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Game Overview: Patterns, or Maximizing Mandala's Magic

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Patterns
Board Game: Mandala
The primary attraction of Patterns is similar to what you get from cleaning out the junk drawer in your kitchen or re-arranging the pantry: Stuff was jumbled all over the place, and now it's organized, like grouped with like.

A scene near the beginning of the film Amélie captures this spirit perfectly, Amélie's father cleaning out and organizing his toolbox, her mother doing the same with her purse. The rest of your life might still be messy and disorienting, but at least in this one narrow space, all is right, calm, comforting.

Patterns: A Mandala Game, to use its full title, is a two-player design from Brett J. Gilbert, Trevor Benjamin, and Lookout Games that starts as a haphazard junk drawer. Tiles of six colors are placed at random in a grid, and each player starts with a different colored tile in their bowl.

On a turn, replace a tile on the board with the tile in your bowl to start a color group or expand an existing group. Once you start a color group, you can't start another one elsewhere, and for each tile in this group beyond the first, you score points equal to the order in which those groups were established: 1 point per tile in the first group, 2 points per tile in the second group, etc.

Each time you place a tile from your bowl, that tile is locked. Down with entropy! Up with order! Sideways with Paul Giamatti!

Alternatively, you can flip a tile of the same color as your adjacent color group to lock it.

Board Game: Patterns
Halfway through the game

When a player can no longer replace a tile on the board with the tile from their bowl or flip a tile, the opposing player flips all of the tiles they can, then players tally their points.

Patterns uses a core concept from Mandala — a Gilbert/Benjamin/Lookout title from 2019 (review) — with both games asking players to determine their own scoring conditions during play. How many points will you earn from green? That depends on (a) when you start collecting it and (b) how much you get. The later you start, the more it's potentially worth, but how will that potential be realized? You might never again get your hands on green — or perhaps you've positioned yourself for a big haul.

All of the tiles in Patterns start in play, so unlike Mandala, Patterns is a game of perfect information. The only difference between us is that one of us will play first, with the other one determining who starts with which color in their bowl.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
All over but the counting

Okay, that's not the only difference. If you've played the game, you'll likely have an edge on a first-time player because you'll have a feel for the rhythm of the game — how long it takes to cycle through tiles, for example, with you placing an orange to pick up a black to later cut off the growth of the opposing yellow group. After that first play, how well can you see the potentialities for what could be? For where to place a tile to accomplish two or three things at the same time? For how to anticipate when your opponent might use their tile to hurt you and what you can do to parry that move?

I've played Patterns only five times so far on a purchased copy of the game, and I marvel at the beauty and intricacy of this design, which like so many abstract strategy games looks like nothing, but that's because most of the moving parts are in your head as you sort through possible ways these colors might be sorted by both of you.

For more details on how to play, with plenty of examples of what you might consider on your turns, watch this video:

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Mon Jan 29, 2024 3:00 pm
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Cook Thai Food, Interpret a Dying Message, and Explore the Biomes of Nilgiri

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: War of Civilizations
• Bluencore is a new game publisher located in India that ran a Kickstarter for its debut title — War of Civilizations from first-time designer Aditya Prasad — in October 2022 and delivered the game to backers roughly a year later.

From what I can tell, Bluencore — which is frequently written as "Blu Encore" — started as an artists' collective of sorts, working with individuals and tiny businesses to promote and sell their artistic works, whether clothes, crafts, or foods, to boutique shops. From that start, Bluencore has moved into games publishing, leading off with this 3-6 player game:
Quote:
War of Civilizations is a 4x strategy board game set in the year 2050 on a climate change-affected dystopian earth. Players take on the role of clan leaders and compete to gain mystical powers, acquire resources, and build powerful war fleets to conquer land and defeat rival clans. The game requires players to balance their acquisition of powers and resources with their warfare tactics, while navigating the challenges of a harsh, post-apocalyptic world.

The objective of the game is to achieve dominance in one of two ways: either by controlling the Isle of Myth for three consecutive rounds with the capital ship, or by accumulating the maximum number of magic crystals.
Board Game Publisher: Bluencore
• The next title in the works from Bluencore is Biomes of Nilgiris from Sidhant Chand and company founder Shelly Sinha.

