Sabika

Sabika would not sail through an initial procurement check: it is a medium-heavy Euro, tight, materially busy, and quite prepared to demand your full attention. Nevertheless, it went straight into my guilty-Euro-pleasure column. It is an exceptionally sound multi-rondel design, and much nearer to what Scorpius Freighter ought to have been without its family-friendly restraint.

Its centre is movement across several rondels, where every step asks not merely what it yields now, but which route it leaves available later. The interesting decision is not simply activating a strong option; it is aligning the choices on the different wheels so that one action makes the next worthwhile. The mechanisms do not feel piled into the box for numerical effect. They possess an internal logic.

That network does not become solitaire. There are races, and they provide the meaningful friction: this is not a game of routine funerals, but positions and timings claimed by other players can make a carefully planned sequence considerably less impressive. It is Euro-style conflict: polite on the surface, irritatingly effective underneath.

The production is merely good and there is plenty of Euro paraphernalia, but the whole package need not defer to the strongest medium-heavy Euro releases of its year. Sabika plays elegantly, thinks clearly, and has every chance of becoming a reference point for multi-rondel design.