Publisher: CMYK Games
Player Count: 2  Players
Game Length: 15 Minutes
Complexity 1.5/5

The definition of Lacuna means a gap between two things and is from the latin lacus, meaning “lake or “pool.” That cleverly defines this quirky, abstract game that likely doesn’t play like any game in your collection. In this gentle, 2-player game, players are collecting different colored flowers resting on a pond. It’s a spatial puzzle where you’re measuring between objects to collect while simultaneously planning for the future. It takes just a few minutes to explain, can be grasped by kids of all ages yet still has the potential to stir your strategic hankerings. Let’s briefly dive into the tranquil pond of Lacuna and see if this strange game is right for your home.

ON YOUR TURN

Packed in a cylinder shaped container, you can tell from the start this is going to be a bit of a different gaming experience. The game itself takes place on a square piece of fabric representing a night pond. Using the container as a pitcher, you pour out the 49 colored flower tokens randomly across the space and you’re ready to play.

The game takes place over 2 distinct phases followed by scoring. It’s a quick game, but the nature of it will allow you to analyze and process the board to your heart’s content.

During the first phase, players will take turns placing their own player pawns onto the pond between two unobstructed flower tokens of the same color. These pawns can be placed anywhere between the two tokens (which is critical to the next phase), but there cannot be any additional tokens or player pawns between the two.

Once players have placed their 6 pawns, play moves to the second phase. During this phase, each remaining token will be evaluated and given to the player with the closest player pawn. The game comes with a ruler to ensure no funny business. Players divide their tokens into sets based on the 7 different token types and point is awarded to the player with the most of each type. The player with the most points at the end wins.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

The art direction does a nice job of complimenting the game experience. Simplified, colorful flowers dance across the packaging highlighted with gold flecks of foil spot colors embracing the abstract nature of the game, but this is a game primarily driven by the components. The wooden flower tokens and metal player pawns contrast each other and are distinct on the fabric pond player board without feeling disconnected.

Everything in the game fits in this unique cylinder container. This may excite you or it may not. I personally love the choice, but I can see it causing some trouble for certain gaming shelves. All-in-all, Lacuna looks as different as it plays and will definitely be an eye catcher at your next game night.

PROS & CONS

Gameplay will challenge players with a unique spatial puzzle not common in standard strategic, modern games

Simple ruleset can be taught in a matter of minutes and setup and clean up are a breeze

This is truly a game for all ages. Anyone can play and players can bring their own level of engagement

The game’s quick play time will have you playing multiple games at each sitting

Fun components create a unique, tactile experience

Portable container great for travel

Highly replay ability

 The game plays at a slower pace. I attribute that to the game’s old school approach

The container may not fit conveniently on all gamer’s shelves

Because it’s a spatial game where you’re measuring, it can possibly be a challenge to truly measure between objects.

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

I really want to define this more clearly, but Lacuna is a game when you’re in the mood for “something different.” It’s a bit of a conundrum since it’s a family game that only plays with 2 players. It’s light hearted and simple. It knows who it is and doesn’t try to be anything more. The choices are satisfying, challenging and relaxing all at the same time. It plays quickly and is a breeze to set up, making it a perfect filler or weekday evening right before bed.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?

The best thing about this game is how easy it is to get into. While most games can take a couple plays to feel comfortable, Lacuna takes a couple turns. The entire experience is simple, clean and satisfying.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Lacuna is the type of game that can win over the harshest cynic. It’s straightforward and accessible, while still being engaging and a little mysterious. It sits in that sweet spot offering simple mechanics and decently challenging choices, but it does it in a completely refreshing way.

Its abstract nature isn’t going to sit well with everyone, but it tends to cross boundaries with a satisfying level of strategy that naturally adjusts to the player’s skill level. The spatial element is a nice change of pace for someone like me who typically plays more linear, traditional board games.

Replay ability is another major positive here. The quick setup and tear down make it a breeze to get to the table or layout on the floor and the short playtime guarantees it doesn’t have to wear out its welcome. Additionally, it wasn’t rare to play 2, 3 or 4 games in a row. My kids enjoyed this just as much as my (hardcore) gaming group proving it’s perfect for any sort of family.

Lacuna is a bit more “mass-market, retail game” than hobby game, but its quirkiness will still have you talking about it and bringing it regularly to game nights, road trips and parties.

Publisher: WizKids Games
Player Count: 2-5  Players
Game Length: 75-100 Minutes
Complexity 3/5

As the head of a Renaissance-era, Italian, aristocratic family, supporting the artists, builders and scholars of the day is essential for cultivating fame and prestige. Build your reputation as patrons seeking out worthy artisans, develop your own principalities and become the princes of Florence.

In this tile-laying, contract fulfillment and bidding game, players will bid against each other to help local artisan’s fulfill their creative pursuits. Resources will be tight and savvy bidders will know when to strike in an effort to maximize their returns over 7 rounds where tension continues to escalate and both long term and short-term planning are critical for victory. Are you ready to become a prince of Florence? Find out in the review below:

ON YOUR TURN

The Princes of Florence was originally published in 2000 from the designers behind classic titles such as El Grande, Tikal and Colosseum and more recently, Downforce. In this revised edition, the artwork and components have received a major upgrade to bring this traditional euro into the new era of board gaming.

The game takes place over 7 rounds with each round divided into 2 distinct phases. Players will earn prestige points through a variety of ways and in the end, the player with the most prestige is the winner.

One of the central objectives of the game is to gather professional cards and meet as many of the requirements listed on each card as possible. These cards represent artisans of art, architecture and scholastic pursuits. Each artisan is influenced and inspired in different ways and it’s up to you to cultivate your resources to meet these needs.

Each round begins with an auction phase where players bid on 1 of 6 available objects. These objects carry a variety of benefits that may serve your available artisans. The active player selects one of the objects and all players bid. You can only win 1 object per round and once you’ve acquired an object, you can no longer participate in that round’s auctions. Once a specific type of object has been bought, no one else can buy that object for the remainder of the round. The objects feature landscape tiles that will later be added to your principality board, prestige and recruiting cards that provide endgame objectives and the ability to steal professional cards from other players respectively and builder and jester tokens that provide price and scoring benefits.

Once all players have completed the auction phase they move onto the action phase. During the action phase, players will be able to perform 2 actions from a selection of 5 choices.

Among other things, this is where you cash in your professional cards. Each professional card earns points for meeting certain point-scoring objectives. You don’t have to meet them all, but each round has point requirements for cashing in cards that must be met if you choose to cash in a card, so the later you wait, the more you need to earn. Your professional cards earn points for having certain landscape tiles or buildings in your principality (which can be purchased during the action phase) as well as holding certain cards in your hand as well as owning other objects.

Just from a setup perspective, the principality board plays a fairly prominent role in the game’s presentation. This gridded board allows you to place purchased landscape and building tiles throughout. These polynomial shaped tiles need to fit together in the grid and will benefit you when you cash in artisans. This provides an additional puzzle to consider when executing your strategy.

Having finished the action phase, players can choose to take money earned into your hand for future rounds or use it to purchase prestige points. The player with the most money earned during the round receives a bonus. This continues for the 7 phases and a winner is finally declared.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

I am a huge fan of the artwork in Princes. The characters are colorful, credible and full of personality. It’s full of style and nothing is overly silly or cartoony which is a great tone for the game.  The game’s components are good and the overall production has a fairly classy feel to it. The game’s wooden token paws used to track points aren’t amazing. I would have liked to see a more custom shape than the traditional chess pawn, but they do get the job done.

The rulebook is fairly clear and easy to understand. I was able to jump quickly into both the base game and the solo mode without too much trouble.

PROS & CONS

 The bidding feels very tight and gaining those initial auction items is a real challenge

 Many paths to victory, but you have to be very intentional about your goals

 Great artwork and production

 Cool points/money split mechanic at the end of each action phase. This could be your key to victory, but you feel the tension in your choices.