Nilgiri is a district in southern India famous for the Nilgiri mountains, with "Nilgiri" coming from a combination of the Tamil words neelam (blue) + giri (mountain) — so "Nilgiri" means "blue mountains", which means that saying "Nilgiri mountains" is akin to referring to an ATM machine, but if you don't know the meaning of the word, then Nilgiri mountains seems sensible enough since Nilgiri is the name of an area.

Anyway, here's an overview of this 1-4 player game:
Quote:
Biomes of Nilgiris is a board game in which players venture into India's surreal Nilgiri biosphere, teeming with unique flora and fauna. As conservationists — ecologists, photographers, and citizen scientists — they aim to discover new species, address ecological issues, complete conservation missions, and earn ecology points.

Board Game: Biomes of Nilgiris

Players collaboratively adapt to two ever-changing scenarios in each game, introducing fresh concepts and objectives. As specialists, they explore the vast reaches of Nilgiris, journal field entries, gain experience at the station, equip themselves with tools, conserve species in their habitat, and skillfully resolve ecological challenges. The game is intended to be an immersive experience celebrating nature's wonders and the art of conservation.

The game is set in a turn-based, mission-oriented format. Each turn, players can take three of eight actions:

— TRAVEL on the modular board
— EXPLORE to open up new biome cards
— JOURNAL to take notes on a field guide
— STUDY to gain usable XP from your notes
— DISCOVER new species
— DRAW new species/equipment
— EQUIP a new equipment
— ACT to conserve species, resolve issues or complete a mission task, primarily to gain ecology points
• Now let's hop across the Bay of Bengal to Thailand, a country that I know little of in terms of its board game releases, but I happened to run across the "Best of 2023" awards from hobby store Board Game Academy in Bangkok, so here are its three "best of Thai" board games, starting with nominee Barbaric, a 2-6 player game from designer Thitinan N. and publisher Hexa House:
Quote:
Barbaric is a competitive miniature board game in which players assume the role of mutated animals known as Riders. Each Rider has its unique craft ship, known as Gear, and each Rider and each Gear has its own deck of cards with a distinctive special power from other decks. Players combine their chosen Rider and Gear decks to create their own play deck.

Board Game: Barbaric

Each turn, players take actions to either move around the board, salvage for valuable resources, or play their cards to improve their Rider or Gear. Players need to compete to retrieve the atomic core, which is located on the main board. However, players can't just snatch the core and escape. The core is guarded by the gigantic monster, known as "The Queen", and her minions, which get stronger as the game progresses.

The player who retrieves the core and moves out of the board wins.
Board Game: Table Cooking: Enjoy Your Meal
• Another nominee is Table Cooking: Enjoy Your Meal from publisher Table Cooking Studio and as-yet-unidentified designers. (I've reached out for info.)

Quote:
Table Cooking: Enjoy Your Meal is a cooking game with demand/supply prices in which players want to complete yummy menu orders for money and points, not to mention personal quests during game which bring endgame points.

Each player has three zones in their starter kitchen for stocking ingredients, buying ingredients, and picking new menu orders, and each zone can be upgraded during play.

Board Game: Table Cooking: Enjoy Your Meal

The game ends when a player has completed seven menu orders, at which time everyone scores for completed menu orders, their personal quest, and leftover ingredients.
• And the winner for Board Game Academy's "Best Thai Game of 2023" award is Dying Message from designer Songsit Phraephet and publisher Wise Box.

Board Game: Dying Message

Here's an overview of this 4-30 player game:
Quote:
During the wee hours of the night, the light still shines brightly in the penthouse hotel. A private party filled with energy has turned sour by the sound of terror. A body has been found dead in the room at the end of the hallway. Fear has triggered the guests, and everyone is now vigilant...

Board Game: Dying Message
Five-player set-up

In Dying Message, you want to find evidence and vote for the murderer. Making a wrong decision can put the lives of innocent people in danger.
Board Game: Dying Message
Playing at the Thailand Board Game Show in November 2023
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Mon Jan 29, 2024 7:00 am
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Spread Gossip, Sandbag Opponents, Boast About It, Then Drive Away in Your Carrera

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: My Favorite Carrera RS Trick Taking Game
• SPIEL is one of my favorite conventions because you're always surprised by games you never would have expected to see — even with the 1,000+ games listed on the BGG convention preview.

