Trickerion: Dahlgaard's Academy

On my second play, with all the expansions in the box, this little monster made a much better case for itself. Dawn of Technology fixes the main irritation from my first game: less randomness, far less daylight between the variable player powers, and an addition that feels properly balanced rather than taped on afterwards.

At its core, you are building your magical plan while fighting to keep your place in the theatre. Your choices are never entirely private; when the spot you need is gone or you lose ground there, somebody else has already made your evening harder. That is when the real trick starts.

Academy opens up further strategic routes and makes money matter more. It is an odd little thing at first, but it gives a player who loses their theatre position in the late rounds a way back without simply removing them from the fight. The rulebook gets no quick-pass grade. You sit down, learn it properly, then start shutting doors in your friends' faces.

It is one of the most substantial euros I have played this year, and with these changes it is a 9/10. I would play it more often with a group that already knows it; giving it a simple teach is not happening.