 Overall set collection feels really cutthroat in a good, challenging way

 The game plays at a slower pace. I attribute that to the game’s old school approach

 This isn’t a crowd pleaser. It’s certainly for a niche audience.

 A bit rules-y and that can slow down gameplay

NEUTRAL You have to be very particular about your choices. Failing to grab a needed object can disrupt your pursuits and cost you big time.

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

Fans of classic bidding and euro games are going to enjoy the old school feel. This is a tight, cutthroat game and it can get pretty competitive. There is plenty of interaction in the bidding phase and it can get a little nasty with the right group. It has a little Use Rosenberg with the tile laying and there are plenty of choices and paths to victory for fans of that sort of thing.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?

This is both the best and the worst thing about the game: The auction phase can be brutal. Sometimes you really need to overpay to guarantee the right piece. It can be incredibly irritating when your opponents start driving up the prices, but it’s also super satisfying to pull one over on them. I’m a fan of bidding games and the tight choices really elevate the bidding process here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I wasn’t sure how Princes of Florence would translate 20 years after it was first released. It definitely has an old school euro feel, but there is still plenty of personality in the mechanics that make for a fun, engaging experience.

The pacing of the game is where it does feel a bit dated for me. I think we’ve come a long way when it comes to pacing in modern games and Princes shows a little wear in this area. Perhaps there is a way to condense some of the actions, but it is what is and while the pacing felt off it certainly wasn’t a deal breaker for me.

This is a set collecting game, but the path to get there is what really makes it interesting. The bidding and tile laying aren’t anything revolutionary, but it’s the limited choices that make them engaging. Grabbing objects (or resources if you prefer) is super tight here. This all starts with the bidding phase and how only 1 object of each type can even be drafted that round and each player leaves the phase with only 1 object. The choices are solid as well. Should I grab a jester that’s going to earn me additional points with each professional card I cash in or go with the builder who is going to decrease the cost of buildings later on? Maybe it would be smarter to grab a prestige card to provide an additional end scoring goal to pursue? Don’t forget Landscapes or Recruiting cards! It all comes down to your own strategy and how that conflicts with the other players as the bidding commences.

The principality/polyomino mini game follows in a similar fashion. The space is limited and makes choices more of a challenge. Buildings can’t be adjacent to other buildings early on and this creates a bigger spacial puzzle that needs to be planned for and solved.

The key to your engine is the end of round scoring choices. After players cash in professional cards they can either take the money or trade it in for prestige points. Obviously the player with the most prestige is the winner, but you’re going to need money to outbid your opponents and purchase objects during the action phase. I doubt this is the only game to employ this technique, but it’s brilliant and needs to exist in more games. This mechanic GUARANTEES at least one really interesting decision EACH round.

Princes of Florence is an unforgiving game. Making the wrong choice or bidding too much for something can completely derail your game. Resources are tight and the 7 rounds feel not nearly long enough to accomplish all your goals. When you’ve finally finished fighting the other bidders, you then turn around and realize you have to start fighting the game with its tough resource stipulations and limited actions.

If it’s not clear by now, this isn’t a game for everyone. It can sludge along with the wrong players and be a bit frustrating at times. But, for players looking for a cutthroat game with really tight and challenging choices, Princes of Florence may be for you. I think fans of old school euros are going to find a lot to like here, but there are some progressive ideas that play well in today’s gaming landscape. I found the game also gets better and better with each play and that’s a huge plus for me. I think if you find the right group that embraces a more challenging, interactive and cutthroat game, this can be a real gem that begs for repeat plays.

Publisher: Stonemaier Games and Bezier Games
Player Count: 2-7 Players
Dedicated Solo mode: No
Game Length: 45-60 Minutes
Complexity 2.25/5

What the king wants.. the king gets! As a master builder it’s up to you to provide the Mad King Ludwig with a castle that suits his greatness. But you won’t be working alone. A castle of this magnitude will require two master builders, each working diligently to produce the most monumental monument to the king.

Between Two Castle of Mad King Ludwig is the product of a mash-up between two of the industry’s biggest publishers: Stonemaier Games and Bezier Games. Previously, Stonemier had produced Between Two Cities and Bezier did Castles of Mad King Ludwig, so it made sense to the powers that be to mix the two together and see what happens.

This is a tile drafting game where players are not building just one castle, but two, cooperating with your opponents to the left and right of you at the table. Each tile represents a room in the castle and features their own unique scoring opportunities where placement, and type matter. Bonuses can be earned, but balance is key in this unique setup. Let’s find out if you’re up for the task of the Mad King himself.

ON YOUR TURN

Each player begins the game with a stack of tiles and castle throne room sitting between them and their neighbor. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig introduces a unique concept I really haven’t seen anywhere else. You’ll be cooperatively working with the opponent on your left and the opponent on your right to build the castle between the two of you.

The game takes place over two rounds, with each round made up of 4 turns. Each turn is played simultaneously where you draft two tiles from your stack, pass the stack onto the next player and play a single tile on each of your castles. Your opponents will do the same adding a total of two tiles to each castle each turn.

Each tile represents a type of room available to be built in the castle. You’ll have the opportunity to build bedrooms, eating areas, gardens and dungeons to name a few. Each tile also features unique symbols and a unique scoring ability that will either depend on the placement in the castle or how it relates to other types of rooms throughout (example: earn 2 points for each utility room in your castle). Tiles will dictate whether they can be played above ground or below. Bonuses can be earned by playing 3 of a kind in your castle which can create expanded scoring opportunities and even a combo or two.

Once the second round has been completed, players score each castle and the lower value of the two you worked on is your final score. The player with the highest score is the ultimate master builder and everyone else ends up in shackles, in one the newly crafted dungeons.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

The artwork here is fairly well done as a whole, but the tiles are pretty small and definitely take away from the impact the art could have had overall on the game. In fact, all my complaints stem from the small size of the tiles. The icons and symbols throughout are really hard to read. This can really be a problem if your play area isn’t ideal, giving you easy access to both of your adjacent castle-building projects.

The tile storage solution is really solid and makes setup and tear down super easy—I love the thought and consideration that went into this.

The rulebook does a good job communicating each tile’s actions. There were only a couple times I had questions about a tile’s scoring requirement, but they are all pretty intuitive and easy to figure out.

PROS & CONS

 Simple gameplay is easy to teach and pick up for new players

 Great storage solution make for an easy setup

 Fun theme and unique gameplay

 Good for both families and gamers

 Effectively managing two castles can be a bit much

 While the scoring is cool in itself, it is a pain to compile at the end of the game

 Gameplay feels a bit dated and dry

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

This is a tile-laying game with a strong puzzle-y element. Players who enjoy abstract games with a stronger theme are going to get the most out of this one.

BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?

The best thing about this game is the unique, cooperative gameplay. While there is only a single winner, players must work with their neighbors to build the most point-tastic scoring castle.

FINAL THOUGHTS

On the surface, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a fairly simple game. During your turn, you draft two tiles and place those tiles. You continue this over 8 turns and that’s it.

The theme does a good job of selling a bigger idea with more backstory that draws you into this world. The tiles have a lot of personality and setup is a breeze, so there is a lot to like from the get-go. I haven’t had the opportunity to play either of the predecessors to Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, so I’m coming in without any expectations or preconceptions.

The semi-cooperative nature of the game really stood out. I love the idea of working with another player in our own little mini game. While I’m sure there are a few, off the top of my head, I can’t think of another game that works quite like this one does.

I’m also a huge fan of open drafting. I love the pick and pass concept especially in games where the hand or tile stack will come back around. That’s likely not the case here since you’re typically playing 3 or more players and the most you’ll see your original hand again is once. In this case, you’re hoping to leave your neighbor with tiles that will benefit and even compliment  your mutual castle. There aren’t any rules to communicating this, but we typically refrained from making suggestions to our neighbor just to keep things civil.