One unexpected title I recall seeing at a couple of SPIELs in the mid-2010s was My Favorite Carrera RS Trick Taking Game, the title of which always made my brain feel funny: "My favorite...what?" I'm not a car guy, so I didn't know what a "Carrera" was. This combination of words made no sense to me!

Turns out that this game from designer Takashi Sakaue and publisher Product Arts is an adaptation of a manga from writer/artist Kia Asamiya titled 彼女のカレラ, a.k.a. My Favorite Carrera. Here's an overview of the storyline from Anamanga:
Quote:
Todoroki Reina is a 22-year-old manga editor who inherited a Porsche Carrera 964, but her unrefined driving technique, plus the fact that the car doesn't have automatic transmission, will make Reina's life really difficult, with one disaster after another.

After getting used to the car, she'll meet Kirishima Poruko, who drives a Ferrari and will become the antagonist of the series.
The manga was successful enough to have two sequels: My Favorite Carrera RS and My Favorite Carrera GT3, with the former being the model for this ludic adaptation.

Why am I telling you all this? Because U.S. publisher Portland Game Collective plans to release a new edition of this design with a new name, a new setting, and new artwork — all of which is understandable given the Japanese-specific licensing in the original. As for the gameplay, that will remain as follows:
Quote:
From gallery of W Eric Martin
A representative manga cover: woman + car
My Favorite Carrera RS is a "must not follow" trick-taking card game for 3-5 players. The game has six suits of cards ranked 1-5, with two differently suited versions of the 4-ranked card. Each rank is its own suit, e.g., all 1s are yellow, all 2s are blue, etc.

At the beginning of a game, each player has six cards and five fuel chips. The lead player of a trick plays a card from their hand, then in turn order, the following players each play a card of their choice to the trick with the caveat that no two cards can be of the same suit. The rank on a played card represents the speed of the player's race car. When playing a card, the player can place any number of fuel chips from their reserve on the card to increase its rank by 1 per chip. The player whose card rank is the highest wins the trick and receives a momentum token, then leads the next trick. Momentum tokens can be thought of as permanent fuel chips; when a player plays a card to a trick after having won any momentum token(s), their card rank will automatically be +1 per momentum token they have in their possession.

When a player cannot play a card of a unique suit to a trick, they play a card of choice face down. Note that a player can also choose to play a card face down even if they could play a unique suit. This card's rank is 0, and momentum tokens and fuel chips have no effect. After determining the trick winner, all players who have played face down refill their fuel chips, splitting all of the fuel chips played on previous tricks as evenly as possible. If a player now has more than five fuel chips, they discard the excess from the game. (Any chips that could not be divided evenly are also discarded from the game.)

The final trick of a round is the most important trick as that round's winner receives a trophy token, then a new round begins, with all players discarding their momentum tokens and keeping their fuel tokens; all fuel chips in the market remain there. Whoever won the final trick of the previous round is the first lead player. The game continues until one player earns a second trophy token and wins.
Board Game: Boast or Nothing
The original cover
• A second title forthcoming from PGC is Boast or Nothing, a 2017 design from Yeon-Min Jung first released in Korea by A.ger Games. Here's how to play:
Quote:
Boast or Nothing is a trick-taking game for 3 to 5 players. Each player is a contestant in the final round of the World Championship of Boasting. Everyone boasted and bragged their tails off to get here, but now it's the big time. Win, and you'll enjoy free drinks in any bar for the rest of your life from the defeated. Lose, and it's back to the boasting minor league for you. Let's get to the contest!

Each round, players start with seven cards in hand from a deck that contains cards in three suits — red, blue, and yellow — as well as a number of "pass" cards. Randomly stack the three tokens — also red, blue, and yellow — to set up the color rank tower.

The first player leads a card, and everyone must follow suit, if possible; if they can't, they play a card of their choice. If all cards are the same suit, the highest card wins the trick, and whoever played it leads to the next trick. If cards of multiple colors were played, then whichever color is on top of the color rank tower is trump, and the highest card of this suit wins the trick; if no cards of this color were played, then the highest card of the middle color wins. Move the token that matches the color of the winning card to the bottom of the color rank tower. (A "pass" card is always the lowest card played and cannot win a trick.)

