Nucleum

Nucleum arrived carrying the expectations of Barrage and Brass, yet at the table it felt closer to Imperial Steam: a sizeable creature that moves more smoothly than its weight suggests, without ever pretending to be light. This is the modern kitchen-sink euro at full boil, packed with things to watch, things to do, and things to forget just as your most elaborate plan is ready to go.

Each round offers a great many jobs and several ways to keep scoring, so you are rarely left with nothing useful to pursue. The variable setup and your semi-asymmetric starting package substantially alter where your attention goes from game to game, while those starting choices also steer you towards fairly defined strategic lanes.

Player contact is much clearer with four, where you can cut across one another and feel genuine pressure over space and opportunity; with three, our games became markedly more solitary. Some starting powers look suspiciously stronger than others, though the final scores do not necessarily bear that out, and the rulebook earns a passing grade with a caveat: it conveys the broad shape cleanly, then leaves enough room for misread details that someone needs to keep an eye on proceedings.

That is the cost of all the abundance. It demands concentration, a solid teach, and a little policing of the small stuff, particularly the first time out. Still, it does not feel as though the game is forever slapping your wrist; even when you finish forty or fifty points behind, you have usually had a good time and already have a couple of things you want to try next time.

For groups that enjoy their euros heavy enough to need both hands, Nucleum is one of the stronger examples: not perfect, but deep enough that two or three plays will not get to the bottom of it. If your group does not want that density, there are cleaner and less tiring places to spend the evening.

Updated session

Court of Progress does not overturn the basic impression. It adds variety to a base game that can begin to feel a little solved. Its additions were less convincing, though, because they feel rather win-more and amplify the snowball that can already develop. More replayability, certainly; not necessarily a better game.