Each tile features some unique scoring path you’ll need to meet to earn points. This might mean how you align tiles within your castle such as placing them next to a certain tile type or surrounding it with another or how many of a certain type live in your castle at the end of the game. This may have been unique when it was first released, but feels a little standard and dated at this point (5 years later). I’m ok with this concept for a single castle, but it feels a little more chaotic than it should when you’re trying to manage two separate castles. As your castle’s grow there is more to keep track of and it becomes a little much for me. When you collect three tiles of the same type, you’re able to earn a bonus. This is a nice addition to the game, but I likely missed out on a few of these because it’s difficult to keep up with all the tiles you and your partner have played.

My biggest struggle is the size of the icons on each tile. It’s critical to be able to easily identify these for strategy and scoring direction, but the icons are so small it’s often hard to make them out sitting between the two structures. There is a lot the developers wanted to include on each tile (artwork & icons) while facing the limitation of keeping them at a decent size. I understand the challenge, but that doesn’t make the players actions any easier. The tiles are a bit of a mess from a functionality standpoint and that definitely affected my enjoyment of the game.

In the end, I really appreciate what Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is trying to do. It has that nice polish you get from a Stonemier or Bezier game, but it struggles a bit due to some unfriendly concepts. The scoring at the end, while satisfying to an extent, is so tedious that it really deflates any momentum and good will built up over the course of the game. I LOVE the easy setup and clean up and that may be the game’s saving grace. It’s also highly accessible, being easy to teach and could be a lot of fun for gateway gamers looking for a “think-y challenge”. For me, it ends up feeling a little dated and creates speed bumps that bog down the flow and my enjoyment of the game. It’s a game that I wouldn’t be opposed to pulling off the shelf, but I’ll likely recommend two or three others that fill the same void, but do it just a little bit better.

Publisher: Wizkids
Player Count: 1-5 Players
Dedicated Solo mode: Yes
Game Length: 60-120 Minutes
Complexity 2.75/5

In June of 1889, a fire burned through Seattle’s business district. The city quickly rebuilt on the ashes of the previous establishment with sturdy, brick buildings. The result was a boom in population, quickly establishing Seattle as the largest city in the newly admitted state of Washington.

As city planners in this light/medium weight, eurostyle, economic simulation, it’s your responsibility to oversee this rebuild as well as expand the district with buildings, suburbs and iconic landmarks to appease the growing population and make Seattle better than ever. Rebuilding Seattle employs a polyomino tile laying system where you grow your land area and build it upward. Earn income and prestige through multi-use cards that increase the industries quality and reach.

ON YOUR TURN

I’m always game for a good economic simulator and at first glance, Rebuilding Seattle comes across as a toned down, urban version of the contemporary Uwe Rosenburg classic, Feast for Odin. A game I really appreciated, but eventually passed on to someone else thanks in large part to its enormous setup—which is somewhat mirrored here. So while there was plenty of room for optimism, I also had some apprehension when it came to the setup.

The scoring philosophy revolves around finding a balance or synergy between 2 different sets of tracks. The Quality Track gauges the overall quality of the 3 primary industries (entertainment, dining & shopping) while the Amenity Track charts the overall population as well as how each industry is meeting the demand of that population.

The game plays relatively quickly, taking place over 3 rounds, with each round having 4 phases. I found it interesting that while the game looks complex, the rules and rulebook are incredibly simple (despite how convoluted it may sound below).

The majority of the game unfolds in the build phase where you have the opportunity to expand your land area (suburbs) by purchasing a suburb tile and building cards. These building cards are different colors representing 6 different industries (entertainment, dining, shopping, railroad, education and profit [which I assume is some sort of additional investment]). Each building card can be purchased from a market where cards are randomly assigned different costs prior to each round.

Each card provides a polyomino-shaped building tile to place in your district as well as a unique secondary action. These secondary actions do a variety of things including increasing the Quality Track of a specific industry or providing an end-of-round or end-of-game bonus (points or money). Much of the building phases plays out with each player hunting and pecking for the right combination of industry tiles and secondary actions to benefit their strategy.

Players also have the opportunity to enact a law for that round. Laws are unique to each player board and provide a variety of benefit options. You might be able to gain extra cash, but have to lose a point or maybe buy something at a discounted price. These can only be done once per round.

In addition to building, players can activate 1 of 6 event cards that provide bonuses for the active player as well as benefits for all players. It also serves as a timer for the end of the round. One of these benefits is scoring a specific Quality Track. Each Quality Track has a current value. The player receives the benefit (points, money or the opportunity to choose between the 2) depending on the position of that industry in relation to your current population total. Basically, if that industry exceeds the overall population on the Amenity Track you receive the full benefit. Any spots behind the population marker and you subtract that distance from the benefit. With the population increasing each round, it’s tough to keep up and you’re more often only earning a fraction of your Quality Track level’s potential.

At the end of a round, players receive money and points based on certain tiles and end-of-round benefit actions.

At the end of the 3 rounds, the player with the most points (or prestige) is the winner.

SOLO MODE

Rebuilding Seattle has a dedicated solo mode deck that simulates a second player. While it does its best and is super easy to implement, the experience pales in comparison to a real opponent.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

The artwork in the game is limited to the cover and a few special landmark tiles. The game is mainly a well organized, yet somewhat underwhelming series of boxes and minimalistic icons. The graphic design does its job to present the game cleanly and clearly, but there really isn’t anything to get too excited about. As far as components go, the majority is totally acceptable… everything but the endless supply of miniature polyomino tiles. This may be just a personal thing, but these tiny tiles are a pain. While they can be a pain when it comes to placing them on the suburb tiles, the real issue is with setup. The game doesn’t come with an insert, but even if it did, I’m not sure if it would help too much here.

PROS & CONS

 Easy to learn & teach

 Plays quickly

 Straight forward actions

 Zero randomness

 Theme doesn’t shine through

 Setup is extensive

 Rulebook feels like it needs another 2-4 pages to flesh everything out a bit more

NEUTRAL

Limited player interaction besides hate drafting and activating events at inconvenient moments

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

Fans looking for a lighter-weight, more introductory economic euro are going to appreciate what Rebuilding Seattle has to offer.

BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?

The best thing about Rebuilding Seattle is the dual purpose cards. There are a number of different choices available each round and finding the best fits will be the difference between winning and losing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As with almost any game, Rebuilding Seattle grew on me with more plays. Understanding an effective strategy and what to expect from the cards helped me appreciate the game more.

I stated in the opening that I am a fan of these economic engine builders. These are typically pretty heavy in nature and I appreciate the lighter, more accessibility approach. The actions are pretty straightforward and shouldn’t take you too long to get comfortable developing a strategy.

I had a couple issues with the game and it started with the setup. This may not be a big deal for some, but it definitely put me on the defensive from the get go. It probably isn’t that rough in reality, but I would have hoped for some alternative to sorting and stacking tiny tiles together for 10-15 minutes. Another of the more glaring issues was the theme. While I believe the designer started with the theme and the game evolved over time, it feels completely lost at times. This is certainly a case where theme integration and personality could help elevate a game. The game as a whole is pretty dry with very little ups and downs. Building out your “engine” never feels that exciting and is more of a slow shuffle toward the end. I appreciate the effort to remove luck from the game, but with that comes very little surprises.

The Quality Track scoring is fairly unique and inspired, but still kind of rubs me the wrong way. While the quality level always shows an “optimal” scoring opportunity, I almost never reached the level in regard to the Amenity Track to unlock its full potential. While I was still gaining big rewards at times, I still felt like I was underperforming by having to subtract points or money from the reward. Again, this is a cool idea, but one that never left me feeling satisfied.

All that being said, I really like the idea of a serious, light/medium weight economic builder. Rebuilding Seattle definitely delivers on some of those heavier, economic game ideas by shrinking them down to better fit the style and audience. I love that you can have this experience in 1-2 hours and feel like you’ve tackled something fairly monumental. Being able to look over the city you built at the end of the game and see where you succeeded and failed is actually satisfying no matter which side of the trophy you were on.

It’s not for everyone, but if you love a dry, cube pushing, economic builder and appreciate a more streamlined game with quicker play time, Rebuilding Seattle might be right up your alley. I think it’s a good value and will be a hit with the right audience.

Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Player Count: 2-5 Players
Solo mode: No
Game Length: 30-45 Minutes
Complexity 2.25/5

Set in the picturesque South Seas surrounded by palm trees, blue seas and plenty of sandy beaches, FYFE has you sifting through the sand, collecting treasures and sorting them to earn the most points.

FYFE places you in control of a 5×5 scoring board where you’re in charge of both placing your discovered tokens and determining their scoring objectives. Players compete for scoring goals and activate special abilities with their lucky charms.

ON YOUR TURN

Each player begins the game with a dual-layered player board, 15 surf-board shaped scoring boards and 7 lucky charm shells.

Players begin the game by drawing 2 item tokens from the bag and place them at the base of their player board. Each player board has a 5×5 grid to place item tokens as well as indent spaces next to each row, column and angle. These indents provide a space to place your scoring boards.

During a turn, players will choose one of their 2 available tokens and place it on an open spot on their player board. Then they will select one of the scoring boards from their supply and place it an open indent horizontally, vertically and even diagonally in relation to the token they just placed.

Each surf-board shaped scoring board has its own objective requirements. These scoring objectives drive your token placement throughout the game. Each token has 3 distinguishing parts (numbers, colors and individual items) that will be used to achieve objectives. When played, the scoring objective will be applied to that row or column of tokens. Each of a player’s 15 scoring boards are different and it’s up to that player to choose the scoring goal they want to pursue for that particular space. For example, scoring boards may require you to have 5 tokens of the same colors, arrange tokens numerically in ascending order or have a specific arrangement of items. These are just 3 of 15 unique scoring board options each player has.

As you place these scoring boards they will intersect with other rows, columns and angles effecting and ultimately challenging future token placements.

Players earn additional scoring goals by being the first player to earn a specific scoring board objective or achieving multiple scoring goals with the same token.

As the game progresses, players continue to draw a single token from the bag each turn to replace the previous one they used. Players may also end up drawing a lucky charm token. When a lucky charm token is drawn, all players choose from one of their 7 unique lucky-charm shells. The shells allow you to do a variety of actions like moving tokens around your board or replacing tokens in various ways. These can be beneficially, but unactivated lucky charm tokens earn end game points, so you have to weigh the cost with each move.

Play continues until players have filled their boards. At the end of the game the player with the most points is the winner.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

The standout component for FYFE is the uniquely shaped player boards. These almost abstract boards reflect nicely on the sand theme. They’re dual layered so they hold the item tokens well. The scoring boards fit nicely around the edges giving the game a fun and uncommon look on the table. Playing with the wooden tokens are a nice touch making it easy to pull from the bag and place on the board. The surf-board shaped scoring boards definitely add to the fun.

The artwork aside from the box cover is fairly limited. The individual tokens each feature fun island-themed icons that are colorful, but don’t stand out too much apart from that. I struggled with the icons’ lucky charm shells. They weren’t quite as intuitive as the rest and I found myself constantly referencing the rulebook for these abilities. It would have been nice to have a player aid here.

One problem I had was with the player boards warping slightly. I know this is due to the dual layer cardboard pairing and does tend to happen. I tried to gently bend one board back into shape and a small crease began to appear. Playing with the slightly warped boards isn’t ideal, but they’re not so bad that they affect the game play much. I imagine I can put weight on them over time and iron them out.

PROS & CONS

Easy to learn, hard to master

Quick setup and gameplay

Fun theme that should entice both gamers and non-gamers alike

Simple rules make this accessible for the whole family

Challenging decisions for all ages

Theme doesn’t seem affected by the mechanics and could be anything

Some mechanics didn’t impact gameplay like I would have liked

Warping player boards are a bummer

Interaction isn’t terrible, but doesn’t drive game play that much

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

Players that like deep puzzle games with simple mechanics like Azul or Sagrada are going to find the most to like here. Anyone can pick up FYFE, but it’s going to take some practice and strategy to become truly successful.

BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?

The best thing about the game is how challenging it can be. Not knowing what tokens you’ll draw forces you to hedge your bets when selecting the placement for your scoring boards. No matter how you spin it, you’ll always face tough decisions where you have to choose one scoring objective over another.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

FYFE is a fun, quick puzzle game that was an instant hit from game one with everyone who experienced it. A lot of the initial positive impression was due to the super simple ruleset—5 minutes or less in and you’re ready to go.

The game decisions ramp up as play progresses giving you a bit of a learning curve before you’re faced with more challenging decisions. Mechanically, you’re pulling tokens from a bag and choosing between 2 to place on the board. Where things get dicey is the scoring objectives. After playing the token you have to place a scoring board on one of the player board’s notches. This creates a permanent (mostly) goal that that specific row, column or angle of 5 tokens has to achieve to earn points. Where things get even dicier is when you realize playing an objective on a row doesn’t just affect that row, but every single column it intersects with.

I think you can place 5 or 6 scoring boards and still feel fairly confident in your plan. As the objectives increase it becomes a lot more chaotic and it’s obvious you won’t be able to achieve all your goals and you end up abandoning some for higher point options or more realistic achievements.

The lucky charm shells are supposed to provide ways to “cheat” the system by manipulating tokens on the board in abnormal ways. This is nice in theory, but it didn’t always play out like I feel it should have. For starters, you have to weigh the fact that every unused shell earns points at the end of the game. On top of that, these lucky charm tokens are completely random and don’t always arrive at the right time. I often found myself passing on using this “special” bonus because the risk reward didn’t add up. There are a couple that felt “worth it”, including some that change regular tokens into “jokers” that are basically wild tokens. They are nice, but there were many shells that I quickly rejected from the get-go.

Something that might rub someone the wrong way is the lack of connection between the theme and the actual mechanics. While the theme is attractive and inviting… It’s nothing more than a nice theme. This wasn’t a huge disappointment for me, but I would have enjoyed some additional connections here.

I’m a little on the fence about replayability. While every game will be different you’re still doing the same things over and over. I think familiarity with the game, the shell icons and your own personal strategy has the potential to increase your enjoyment over time. On the flip side, I also feel there is the potential for burnout with repetition. It is a think-y puzzle and that’s something you’ll either embrace and love or reject, feeling betrayed by the expectations of a more casual experience.

The quick playtime and challenge is a high point that should be considered. This is a game that’s easy to set up, quick to play, but still provides a really interesting challenging experience. I’m not sure how many plays it will take to master FYFE, but I can tell you I’m a long way from it.

The game’s interaction could have been stronger. This is far from a solitary experience, but the only interaction is when you draw a lucky charm or earn bonus points by being the first to fulfill a certain objective type.

Despite my personal objectives, I think a lot of people are going to enjoy this puzzle. I already spoke at length about the accessibility—how quickly you can onboard new players. I think the real jewel is how different players of different skill levels are going to interact with the puzzle. It’s going to meet them where they are and force them to solve it by their own devices. While you may be the better strategist, the luck of the draw can serve as the great equalizer, giving a less-experienced player the advantage. That’s not to say you can’t mitigate that luck, playing the odds and putting you in a position for greater success. The later game chaos will force more over-thought for some, but it’s a sweet chaos because you built it. You don’t always end up with the tokens you want and there is disappointment, but there is also a lot of satisfaction when you draw the right token at the right time and earn a cool 18 points for one play.

If you’re a fan of games like Azul or Sagrada and like the idea of a family-weight game with some deep strategy and think-y turns, FYFE is right up your alley.

Publisher: WizKids
Player Count: 2-5 Players
Dedicated Solo mode: No
Game Length: 20 Minutes
Complexity 2/5

In the distant future the sport of mech battles has swept the nation. But not just any mechs, these are monstrous, mile-high mechs and the battles rage over multiple city blocks. While the sport has captured the imagination, the chance to bet on the outcome and earn big bucks has taken it to a new level. Now it’s your chance to get in on the fun. Choose the winning teams, the surviving mechs and even participate to manipulate the outcome. Place your bets, enforce your will over your opponents and seek to have the most success betting card. 