After seven tricks have been played, score 1 point if you won the "proper" number of tricks: three tricks with three players, two tricks with four, and one trick with five. If you won no tricks, score 2 points! Move your token on the popularity track accordingly. At the end of a round, whoever has scored as many total points as the number of players in the game wins.
Board Game: Sandbag
• Bézier Games has announced a new trick-taking game from co-owner Ted Alspach that will debut in June 2024. Here's what to expect from Sandbag, a game for 3-6 players:
Quote:
You've joined a hot air balloon festival in which the goal is to go higher than your opponents. Dump as many sandbags as you can — and try to gain rockets as well! — to send yourself higher and higher to win.

Sandbag is a trick-taking game of avoiding tricks, manipulating trump, and reconfiguring your hand of cards. In each of the three rounds, you configure your basket with two face-up cards; the most common color among all players' cards is the trump suit. Each trick, players either play from their hand, play a sandbag (to sluff, that is avoid winning the trick), or play one of their opponents' face-up cards. During the round, it's possible for the trump to change as the number and kind of face-up cards are exchanged for face-down sandbags. Five rocket cards worth negative points are in play each round, and you want to win these while avoiding the sandbag cards because in the end the player with the lowest score wins.
Board Game: Gossip Trip Trix
• Ahead of Tokyo Game Market in December 2023, I saw many people sharing the cover of Gossip Trip Trix, sometimes with images of themselves in a similar pose.

Thankfully you don't need to travel to Paris to play this 3-4 player game from designer Maeda Jay and publisher ましかまる (Mashika) — only Japan so that you can purchase a copy of the game:
Quote:
You are office workers of a certain political party who have been summoned by a reporter. He gets paid if he provides juicy material courtesy of your gossip — but if the article is widely reported and your role in its creation comes out, the responsibility that awaits you is...being fired! You absolutely do not want to leave the political party and need to make somewhat unconventional arrangements, perhaps kicking down your colleagues instead.

Gossip Trip Trix is a trick-taking game in which you want to avoid points, that is, credit for the gossip being spread. The deck consists of four suits numbered 1-11. Lay the 8s in a vertical column on the table as pat of an imaginary grid, then shuffle and deal the remaining cards.

The lead player plays what they want, and each player must follow suit, if possible; otherwise, they play what they wish. The highest card of the lead suit wins the trick, then all played cards are placed into the grid in the appropriate places: 1-7 to the left of the 8 of the matching color, and 9-11 to the right. Whoever won the trick scores points equal to the longest run of consecutive numbers from 1-7 in the winning suit, then they lead the next trick. However, if the 9-10-11 of a color have been played, then tricks won in this color are worth 0 points.

Once the 9-10-11 of each color have been played, the round ends. Shuffle the cards, then start a new round. After each player has been start player once, the game ends, and whoever has the fewest points wins.
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Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:00 am
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Shoot Bandits, Shove Bugs, and Battle COBRA in the Arctic Circle

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Kids Express
Board Game: Colt Express
Every successful game needs a line extension or two, right? Whatever you think about that sentiment, publishers often lean into it, figuring that it never hurts to give people more of what they like. To wit:

• At the FIJ game fair in Cannes in February 2024, French publisher Ludonaute will debut Kids Express from designers Cédric Lefebvre and Christophe Raimbault, the latter being the designer of the Spiel des Jahres-winning Colt Express and the former being one of the developers at Ludonaute.

Board Game: Kids Express

Players will still be shooting in this game, but (1) at bandits, not at one another, and (2) with a 3D slingshot instead of a gun. Bandits have stolen gold, and now you're moving back and forth on the train leaving the town, shooting at the bandits to remove them from train cars so that you can search luggage to find gold. Each piece of luggage has an effect on it, so you'll always get to do something as a result of your search.

Board Game: My Shelfie: The Dice Game
Board Game: My Shelfie
Matthew Dunstan and Phil Walker-Harding's My Shelfie from Cranio Creations will be joined in 2024 by My Shelfie: The Dice Game, with this design from Simone Luciani being a re-worked version of his 2018 dice game Penk!

Here's an overview:
Quote:
You've filled your bookshelf with plants, games, books, awards, and cats! Now that each item has its place, will you be able to find it before the others?

