Tianxia

Tascini and the T series have earned my confidence, and Tianxia makes good use of it. It is knottier than one might expect from him, somewhere between The Great Wall, Perseverance: Episode 1 and After the Empire; not an imitation, but a relative in heavier armour.

At its centre, players place workers to assemble compact, efficient economic engines. The game does not let you disappear peacefully into your multipliers, though: the Mongols are waiting to arrive and ruin what you have built. We used only the hard invader deck in our two plays, since the easier one looked a little too feel-good; this version has proper teeth.

The interesting decision is whether to invest in your own development or pursue the more aggressive lines, the ones that benefit from the neighbour's goat dying. There is an early concern about the random building layout, however: some buildings appear markedly too strong when they land in favourable positions. The one that discounts Magistrates in particular seems capable of opening a fairly solitary route, and that needs testing over more plays.

I would not condemn it this early, because the aggressive strategies have not yet been explored properly. But for the established euro audience, Tianxia is a very safe recommendation: demanding, combative, and already distinctly promising.