In this fast-paced betting game, players will pick winners in multiple categories. Taking turns, players will then strategically slide the mech tiles across the playing grid, interacting with other mechs and seeking to achieve their end game betting goals.

PLAYING A TURN

For some reason I love betting games. I like the opportunity to push your luck, weigh the odds and turn my resources into a profit… as long as it doesn’t involve money from my own wallet.

Atlantic Robot League is a betting game where you forecast the winners of this Royal Rumble-type mech battle. Each player receives a betting card and chooses winners in 4 categories.

There are a total of 24 mechs tiles, all with individual identities and divided into 5 distinct teams. At the start of the game they are randomly placed on a 5×5 grid leaving 1 empty space.

On a typical turn, players will be able to slide a single tile to an adjacent space given that one is available. As the mech tiles are moved, they then have the ability to interact with specific mech teams. So a green mech might have the ability to eliminate a red or yellow mech. If that mech is moved into a position adjacent to one of those colors, the player then can eliminate one of those tiles from the game.

Each player starts with money and can gain additional coins by eliminating tiles on specific locations on the board. This money can be used to purchase scheme cards that allow you move in ways that break the standard ruleset. For example, a scheme card may allow a tile to leap over another tile or move additional tiles. As this resolves, players keep track of their personal bids. Tiles are eliminated until there are 5 or fewer remaining.

The bid card allows you to choose 3 team categories: Heroes (team with the most survivors), Has-Beens (first team to be eliminated) and Brawlers (team with the most knockouts). Players also have the opportunity to choose 5 individual mechs they believe will survive until the end.

The game takes place over 3 rounds where the game is reset prior to the round. The player with the most points at the end is the winner.

ARTWORK & COMPONENTS

The art in Atlantic Robot League is colorful and almost comic book like. This makes sense since the game is about mile high mechs doing battle… you can only imagine who the target audience is. It’s not the greatest artwork ever, but it really seems to fit the theme well. The game board is kinda trashy in the best way. The mech illustrations are all unique and are fine-on par with the rest of the game’s visuals. Each team has it’s own logo and they feel very e-sport-y and a bit disconnected from the game.

The game board, tiles, cards and coin tokens are all of good quality. The betting boards are made to be erased and they seem like they’ll last.

Overall, the look and feel of the game doesn’t really stand out, but it seems to fit the theme well.

PROS & CONS

Easy to teach & play

Fun and simple actions

Fair amount of strategy

If you’re not into betting games this isn’t for you

Theme will turn some off

Special action cards aren’t always relevant

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

If you like betting games, Atlantic Robot League is easy to engage and strategize with little experience. The actions are simple, but there is still a layer of strategy to force you to think through your actions each turn to maximize your money.

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME

The best thing is the simple game actions. There are just enough choices to keep the game interesting while still being light and fun to a general audience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Atlantic Robot League isn’t going to win any awards, but as a fan of betting games, I had fun with this easy, breezy, large-that-life-themed, game geared toward overgrown adolescents.

I enjoyed that I could formulate a plan of attack from the get go—analyzing the board layout to help me determine my betting goals—in a matter of minutes. The game never takes itself too seriously and choosing the winners and losers of the battle prior to gameplay is strangely engaging.

The actions are incredibly simple, yet there is just enough strategy and gamesmanship to keep things interesting. I would have liked the scheme cards, which provide special actions, to be more relevant. The available actions didn’t always apply to the current state of the board or wouldn’t affect play in a meaningful way at that time. That being said, players have a fair amount of control over the outcome making the pursuit of your betting goals more exciting.

I remember playing a similar game recently from a large publisher who went for an over produced approach with miniatures, big name artists and bloated actions. I couldn’t help comparing the two and think how Atlantic Robot League’s slimmed down approach was much more successful making the choices easier yet not a bit less meaningful.

Overall, I think Atlantic Coast League is a fun, light-hearted betting game. It’s super accessible and still manages to incorporate a fair amount of strategy. The theme has the potential to be a little divisive—only because mile-high mech robots aren’t for everyone. If you have the chance, give Atlantic Coast League a try.

Publisher: Dynamic Gorilla
Player Count: 3-6 Players
Solo mode: No
Game Length: 30-60 Minutes
Complexity 2/5

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” growled the half-orc Barbarian to the Tiefling Warlock. The Warlock didn’t know if the look of disgust or the whelps now covering the Barbarian’s face said more about his displease.

“I’m sorry. Let’s try this door.” They made their way through yet another dungeon corridor. As the Warlock’s hand moved towards the handle, he could feel the heat radiating from the door. Maybe it was the sun, maybe they were about to escape!

He opened the door. That wasn’t the heat of the sun. As he looked across the otherwise normal bedroom, the Warlock became aware that his Barbarian companion was about to be displeased again, especially considering that now he’d have burn marks to go with the whelps on his face. In this room, the floor is lava…

OVERVIEW

Dungeon Doors is a one-versus-all card game using a basic D&D decision/battle system turned into a light dungeon crawl game with a deck of cards and dice. In Dungeon Doors, a team of players will be 2 to 4 companions trapped in a dungeon. The dungeon is run by another player who is the dungeon master, an evil overlord who once claimed to be one of your friends. In the game, the companions make decisions about whether to open a door on their floor—looking for an exit card or advantage—or to have the dungeon master lay out another floor of cards for you to then open one of the new doors. Meanwhile, the dungeon master will pick cards that make up the obstacles and challenges the companions have to face on each floor. The companions win if they can find an escape card and meet its criteria to escape the dungeon. The dungeon master wins if he can kill them all before they escape.

Dungeon Doors is a light but fun game if you’re looking for the D&D battle experience in less than an hour. To bring the most fun it helps to be silly and whimsical, willing to role-play and add to what the cards are doing in a story and dialogue, and not merely play to win the game. In fact, if you’re playing for competitive gameplay rather than for the silly experience, this probably isn’t the game for you.

SETUP

Setup is quick and simple: The heroes draw a hero card which gives them their base character, then they draw any treasures that go with their character. Different characters will have different health, accuracy, attack, and special abilities. The treasures they start with or gather will also contribute to their stats. The Dungeon Master (DM) draws 5 cards from the dungeon deck and then chooses and lays 3 cards facedown, drawing back up to a 5-card hand. The cards represent ominously unlocked doors that the heroes will be bursting through to face the challenges that lay behind them. That’s the setup!

A TURN

A turn is either going to be: 1) the heroes choosing to open a door on their floor, 2) asking the Dungeon Master to lay out a new floor of 3 cards for them to move to, or 3) the heroes choosing to backtrack to an old floor—which may mean re-facing old dangers—to open doors they left unopened. If the heroes aren’t opening doors and going through rooms, it’s because the players are taking turns in battle, which involves going back and forth rolling dice. A player rolls a d20 for initiative and a d6 for damage, assigns damage, then the dungeon master, then the next character, and around and around this dice rolling goes until someone finally wins the battle by either killing the monster the DM summoned or the monster kills all the characters. This back and forth dice rolling can go on for some time…

SCALABILITY

The instructions say that the game is a 1 vs. 2–5 player game, with one player playing the DM and the other 2 to 5 playing heroes. However, this game could easily be a 2 player game if one player wanted to play 2 heroes versus the DM.

LENGTH OF GAME

Most of our games resolved within an hour or so, but if the dice rolls were going badly it could drag on for some time.

VARIABILITY

The heroes will be different every time and the cards available to create the dungeon will vary every game as you shuffle the deck, which has plenty of cards. It’s unlikely you’ll see the same cards two games in a row, so you’ll always have interesting new sets of challenges for the heroes to face.

COMPONENTS

The game comes with a deck of cards with hero cards, treasure cards, dungeon cards, and “Big Bad” cards, as well as a d6 and d20 dice.

The game is a deck of cards and a little instruction booklet. The Dungeon Doors 101 is a poster-sized fold-out that has very simple instructions as it teaches you the game through a pre-set deck of a few cards. Once you’ve learned the game, there isn’t much to the rules. The instructions acknowledge the simplicity of the game and encourage D&D style imaginings and role-playing as you play through the game.

