This is a very interesting game, from Stonemaier Games, that was an eye opener for all of those that played the game with me.  Do you remember the books from the late 70’s the own adventure ones that were still popular until the 90’s, The ones that you had to chose what to do from a sedate walk to explore or you try a fast run away to escape or several other options, That is basically what this game is. You work co-operatively to try to first survive and then you try to escape together. Let me start more from the beginning of the story.

There is little that the game inventor wanted you to know about this game as it is meant to be an adventure. In fact they said that if you have a part of the story that does not match with you all, that you should discuss it among yourselves and see what feels right.
Here is the basics of the game start. You are travelling through space and there was an accident, You are one of the survivors who grabbed an escape pod each of you has landed at a different location. You each roll two skill dice and depending on your roll you work out where you have landed, there is a chart to work this out. You receive a card for your location then you can choose one of the options on the card in front of you. As you can’t see each others location views but can talk over radio you can describe your view but cannot show each other your cards. You can explain what you are seeing on your card and the choices you have, you just can’t show your card to anyone else.  You can order this at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/vantage/vantage

I will say that there are bonus skill tokens you can gain I can recommend getting the wooden replacements for the skill tokens as they are more solid than the cardboard ones and it is the same for the packs of metal coins you can get to replace the cardboard ones with as the clink of metal is so much better when counting out coins. There is also a dual-layered playing mat pack that does make this game that much more compact and I highly recommend them as they are all of higher quality and beautiful for the game feel as they give you the perfect holder for the eight cards that you collect and put around your character card that are also contained in the dual layered  boards.  You can order these at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/vantage

As usual with these games that Stonemaier bring into the fold this is a beautiful game.  You are out exploring Japan’s East Sea Road between Kyoto and Edo, as you explore the beautiful road you will discover amazing places including hot springs, gorgeous vitas and culinary delights to explore and gain points.

The person who is furthest back near the start will always be the next to go so you open the board as you play. Each place can only be visited once unless you are playing a four or five player game then some of the locations have a round disc on their road then you can go up the road to the next open disc the point furthest from the end, you can only travel in one direction and toward the rods end. As you play you can gain points and coins, so good luck!

This is a very beautiful game that plays very easily, It also is a game that you can play quite fast 45mins plus which means that you can play this with another quick game or play it multiple times. This is a lovely game that is both beautiful and a lot of fun.

I have been asked, what are the differences between the original game and this one re-made by Stonemaier games. While the gameplay is the same, Stonemaier Games have revised the rulebook to provide more clarity.  As well as producing reference cards for each players as adding some text on the cards so you don’t have to refer to the rulebook so often.  They have also increased the card thickness to their standard 310gsm.  Also as with other Stonemaier Games they have brought in an automa solo mode.  You can order this from us at:   https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/other-board-games/tokaido-board-game

I am usually sceptical about new versions of classic board games – but I had to admit that Catan New Energies is a great version of the game. It has the basic game mechanics of gathering resources to build roads, cities and towns to get points to win the game. But there are enough added features to make it interesting and different.

Each player has their own box which contains their Towns (settlements), Cities and Roads, event discs, fossil power plants and renewable power plants. This does help speed up set up.

The game plays very much like the original with collecting resources to build more Towns & Cities. Even though some of the resources are called different things in this version – wood, brick, natural fibre (was sheep), food (was wheat) & steel (was ore), the colours and images are almost identical – so we just call them their old names. The extra resource of science does add a nice addition, and it allows you to buy the different power plants. (Science cards are collected when you collect resources from a city. So instead of getting 2 resources for the city, you get 1 and a science card.)

Unlike original Catan – you always start by pulling out a hazard token – once you have 3 of the same type you must instantly complete the consequence of that hazard. They are just a small hinderance or bonus (depending on your local footprint). The amount of hazard tokens pulled is determined by the global footprint: Every time you build a city or town or fossil plant – the global (and your local) footprint goes down. But each time you build a renewable plant – they both go up. The one thing we forgot on our first game was key – if there are no more tokens to pull from the bag – the game ends there and then. And points don’t matter – the winner is the person with the best local footprint. So, buying lots of fossil plants may be cheap – but they could cost you the game!

But – you do want to build plants though as they produce lighting/energy which do a few things. They are similar to the fishes in the Traders and Barbarians expansion – get enough and they are any resource you like or remove a hazard from one of your towns or cities. They can also increase the number of cards you can have in your hand before the robber takes them. This is a very handy bonus for when you just can’t get the cards you need.

All in all, I do think Catan New Energies is a good stand-alone version of Catan. It has all the basic elements to make it a Catan game, but enough added to make it while buying another version of the game. You can order this at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/catan/other-catan-games/catan-new-energies

First a bit of background on Black Panther, Shuri, she is a princess of Wakanda and was the young sister of T’challa. The Black Panther Name was carried by the Males of the family until the death of her Brother, when with reluctance she took it on. Shuri rediscovered the the plant that gave the user the powers of Black Panther and then took it. she gained more abilities including Super-Strength, Speed, and Agility which she combined with her amazing Scientific Mind and fighting abilities to become a mighty hero.She fought the loss of her Father her Brother and then her Mother to try and keep her anger in check and to stop her heroine self from becoming a monster. She has great leadership abilities, amazing science knowledge and is a mighty fighter.