In My Shelfie: The Dice Game, players try to create dice combinations to fill up the spaces in their bookcase. If you manage to fill up a shelf or a column, you block that section to all other players. At game's end, only the sections with at least three spaces filled will be worth points!

Do you like nice plants, or do you prefer cute cats? Will you focus your attention on completing columns, or will you try to run for the shelves?
Board Game: Kabuto Sumo: Sakura Slam
Board Game: Kabuto Sumo
• U.S. publisher Allplay is running a Kickstarter campaign for Kabuto Sumo: Sakura Slam, a standalone game from Tony Miller, John Brieger, and Michael Dunsmore that will integrate with Miller's 2022 title Kabuto Sumo.

The gist of both games is that each turn you push a wrestler — represented by a wooden token — into an elevated arena to try to push others off the edge of the fighting area onto the ground. Sakura Slam includes eight new wrestler designs, bring the total number of wrestlers across both base games, expansions, and promos to 28, with each of them having a unique power. The arena is now square instead of round, with fixed corner posts possibly giving you the chance to squeeze others off the board in unexpected ways.

• U.S. publisher Renegade Game Studios started publishing Axis & Allies titles in 2023 after picking up the game's license from Hasbro in 2022.

On January 18, 2024, Renegade revealed its Axis & Allies plans for 2024, with a new edition of Larry Harris' Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition arriving in June 2024:

Board Game: Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition

August 2024 will bring the A&A action to a new continent, with Axis & Allies: North Africa from Harris and Matt Hyra. An overview:
Quote:
The fighting in North Africa was unlike any other in World War II. In Axis & Allies: North Africa, you will command the forces of either the Axis (Germany and Italy) or the Allies (the United Kingdom and, eventually, the United States) in a campaign that may again capture the imagination of the entire world. Intercept enemy convoys headed to the ports of North Africa...while protecting your own. Prove your logistical prowess by keeping your forces supplied. Most of all, show your ingenuity as a general, and you may change the course of history and ultimately gain the respect of your opponents.

Board Game: Axis & Allies: North Africa

Axis & Allies: North Africa features two scenarios:

— Rommel's Last Push: The Desert Fox shocked the world when his small Afrika Korps and the Italians advanced to Tobruk and the gates of Cairo. The full 14-round campaign.

— Operation Torch: The Americans finally arrive in November 1942, squeezing the Axis from two directions, back to their last holdout in Tunisia. A shorter 8-round experience.
And the most buzzed-about announcement was for a licensed game that uses Axis & Allies as the basis for conflict in a nostalgically fictional setting — G.I. JOE: Battle for the Arctic Circle, which was originally announced at Gen Con 2023.

Here's an overview of this Matt Hyra design due out in May 2024:
Quote:
Cobra has established a base at the North Pole and threatens the world with its Weather Dominator! Only G.I. Joe is ready and able to defeat these forces without drawing the entire world into a larger conflict. Admiral Keel-Haul and Snow Job lead the Joes against the aggressive forces of Cobra, led by Cobra Commander and Destro!

Board Game: G.I. JOE: Battle for the Arctic Circle

In G.I. JOE: Battle for the Arctic Circle, you play as the G.I. JOE or Cobra in a fight for control of the Arctic Circle.

The game features more than 110 figures, including the Snow Cat, W.O.L.F., Skystriker, and Rattler, and it introduces new strategic options that commanders may employ, such as using the Weather Dominator to freeze the sea to block pathways or create strategic land bridges. The air, land, and sea of the Arctic Circle is the battlefield. Are you ready for a fight?
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Sat Jan 27, 2024 7:00 am
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LEGO Tries Tabletop Games Again, This Time with Asmodee

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game Publisher: LEGO
The LEGO Group has been around for decades, with tabletop games being a tiny piece of its catalog on and off (mostly off) during that time. In 2009, it launched a dedicated game line that focused on a die that players would construct and alter during play, thereby adding a construction element to this series of family games.

That line died off after a few years, with only sporadic games appearing over the past decade, but now LEGO is working with Asmodee to launch a new game that will debut at SPIEL Essen 24 in October, then be available "from select leading retailers around the world" after that convention.