The art on the cards is all over the place from cutesy to more serious in its depictions of creatures, traps, and items to be found. The flavor text likewise goes from a plain description to attempts at cheesy humor, which sometimes gets a little chuckle.

This game really could have used a pawn or something to mark what room the heroic party is supposed to be in as they move through the dungeon. We actually added a generic pawn for that express purpose.

SPECIAL POSITIVES? 

This game could be a good time killer for anyone who enjoys Dungeons and Dragons but wants a short experience without all the effort of creating a story and everything else that goes into preparing to be a Dungeon Master.

ANY NEGATIVES? 

A strategy game this is not. If you’re playing to test your skill, or even try to win, this is not the game for you. This is mostly a game of rolling a single die over and over to loosely determine a storyline and battle outcomes. It’s a non-strategic dungeon crawl, more focused on silly cards than actual gameplay. There are special abilities, sure; but there’s nothing in the way of dice mitigation, strategy, or personal ability to influence the outcome of the game. The DM is stuck with what they draw from the deck to play and the heroes are essentially facing a more or less random dungeon that the DM is placing. If you’re playing to see who wins you may as well just roll a D6 or D20 and see who gets the highest roll and call that the game.

…with the lava behind them, our heroes stood before three doors. Where would they go? The Barbarian looked hopelessly at the Warlock, but the Warlock boldly opened the center door without hesitation. Before them lay a sleeping dragon. Smoke came from its nostrils as it dozed. The heroes sucked in their stomachs and began to make their way around the edge of the room until the Barbarian felt something round beneath his feet. He looked down. He had stepped on the dragon’s tail. The dragon’s head whipped around and the teeth took off the head of the Barbarian, leaving the warlock alone next to the decapitated body of his friend. But he didn’t mourn for long, as moments later the dragon’s tail spikes ran through his heart. Somewhere, the sinister master of the dungeon smiled. 

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

I want to be clear: I don’t think this is a badly designed game or that it’s poorly executed. It’s just not a game for me. I like the idea of D&D, but I never really enjoy the implementation. Rolling the dice over and over again became tiresome and boring. I felt no personal investment because I felt I had no actual influence over my destiny.

Yet my boys love the game and continue to ask to play it over and over again, with me as the DM and them as the heroes. They love the tension of opening doors, exploring, making little decisions, making up little stories, and yes, rolling the dice over and over again.

I think there is an audience (besides young boys) who are going to get a kick out of this game and be glad to have it around to kill an hour on occasion. It won’t be a favorite necessarily, but it will be there for some fun times when time is short. The crowd that will love this is the crowd that’s going to go all-in, tell a story with it, and enjoys the silly tension of seeing what the dice roll is and imagining the battle, and seeing an outcome. They aren’t playing to win. They’re playing to see what happens and enjoy the interactions and role-playing with one another as they do.

For me, however…well, I’ll still be playing this for the foreseeable future, but I have to admit, it’s not because I want to.

For the right crowd 6.5–7/10
For me 4/10

Publisher: SchilMil Games
Player Count: 2-5 Players
Solo mode: No
Game Length: 45-90 Minutes
Complexity 2.75/5

The time is the 1920’s and the world is becoming smaller. The shipping industry is booming and there is fortune to be made transporting passengers and cargo across the globe. It’s going to take a ship captain willing to brave the unknown while competing with other eager ships to earn the most lucrative contracts. Do you have what it takes to brave pirates, survive the elements and manage fluctuating contracts to become the richest ship captain in this blossoming new industry? 

OVERVIEW

In this competitive deck-building and pick-up delivery game you’re seeking to fulfill contracts as you race a pair of ships across a global map in an effort to achieve a predetermined number of points. Cargo and passengers are limited, so you’ll need to be efficient and intentional about how you use your limited actions to target ports and plan your trip in hopes of achieving the most lucrative available contract.

ON YOUR TURN

Players will begin by drawing action cards from their hand. Each action card allows you to do one of a series of actions including moving your ship the value on the card, purchase contracts or pay to load cargo from a port or use the cards special ability. Choosing between their 2 available ships, players will sail across the board picking up supplies and passengers in an effort to fulfill their own contracts or one of the public contracts available.

Each cargo ship has a limited number of spots available creating additional challenges as you consider your position on the board, your proximity to resources and the contracts available.

Seeking the shortest route may mean passing through the Panama Canal or Mediterranean Sea might save you precious turns, but there is plenty of risk. When traveling through pirate-occupied waters, players will roll dice, potentially losing cargo or passengers. Is it a risk you’re willing to take?

Action cards provide plenty of opportunity to mess with your opponents with some thematic options. You may choose to manipulate the public contracts, choose an opponent ship to quarantine, inflict with the Spanish flu, battle a stock market crash or fight a raging storm among many other options. Playing these can keep an opponent down, but they also deny you the opportunity to purchase valuable contracts or use their movement value to send your ships along. It all requires a careful balance to maximize your actions.

The game also provides a variant that limits the number of cargo/passenger tokens as well as an expert mode that gives each person a limited deck and an opportunity to purchase additional cards from an available market.

COMPONENTS & ARTWORK

Manifest provides a beautiful presentation centered around a sprawling, colorfully illustrated map of the world. The artwork and typography pays homage to the distinctive deco/20s style travel art still popular today. The playing cards are printed on a nice linen card stock that is complemented with a series of wooden meeples, cubes and mini-ships. Overall the production is very well done and should please anyone drawn in by the theme.

PROS & CONS

+ As previously mentioned, the game’s visual presentation is going to initially grab players drawn to Manifest. It’s very well done and looks great on your table.

+ The theme is prevalent on the action card’s special abilities. Touching on the stock market, Spanish flu as well as pirates sends you back to a time when the old world began to collide with new industry.

+ The option to play the expert game mode delivers a more solid deck-building experience and one that creates more interesting choices.

– It can be slow going since the more lucrative contracts take you to the far reaches of the board. Being able to only move a limited number of spaces can feel like forever.

– While It’s not necessarily a negative, passing through quicker routes will require you to risk fighting off pirates. The painful part is when those pirates are successful and you’re left with a hopeless feeling having done so much work to gain the right cargo and so easily losing it.

Neutral – The game’s “take that” style of play with the action cards could potentially turn you off.

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?

Players who love the roaring 20’s will get a kick out of the theme, the artwork and flavorful action card abilities. Additionally, players who prefer more straight-forward, pick-up-and-delivery games will appreciate the game’s small learning curve. Finally, the 2 different game modes allow you to tailor the game’s difficulty to the audience.

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME

The best thing about this game is the wonderfully crafted theme and artwork – it draws you right in.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

I love the theme and presentation. Manifest was obviously crafted with care and attention to the theme. While it looks like a million dollar speed boat, it tends to play more like a tugboat. The potential to move your ships quicker around the board with card upgrades is there, but it can be a challenge to get to that point and in the meantime you’re left moving at a snail’s pace.

The game is an exercise in efficiency, always seeking to optimize your approach. If you’re willing to risk the pirates, quicker routes are available. While I loved the idea of pushing your luck, I (and the rest of my gaming group) found the risk a little too steep for the rewards.

The multi-purpose cards definitely help create more interesting decisions in a game that overall feel more like a traditional gaming experience.

Families are going to appreciate the game’s accessibility with an easy ruleset that provides some decent choices as well as familiar mechanics.

ALTERNATIVES 

Ticket to Ride – This provides a more simple approach to the contract fulfillment

Trekking the World – While not as large in scale, Trekking the World may be slightly more family friendly and employees similar “spend or move” card choice.

