Boonlake

I returned to Mr Alexander’s recent work and, thankfully, got exactly the same result: a drawn-out but satisfying game, full of things to watch and do. There is that pleasant, constant sense of being on edge, without ever reaching the point of burning out. And on a second encounter, quite a few of its pieces started falling into place more naturally.

On the table, the game feels like a full-bodied euro, where the session moves forward through many choices and developments. I did not experience it as one of its designer’s big, classic euro hits; I would place it closer to his lighter games, such as Newdale and Cloud Age, even though it remains lavish and needs time to unfold everything it has to offer.

Interaction, on the other hand, is almost nonexistent: it is essentially solitaire. Everyone is occupied with their own path and their own choices, rather than trying to squeeze or stop the others. So anyone looking for tight racing, rough-and-tumble competition, and fighting spirit should look elsewhere.

Even so, my original conclusion has not changed at all. Boonlake remains very high among my favourites, even if it stretches the game out a little more than necessary. If you want the euro equivalent of “let’s have the fivers clash with the flushes,” you do not need to look far.

Updated session

By roughly my fourth game, with the same group that had been squeezed by Sabika, the impression was confirmed rather than changed. Familiarity made things click more easily, but it did not turn the game into something more aggressive or shorter: it remains a big, solitary euro that I like very much.