Storm Raiders

Storm Raiders comes from the designer whose work helped put Garphill in the euro pantheon, yet it is thoroughly unlike a Garphill game. This is a straightforward pick-up-and-deliver design, only just reaching the ninety-minute mark, with enough decision density to make one regard the board as though a small spreadsheet were awaiting approval.

At its centre, you collect and deliver cargo, arranging routes so that each move accomplishes more than one job. The interesting decision is when a good route is good enough: pursuing the perfect sequence may pay off, but it can also leave you studying the possibilities rather longer than the table needs.

The storm circling the board is not mere interference; it changes the terms of those routes and creates fresh openings for the following round. That is where the player interaction sits: everyone is reading the same moving problem, trying to exploit its new opportunities before they shift again.

The danger is analysis paralysis, and it is not hypothetical: a group determined to find the perfect answer can stretch the game until its momentum evaporates. Keep that in check — and keep the table level — and Storm Raiders is a clever, quietly excellent route game.