Lofoten

I see Lofoten as that small box that pleasantly disrupts the idea that a filler ought to be relaxed and breezy. Du Jardin serves something much denser than you expect for its running time: a properly crunchy game that asks for attention without taking the group through an entire evening.

At its core, it is set collection, but the engine driving it is a dynamic rondel for each player. This is not simply the familiar “collect things to make sets” routine; your choices run through that personal system and demand a little more weighing up than I usually expect from a 45-minute game.

The key is that the scoring is clever enough to keep the game open. There is interest and replayability, while reversals in the final two or three moves can change the picture before you have time to think you have locked down the result. The interaction, as I read it from this structure, lies mainly in the pressure of the race and in the fact that nobody can relax until the end.

My only complaint is that it walks a tightrope between filler and main course. It is more demanding than the former, but it will struggle to stand against heavier eurogames in the latter category, such as Fields of Arle. Even so, it is absolutely worth a look—and even more so, a play at a summer table beside a morning freddo.