Published by BoardGameTables.com
Designed by Corné van Moorsel | Art by Steven Tu
1-5 Players  |  20-40 Minutes

Every great entrepreneur starts out with a dream: some dream of changing the world, some dream of making a fortune, and some simply wonder what on earth this yellow goo is and what machines they need to turn it into some sort of profit…any sort of profit…

OVERVIEW

Factory Funner is a fun, quick, puzzle with a quick-draw element for getting the best machines to make your factory go. (“We are Pakleds from Star Trek: The Next Generation, we need pieces to make our factory go. We want to make it go good.”) Although it describes itself as a real-time game, I think “quick-draw puzzle” is a far better description. In Factory Funner, you are the boss and designer of a factory that makes some sort of…undefined…randomly colored…product (?), and you will have to set your machines that make this mysterious goo and connect them by the most efficient, if not convoluted, pipe system in a way that leads to most efficient production and the greatest amount of profit. It’s really an abstract puzzle with a vague factory theme laid over it where the player who can identify which piece is best for them and grab it fastest wins if they have earned the most money after 8 rounds.

SETUP

Each player takes a board representing their factory floor. Each board is two sided, with the A side being an even game for everyone, and the B sides being varying levels of difficulty. Each player also takes a vat of raw materials of each of the four colors and 3 empty vats to receive whatever products are made. Players are limited to 1 of each color and 3 empty vats. Place a piece representing your factory on the $10 spot on the score track, take 8 random machines, face down, and hit the factory start button (by which I mean start the game).

A TURN

Each turn the players will go “1, 2, 3, flip!” and flip over one of their machines. Here is where the “quick draw” comes in. You can grab any machine anyone has flipped in order to place it on your board, but beware: the first piece you touch you MUST take, and if it turns out you can’t place it, there is a penalty for taking it, and you don’t get to make any money (points) on your turn. Once you’ve chosen a machine tile, place it anywhere on your factory floor, and then the puzzle begins.

You have a more or less unlimited number of different types of pipes to work with to make it where all your machines work. Pipes can overlap as long as they don’t try and enter or exit on the same side of the same hex. You have raw materials that you’ve got to get to the machines and then you need the materials the machines produce to go somewhere; they can’t just spill onto the factory floor. Your options here are to either have what the machine produces go to another machine, which is the thing to do because it will give you massive bonuses at the end of the game; or, the machine can empty out into on of the generic white vats, but you only get 3 of those white vats, so you are limited in what you can do. There’s also black “end products” that empty into black vats, which are unlimited. If you’ve grabbed a machine you can’t make work, you have to discard the machine and take the penalty. When the round is done, you get the money for the value of the machine you placed, but you also have to be able to pay $1 for every other part you placed besides the machine. You can remove pipes and vats and even the raw material vats for free, but when you place them back onto the board, you have to pay $1 for them again.

The machines need input, represented by dots; and they output represented by a number. If you’re running one machine into other, even multiple other, machines, the  number can only feed the number of dots equal to or lower than its output value.

Repeat this 8 times, calculate for bonuses for machines feeding into other machines, and the person with the most money wins.

SCALABILITY

The game plays 1 to 6 players.

The solo mode is really just working through the puzzle of building a factory with whatever you happen to draw. After 8 rounds, you see what your score is. The higher the better.

But the more players, the quicker you have to be in figuring out which machine will actually be good for your factory and grabbing it before someone else does. So the more players, the more tension (and possibly chaos) in those initial moments of each round.

LENGTH OF GAME

This game is quick, 20 to 30 minutes max. It’s really only lengthened by how long it takes everyone to decide whether or not they’ve placed their pipes in most ideal way. I suppose analysis paralysis could lengthen this game indefinitely, because there may be near endless possibilities for perfect placement, but I think most people are going to feel satisfied they’re ready to move on to the next round in a reasonable amount of time.

VARIABILITY

The main variability comes from what machines are available for quick-draw each round. Beyond that, every game it pretty much the same. Nonetheless, I think the ever changing puzzle will keep it from wearing out its welcome for a long time; and after a little time away, can draw people back time and time again.

COMPONENTS 

All the components with this are thick, well produced cardboard. The art is plain, yet attractive and nice to look at it. But the most notable thing about the production is the inserts! This game is packed incredibly tightly into the box, but because of the wooden inserts, it fits absolutely perfectly. And thanks to this basically flawless storage system, when you pull it out to play, you just lay out the boards and the inserts, and this game is ready to go! I’ve never seen inserts this good come with a game. This is a masterclass in how gaming companies ought to produce their games. I’d pay an extra $10-$15 for games, for any game, if I knew every game were going to be this well packaged, organized, and quick to set up thanks to their inserts.

THINGS OF NOTE

Did I mention the inserts? I realize that’s an odd thing to stand out about a game, or often something that means the game is flawed but by no means! The game is good, we’re going to recommend it…but these inserts are awe inspiring.

Also, this game has a non-quick-draw variant where each player takes turn just having 3 tiles to take from. At first, we thought we’d prefer that because it would remove the quick draw element, but we were wrong! The quick draw element makes this game a ton of fun, and we can’t imagine not playing with the quick draw rules.

ANY NEGATIVES?

…the hum of the factory floor was music to the ears of the entrepreneurs who had set out to build a factory that really put out a great product…a great, blue, or black, mysterious product…that probably did something…But people were willing to buy it, so who cares.

But then the sound of a viscous liquid hitting the ground was compounded by steam coming from overloaded pipes, and all I could think as the explosion came was, “Wow, what a colorful explosion. I hope the world will buy my multi-colored goo.”

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We actually received this for review at the exact same time we played Galaxy Trucker for the first time, and that left me unable to think about Factory Funner without comparing it: Factory Funner is WAY better Galaxy Trucker. Galaxy Trucker is a light puzzle built as quickly as a possible, followed by a bunch of randomness at the end, that while sometimes hilarious, is mostly just frustrating and a ridiculous game. Factory Funner, on the other hand, is a mind bending puzzle, where truly the best, most efficient, and quickest of mind will probably win.

This is going to be staying on the shelf for when we are feeling up for burning our brains with something that is quick but really thinky. We’ll also be pulling this out with a lot of non-gamers who we think will really resonate with trying to put together the best system and enjoy a good puzzle. We weren’t so sure we were going to like the game at first glance, but it’s actually really fun and we’re going to be pulling it out far more often than we ever imagined. We recommend this game for anyone that enjoys a puzzle and needs a quick game that will leave you always going, “Okay, if I put this here, that will produce this, but that will mess up those pipes, can I re-route that to go over here?…” Factory Funner is a really fun, quick, puzzle that gives you a real, if abstract, sense of accomplishment at the end of every game.

Overall 7.89/10

As a brain twisting puzzle 9/10

For the storage solution 10/10

Published by Board&Dice
Designed by David Spada & Daniele Tascini | Art by Zbigniew Umgelter & Aleksander Zarwada
1-4 Players  |  120 Minutes

Adam Kwapinski is currently one of the hottest names is board game design. With titles under his belt such as Nemesis, Lords of Hellas and the upcoming, plastic juggernaut, Frostpunk: The Board Game, Adam is quickly building a loyal following when it comes to big, event-style games. I was thrilled to see him partner with one of my favorite publishers, Board & Dice, for his latest design escapade.

In Origins: First Builders, you take on the role of an ancient civilization uniquely chosen by an alien race. Equipped with newfound wisdom, abilities and technology, you find yourself at a precipice prepared to make your mark on history in this city and technology building game.

Over the course of the game, players will be placing their workers on a variety of encounter sites, earning abilities and rewards, building your city, growing your population, earning favor with the gods, advancing in war and ultimately attempting to outscore your opponents. The game’s actions are all instigated by a series of colored dice representing workers. The success of their placement depends on their color and pip value (which continues to change as the rounds progress). You’ll work to leverage their value as efficiently as possible to grease the wheels of your strategy before you’re forced to retire the die to a seat of honor or to close a district in your city. Choose your own path since the game provides multiple ways to pursue victory with some interesting combos along the way.

Board & Dice have a solid reputation for creating some of the most engaging mid to heavy style euro games on the market. With high expectations in tow, does Origins deliver the goods?

SETUP & HOW A TURN PLAYS

Players begin by choosing one of 4 Archons tasked with building their city. Each player board comes with an archon miniature and 2 drafted dice along with a handful of limited resources and 2 city tiles. Over the course of the game, players can develop additional workers by growing their population and adding available workers from the board. Workers are the game’s primary resource representing the color and value on the die. Each players archon mini initially serves as a 6-value die.

