feel a little dated to players looking for newer ideas.

Light Speed: Arena hit the table like the Death Star hit Alderaan, leaving nothing but laughter and wreckage behind. It is pure, photogenic chaos for groups who know better than to take it seriously.

Thebai is a very well-made euro with a theme that does not feel pasted on and rules that settle quickly despite its mixed bag of mechanisms. It plays excellently at three; at four, I have some reservations because its dynamics change noticeably.

A well-produced, properly thematic package hiding an exceedingly bland game of luck. One play may get some laughs; a second is hard to imagine.

Colonial 1700-1800 is an odd little pocket wargame full of atmosphere, cards moving over cards, and dice that can either lift you up or bury you. There is real substance here, but also rules and reversals capable of leaving a very bitter taste.

Luthier is a lavish, beautiful euro that initially overwhelmed me with visual clutter and irritated me with its imbalance. On the second play, though, it made a much stronger case for being one of the season’s best.

Stress Botics hides an honest, intriguing production-and-delivery core beneath so much rules reading, FAQ consultation, and sub-rules that it becomes more an endurance test than a game. Its hand management is excellent; almost everything surrounding it seems designed to ruin the day.

Monkey Palace smartly combines LEGO building and resource gathering in a game I find especially suited to children aged roughly 6-12. It offers enough choices to avoid becoming entirely automatic, without forgetting that it is, above all, a cheerful LEGO romp.

Pampero is a lavish, beautifully presented economic game about renewable energy which hides a very clean, thematic system beneath its mountain of components. Choosing the right scoring tiles and game length brings it out far more than its introductory setup does.

Battle of Hoth takes the familiar Memoir ’44 chassis and dresses it in Star Wars so effectively that my old objections to the system fade into the background. In the two-box Epic format, the larger scale also noticeably softens luck’s influence and brings the tactical side forward.

Tianxia won us over as another twisty, tense, and fairly confrontational Tascini design. After only two plays I am not ready to deliver a final verdict on its balance, but at the proper, harsher invader level it has already provided a satisfying amount of fighting.

Unconscious Mind is a substantial, impressively produced experience with many interconnected parts, but it never fully revealed its point to me. I did not have a bad time; I simply did not feel eager to put it back on the table soon.

1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight was a rather harsh introduction to train games for newcomers: it ran longer than I wanted and exposed several strange corners. At least the group had fun — especially the player who buried me all over the map.

A silly, fast beer-and-pretzels game with a funny theme, a touch of engine building, and enough death to justify its title. It is not a serious proposition, but at the right price it can very comfortably earn a place in a collection.

Storm Raiders is an unexpected pick-up-and-deliver game from the designer I associate with Garphill’s rise. Short but demanding, it rewards good route planning—provided the group does not turn it into an AP festival.

Galileo Galilei initially won me over as a breezy, quick euro with a pleasing astronomical theme and an upgradeable rondel at its core. But a later play exposed an asymmetric character that may stretch the score far too easily—enough for me to take back my original thumbs up.