Here’s the fun thing about tabletop criticism: you can’t blame a game for doing the things that its designers say it is trying to do.

Here’s what I mean. If you read the BGG Designer Diary from the people behind Timespan—the newest title from Alion by Dr. Ø, the people who gave us last year’s Euro strategy title Recall—you know that Timespan is both a peaceful, simultaneous play-driven civilization game, and not a new game from the folks at Stonemaier.

That cuts a few things off at the knees. If I read a single review of Timespan that starts with “I can’t believe how little interaction there is in Timespan”, I will immediately write that person off. The back of the box literally references the following words: “peaceful”, “simultaneous”, “short.” There’s a solo mode…in a civ game.

Again: Timespan is a civ game with a solo mode. That should tell you where we are at…and, if you like the idea of a civ game where everyone in multiplayer is playing at the same time, and the game can be knocked out in less than 90 minutes (all seven of my plays clocked under that timeframe), do I have a game for you!

Uh, What Now?

Timespan is…

The post Timespan Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Last Light is a 4X game designed by Roy Cannaday and published by Grey Fox Games. The premise is simple: the last sun in the universe is dying, and it’s your job to harvest the most Light. Be the first to collect 20 pieces of Light and you’re the winner.

The Board & Setup

Last Light is likely to be one of the most impressive-looking games you’re going to see for a while. Seeing it on a table at Tantrum Con for the first time, I immediately felt drawn to it. Rotating circles of outer space, small plastic spaceships in three sizes (the game being set up was an upper-tier Kickstarter edition with 3D ships and Resource tokens; my review copy is the standard, cardboard-only release) and the planets.

The marble-like 3D planets, each rising from the board on its own stand and featuring swirls of colors, made me willing to sit down for a teach and a quick few rounds. Had the setup just featured flat cardboard with drawings of planets, I would have kept walking.

[caption id="attachment_332390" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The standard edition of Last Light, with lollypop-like planets rising off the board.[/caption]

The board itself comes in…

The post Last Light Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Hello and welcome to ‘Focused on Feld’. In this series of reviews, I am working my way backwards through Stefan Feld’s entire catalogue. Over the years, I have hunted down and collected every title he has ever put out. Needless to say, I’m a fan of his work. I’m such a fan, in fact, that when I noticed that there were no active Stefan Feld fan groups active on Facebook, I created one of my own.

Today we’re going to talk about Civolution: Acceptance Letter, the much anticipated expansion for 2024’s Civolution, his 41st game.

This expansion includes three modules that can be added together or used separately. I’m not going to explain how the base game is played. This review assumes you already know. If not, you can check out my review of the Civolution base game.

Instead, we’re going to explore the new modules and discuss how they work and what I think about them. It is also my fervent hope that I’ll be able to answer the question you’ve asked yourself that, no doubt, led you here: is this an expansion that I need in my collection?

Module 1: Starting Attribute Chips

Civolution: Acceptance Letter includes six Starting Attribute chips. During setup, whether by random assignment or by drafting them, each player will…

The post Focused on Feld: Civolution – Acceptance Letter Expansion Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.