Reviews

Pest gives a familiar Euro framework an evocative plague-doctor setting and a properly lavish table presence. Its pressure is real and its systems are neatly tied together, though the random spread cards can sometimes make the whole affair too generous.

1930: The Golden Age of Airlines is a fresh economic game with a pleasing sense of development and the contained density one expects from a Rio Grande title. At four players, though, its final turn can undo several hours of careful work.

Obsession puts a delightfully odd Victorian manor on the table and, without additions, delivers a tight management game. Add the expansions, though, and the elegance thins out while luck begins to speak rather too loudly.

Fallen Land: A Post Apocalyptic Board Game – 2nd Edition is a sprawling post-apocalyptic sandbox that has been properly tightened up without losing its ridiculous stories. It will not suit every table, but genre devotees should pay attention.

21Moon is a modern 18XX with pace, a handsome production, and several ideas that properly belong together. Its rulebook is the weak link: too spare, too short on examples, and occasionally unclear in its English.

Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game arrived under a cloud of suspicion and left me admitting, rather inconveniently, that I had enjoyed it. It is silly and random, but with the right people it produces real laughter and, at higher difficulty, a decent amount to think about.

GMT's Prime Minister gives political ambition an accessible, highly thematic frame. Its betrayals have bite, but the game can take long enough to wear that bite away.

Great Western Trail: New Zealand first looked like a notch below Argentina, then a later play changed the order completely. It is the heaviest entry in the line and, for me now, its strongest.

Nova Aetas Renaissance is a lavish campaign dungeon crawler with Ludus Magnus’s usual generosity of production, but without demanding the endless commitment of some rivals. Its rules have a little needless friction, yet our group has found no reason to stop following its story.

Dune: Imperium – Uprising stands alone while still speaking directly to the original Imperium, with gentler intrigue and fewer wild spikes. On first acquaintance, it is an excellent game with a distinctly different balance.

18 India brings a modern wrinkle to the 18XX table in a shorter, more approachable package, but its draft and muddy rules can bite very early. It is not a bad game; it is a game that needed rather more care than it received.

Fractal is a 4X that plainly understands the problems it is trying to solve in TI, Eclipse, and their relatives. Its first plays are exhausting for the wrong reasons, but the design underneath is unusually streamlined and rich.

Age of Comics: The Golden Years draws you in with its comic-book theme and thoughtful production, then earns its place with a relaxed economic game underneath. It asks for a little planning, not a second shift.

Evacuation feels like a return to form for Vladimir: a demanding euro with a coherent logic, difficult pacing decisions, and no easy place to settle. Its many endgame and setup options make it less definitive as a package, but not less compelling.

Nucleum is a large, busy euro that keeps everyone occupied and hands out rewards with impressive regularity. It is not an easy teach or a flawless design, but heavy-game groups will find an enormous amount to explore.

Pirates of Maracaibo condenses Maracaibo into a quicker, lighter card-driven form. Its routes to points are not equally convincing, but the two expansions turn it into a notably more complete package.

Revive is a fresh, generous engine builder: exploration, buildings standing in for workers, cards, and asymmetry that is not equally well behaved across the board. There is a great deal to enjoy here, though the base game’s balance deserves a raised eyebrow.

Amritsar: The Golden Temple is a dense, tight medium-weight euro that combines familiar mechanisms into a system with a character of its own. Its rulebook and visual presentation make a poor first impression; the design underneath earns the effort.

Shikoku 1889 compresses the full 1830 threat of bankruptcy into a more manageable evening. It is tight, variable and carefully made, although one private company pulls rather too hard on the rest of the system.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a competent introductory racing game, but its heavy dependence on the draw and its frequently obvious hand decisions left me unconvinced.

Lewis & Clark: The Expedition is a deck- and engine-builder whose mechanisms still feel unusually fresh, with a satisfyingly tight five-player game. Its expedition across the American interior demands planning, clever timing, and a healthy awareness of what the next player can steal from you.

Brief Border Wars is a very simple, compact wargame that fits comfortably into about an hour while still leaving room for decisions, strategy, and dice-led suspense. Its early sets also include three conflicts of Greek interest, which gives the series an extra pull.

Bärenpark is a very approachable first stop for children discovering polyomino games, clear enough for them to play on their own. Even with the advanced mode, though, it offers limited pull for more experienced players.

Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods – Kickstarter Edition arrives in an enormous, rather slapdash box with a rulebook that makes a poor first impression. Then it gets on the table and turns out to be an unexpectedly satisfying collision of private puzzle-solving and divine map warfare.