Prototype copy kindly provided by Sinister Fish Games. All components, art, and rules subject to change. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Set collection meets tile placement in a game all about dinosaurs! Be still, my beating heart. I suppose if you’re being picky, it’s more about fossils than dinosaurs – the clue’s in the name – but as someone whose formative years were spent obsessed with…
An early prototype of Ryugu was kindly provided by 14Games. All artwork and rules are subject to change. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Ryugu The Fleeting Paradise, to give it its full name, is a clean, colourful new worker-placement game from 14Games, the studio that brought us Snow Planner (read my review of that here). Following the trend of Japanese Euro games doing things slightly…
A review copy of Last Week of Summer was kindly provided by Zatu Trade. Thoughts & opinions are my own. I have rose-tinted spectacles with inch-thick lenses when it comes to 1980s nostalgia, so when I had the opportunity to cover Last Week of Summer, I jumped at it. For me, it’s probably a little too light and disjointed, and I’ll get into that, but if you’ve got a group who like lighter…
A review copy of Snow Planner was kindly provided by Hiroki Ishi. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Snow Planner’s success is because it keeps things plain and simple, not despite it. Once you dip your toes in the pool of Japanese Eurogames, you start to notice these things. Components are simpler. Boards are smaller. There’s very little bling to speak of. It’s the way European games used to be…
A copy of Salamandra was kindly provided by Hachette Boardgames UK. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Salamandra is a worker-placement game with a twist, and that twist is just the sort of thing that might make you take a second look if you’re feeling overrun with worker-placement games. The added change of workers being stuck in place once they’re on the board adds a new layer of planning…
HISPANIA from Draco Ideas is a slick little small box game with a big punch that sees the player controlling the Roman Empire and attempting to subjugate and put down resistance in the provinces of Hispania from 198 to 18BC. The game is extremely flexible and may be played cooperatively by 2-3 players, competitively with 4 players or as a solo game. The game is somewhat of a resource management game as the players must use their limited funds in the form of Denarii wisely to attack and put down revolts springing up around the country as local armies rally support for the resistance to Roman rule.
We published an interview with the designer Miguel Marqués and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2024/04/12/interview-with-miguel-marques-designer-of-hispania-from-draco-ideas-coming-to-gamefound-soon/
I also wrote a series of Action Point posts on the game and you can read those at the following links:
Action Point 1 – Overview of the Board
-Grant
Ringyo (Ringyō / 林業) is a game about forestry in Edo-period Japan. Well, kinda. It’s more accurate to say that it’s a game where you’re a Daimyo in Japan overseeing a province covered in trees and floodwaters. I can honestly say that I can’t point at another game and say “Ah, that’s just like Ringyo”, because there are a lot of things Ringyo does that feel fresh and different. It’s a heavier game…
Anmelden