The goal of the game is to score the most points and players do that by leveraging their dice workers in a variety of “encounter” spaces. This dice-placement process felt pretty fresh to me so hang with me as I go into a little detail here. The board features 5 encounter spaces. Each encounter space has a circular alien ship on it serving as a dial. The dial determines the value of the die that can be played and rotates higher each time it’s used. Each encounter space has a designated color and 3 potential actions. The color and value of the dice determines how many actions you can take. For example, a non-matching die takes 1 of the 2 basic actions while a like-colored die takes 1 basic action and the spaces color action. A die with a value of 6 takes both basic actions and a 6-value die with the same color gets ALL 3 actions.

These encounter spaces trigger different benefits. Players may have the choice to draw a certain number of resources and/or activate 1 of the 3 primary tracks to victory: building a tile in your city, advancing or attacking in the arena or advancing up one of the Zodiac temple tracks.

Each player will be looking to build out their city. City tiles come in all 5 colors and each carry some type of bonus (resource, track advancement, etc.). Each purchased tile is placed adjacently to one of the current tiles in your city. Players earn the bonus on the tile, but the real pursuit here is to close a district of 4 tiles. Closing a district requires you to place one of your workers in the middle of those 4 tiles. This has a number of cool benefits. Players then earn points by matching one of a series of district objective cards requiring a certain combination of colored tiles (basically a set collection done in a specific sequence). Additionally, all 4 of the tiles special bonuses are triggered and the die color and value are multiplied by the number of colored discs you can purchase and place in your palace. If you didn’t follow that completely – just interpret it all to mean BIG POINT POTENTIAL.

Alternatively, players can retire 6-value die to a seat of honor giving their archon mini a 6-value in that particular color. You can do this with multiple colored die greatly increasing it’s value.

Advancing or attacking in the arena don’t really have anything to do with battle since you’re moving around the circular track and collecting resources. The main implication here is determining who goes first next round as well as a handful of in-game victory points as well a victory point bonus if you make it all the way around the track (I never did).

The final scoring opportunity is the Zodiac temple tracks. These tracks have an in-game benefit, but are primarily for end game scoring. Players furthest along each track earn a zodiac card giving them a reoccurring bonus. The benefits here are minimal, but they’re nice to have. At the end of the game, players will score their 2 lowest positions on the 3 temple tracks – so a balanced approach is beneficial.

Additionally, players can choose to grow their population, allowing them more space to bring on new workers or they snag speaker dice that can serve as generic workers for a single round.

The game ends when 1 of 4 community goals are triggered. The player with the most points is the winner.

PLAYER COUNT

Origins plays 1-4 players with a solo mode designed by David Turczi. I didn’t play solo, but it serves as more of a training activity to the game. Your goal is to score a certain number of points by the 5th round. It isn’t near as complicated as other Board & Dice solo modes and seems like a good alternative to playing in a group.

Origins becomes more competitive at higher player counts (surprise! < sarcasm), but I found the game plays really well at all player counts. While the 2-player mode is more casual, there are still plenty of strategic decisions available to keep things interesting.

Overall, I can recommend Origins at any of the 2-4 player modes.

COMPONENTS & ARTWORK

Like most Board & Dice games, there is a lot going on in the box and it certainly could benefit from an insert.

The player boards are die cut to firmly hold your dice workers. While they’re not huge, they are very efficient, serving multiple purposes in a small space.

The game’s defining elements are the archon mini’s and mothership dials. These are all made out of plastic and are featured in multiple, vibrant colors. The archon mini’s are pretty well sculpted and provide a fun contrast to the rest of your dice workers. The motherships are bit of a miss for me. I love their functionality, but the pips representing the dials position are hard to make out. These could certain benefit from a new paint job.

There are 80 wooden disc, 49 dice, 24 plastic dice bases for moving around your worker dice, 75 building tiles, tons of resource tokens, more smaller tiles, over 60 cards… so yes, a lot is going on here. The cardboard tiles in general are all pretty thick and solid. The resource tokens are just ok, but pretty standard for Board & Dice productions. The cards are all well done as well.

Artwork in Origins is mainly visible on the main board, player boards and building tiles. It’s all top notch in and of itself and does it’s best to tie the theme into the mechanics. The iconography is pretty limited, but does a fine job communicating it’s purpose. The board’s graphic design is decent. In truth, there isn’t a ton of activity going on on the board, but the graphic design does a decent job of making it look interesting and busy.

The rulebook is, as always, top-notch when it comes to Board & Dice. Everything is clearly communicated in a very organized way. While setup in Origins is a bit of a chore, the rulebook does an excellent job getting you ready to go. The appendix in the back is comprehensive and solves nearly every in-game question you might have.

PROS & CONS

Pros

• The thing that stood out to me the most is how the dice are used in the game. I really had fun when it came to trying to figure out my approach for the round and then determining if my dice worked within the puzzle. The alien ship dials are always changing and can serve as both a positive move for yourself while creating a greater challenge for your opponent. Of course, they’re pushing the same trick always forcing you to stay on your toes.
• Speaking of the dice, I really enjoyed triggering the city districts. If played properly, it could not only be a good source of bonus points, but give you some slick combos that make you feel happy.
• Overall the game is really easy to grasp. As a self-described, euro-gamer, I really appreciate hardcore euro-games that are more accessible. Both the teach and gameplay are easy to pick up and get into the flow.
• The ultimate hallmark for a game is whether it’s fun or not… Origins, for me, was really fun. The resources were pretty tight, especially at the beginning and piecing together what you need to do and what you can do – maximizing your turns – was a really enjoyable puzzle. Lots of fun, but overwhelming, choices to be had here.

Cons

• The one blaring con is the setup. In an effort to provide tons of variability, the game sacrificed ease of setup. Unfortunately, the variability doesn’t equate to replayablity for me because the different cards and tiles don’t feel that much different. While I enjoy the game and feel it has plenty of replayablilty on it’s on, the juice-factors that add up to much longer setup probably aren’t worth the squeeze.
• When playing the game, the biggest challenge I faced was the constant upkeep. Rotating the alien ship dial when playing an encounter space was always an after thought. At this point, you’ve got so much on your mind (which action are you going to choose… where are you going next) that changing the dial was often overlooked. We probably even missed it a couple times, which is unfortunate, because it’s essential to the game’s tension and decision making. The same thing happened when grabbing dice off the board or building tiles – we often didn’t realize we failed to refill the spaces until the next player decided to do that action.
• Game length could potentially be an issue. Since the game’s ending is determined by the entire party meeting certain criteria, this could cause the game to be extended. This may also be a byproduct of players failing to have a solid strategic approach, but I’m just throwing it out there.
• The last couple things were an issue of thematics. I don’t have an issue with the theme being detached from the game, but some of you out there will. This was pretty evident in the arena/battle area. Don’t be fooled, there are no battles taking place here. The area is just another opportunity to collect points and snag resources. Ultimately, the area felt a little anti-climatic.

DO I RECOMMENT IT?

In my first play of Origins: First Builder, I was concerned there wasn’t enough going on in the game to keep my interest, but subsequent plays proved this a relatively-tight, mid-weight euro with some interesting decisions. I think this serves as a great introduction for medium weight games and a fun process for experienced gamers.

I really enjoyed the ever-changing dice workers always forcing you to plan and adjust your strategy. The dice along with the rotating, alien-ship dials provided some really cool points of interaction. Yes, setup is a bit of challenge and that can turn some people away. BUT – if you’re an avid euro-gamer, you know what to expect in this area. At the end of the game I always ask myself if the game experience was worth the setup and in this case it really was.

Origins has a number of cool things working for it and the positives definitely out-weight the negatives. It’s not the best game in this niche, but it is a fun experience from a designer who has proven to have a lot creative plays up his sleeve. Overall, Board & Dice have another fun, think-y game in their library.