So how does she play in the game? In her Alter-Ego form, Shuri can exhaust herself to search her deck or discard pile for any “Black Panther” or “Tech” upgrade and play it, reducing its cost by 2. Allowing her to quickly get her core upgrades into play, as well as any other valuable Tech cards in her Justice deck. While in her hero identity she has four “Black Panther” upgrades. These cards, such as Kimoyo Beads and Spider Bites, are a central part of her hero identity, which she can make use of after a basic power.

Her game is more about a consistent, tactical approach as opposed to her brother who in the core game is more about explosive, single-turn damage .

Her ability to trigger her upgrades often and her powerful Alter-Ego ability to find and play key cards make her a very fun and strategic hero to play, and you can order her at https://www.bgextras.co.uk/marvel-champions/marvel-champions-hero-wave-9-agents-of-shield/marvel-champions-the-card-game-black-panther-hero-pack

The Adventures of Conan expansions pack contains two expansions Queen of the Black Coast and  Nemedian Chronicles

First a bit of background on Silk, she is quite a new Superhero as she first appeared on 1st April 2014 in the amazing Spiderman. She is of Korean American descent and was a love interest of Spider-Mans, her full name is Cindy Moon and she was bitten by the same Spider that had bitten Peter Parker. Her abilities are Superhuman strength, Speed, Agility, Equilibrium, Reflexes. Stamina and Durability. She also has the ability o stick to solid surfaces, she has organic web generation, precog silk-sense, she is an expert in hand to hand combat and has an Eidetic memory.She was a member of Spider-Army, Web-Warriors and the Agents of Atlas. She briefly took on the name Spider-Woman during the spider verse story line of 2022-2023. 

So how does she play in the game? Her best ability is her tuck mechanic that lets her defuse dangeours encounter cards allowing her to turn them into a future card draw in her alter ego, this gives better control of the encounter deck espeically in a solo game. She has a strong defense allowing her to take damage which is useful whether playing solo or multiplayer where someone needs to take the hits. In a multi player deck with other web warriors she can share the benefit of those cards like Web of Life and Destiny. Her main disadvantage is her low damage output which especially in solo can mean she struggles against bosses.

You can order her hero pack at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/marvel-champions/marvel-champions-hero-wave-9-agents-of-shield/marvel-champions-the-card-game-silk-hero-pack

Before we look at this expansion, the first question is what does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for? Well S.H.I.E.L.D. orginally stood for  Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law enforcement Division but after 1991 It stood for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate but in the MCU, some cartoons and the TV series it stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

This Expansion comes with the super spy who is Nick Fury as well as Maria Hill who is the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D both are very powerful Allies and leaders. Nick Fury Alone is so sneaky it is worth trying out more crafty ways and see if you can undermine the enemy and win without them realising your antics.

In this multi-part scenario you are trying to rescue some Scientists who have been abducted and find the mole within S.H.I.E.L.D. The baddies begin with Black Widow and Belova but lead onto M.O.D.O.K. when you can rescue the scientists Then just as you think you are through and can return home for a rest you have to contend with the Thunderbolts, a team of Anti-Heroes led by Citizen V, whose abililties have a lot of interesting outcomes and are not just your regular minions but hard hitting villians in their own right.

The great thing is this box comes with six different modular sets featuign Thunderbolts you can use in this scenario giving this set excellent replayability. This also has the opening that future products may come with Elite Thunderbolt minions that can also qualify fdor this scenario giving more options. As for the final villian, the mole within the board, well you are just going to have to play the game to find out who that is.

This expansion will stretch your mind and make you think about how you will choose your heroes and how you will use them.Happy Gaming!

You can order it at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/marvel-champions/marvel-champions-hero-wave-9-agents-of-shield/marvel-champions-the-card-game-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-expansion

Usually when games bring out there two player version it is a more simplistic shorter version of the game. However, in this case it is a more complex version which while still being beautiful has more compexity and is a very clever game.

As well as the single tiles that you use in Azul there are packs of cards with four different tiles on each of them and when you draw one you place it on the board and then choose one from the four placed tiles, you take the choosen one and place it on the correct side of your player board and it is placed by you to gain the most points you can from the tile.

There are 75 acrlylic tiles, 2 player boards, 4 scoring markers, 4 player tokens, 20 bonus chips, 1 score board, 5 factories, 18 dome plates, 1 tower (easy to assemble) and 1 beautiful draw string bag for the acrylic tiles.

This is a great game and the complexity added just makes it that much greater and oh so much more playable as a game. I highly recomend this game if you enjoy a little more umph to your gameing experience.

You can order it at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/other-board-games/azul-duel