Here's the short piece for Monkey Palace, a 2-4 player game from David Gordon and TAM:
Quote:
Monkey Palace is a jungle-themed game of light strategy that incorporates both collaborative and competitive elements.

Board Game: Monkey Palace

Players must strategically work together to construct the Monkey Palace while competing for the highest brick income and points, all under the watchful gaze of the Monkey. The palace gradually takes form thanks to a construction using LEGO elements, and each time the board game is played, the building experience and final construction are unique.
To quote part of the press release announcing this game:
Quote:
This collaboration was the result of extensive research and development undertaken by both companies, with the shared goal of creating new social experiences in play that transcend generations. Together, the LEGO Group and Asmodee aim to discover innovative ways to combine the beloved LEGO System in Play with the socially interactive nature of board games, delivering new and unique play experiences for families and LEGO fans.
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Thu Jan 25, 2024 5:00 pm
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Score Shifting Seasons, and Test Your Knowledge...Regardless of Whether You Have Any

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Another day, another round-up of game announcements from German publishers who will feature upcoming releases at the Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair that opens in Nürnberg at the end of January 2024.

• Let's start with Shifting Seasons, a 2-4 player design due out in February 2024 from Kirsten Hiese and Edition Spielwiese.

Board Game: Shifting Seasons

Hiese is probably best known for Kerala: The Way of the Elephant, which I've played a handful of times and like more than anyone else I know. Maybe it's time to break that game out again...

As for this design, you can think of it as being a more gamer-y version of Labyrinth, while still being appropriate for family play:
Quote:
Shifting Seasons is an abstract tile-shifting game in which players move season tiles and strategically place them on their player boards.

In more detail, tiles come in four colors — one for each season — and each player has a season board divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant being a 3x3 grid with the number of the quadrant (1-4) occupying of the spaces. Some of the tiles are marked as "precious" tiles. To set up, place all of the tiles in the bag, then draw 16 of them one by one and place them in the four intersecting lanes on the game board. Finally, place three tiles on the central display, and reveal two scoring cards of each type.

Board Game: Shifting Seasons

On a turn, take one of the tiles from the display, place it on an arrow, then push it into the grid, ejecting a tile at the opposite side onto a number (1-4). Place this ejected tile in the matching quadrant on your player board, either adjacent to the matching number or adjacent to another tile in that quadrant. Refill the display. If you fill the eighth space in a quadrant, take a bonus tile, which allows you to move a tile on your game board to another space or shift a tile in the grid twice.

Keep taking turns until everyone has claimed 24 tiles, then count your points based on how well you matched the scoring cards. Every player board matches the color of a season, and each tile on your board of this season — as well as each precious tile — is worth 1 additional point for each of the scoring cards that it's a part of, in addition to the points for the card itself. Whoever scores the most points wins.
• The second title coming from Edition Spielwiese is Knowledge?, a co-operative party game from Peer Sylvester for 2-6 players that is subtitled "The quiz without questions". How does that work?
Quote:
You don't need to know anything to play Knowledge?...although it could be quite helpful if you do!

Board Game: Knowledge?

In this game, each round you use the quiz cards to move both your team marker and the five opponent markers; the opponents are labeled A-E, with each letter being a different color. On the circular track, each of these colored letters appears three times. Ideally you circle the track twice before any opponent completes one-and-a-half laps.

At the start of each round, draw six cards and place them in a stack without looking through them. Each card features a fact or bit of trivia, e.g. "The first letter of Otto Waalkes' birthplace", with the answer type being either letters (A-E), numbers (1-5), or colors (the five in the game). Read the first card, then assign it to either your team marker or one of the opponent markers; flip the card over, then if the answer is a letter/color, move the matching marker to the next letter/color that matches the answer and if the answer is a number, move the matching marker that many spaces. Opponent markers can be stacked. If an opponent would land on the team marker, place it on the next space.

Next, do the same for the second card, assigning it to a marker that doesn't yet have a card. Continue through all six cards, with the sixth card being assigned to whichever marker doesn't yet have a card, then clear all six cards and draw six new cards to start the next round.

Board Game: Knowledge?

When an opponent marker passes the goal line, flip it to show the checkered flag on the opposite side. At the end of a round, if any marker has reached or passed the goal line for a second time, the game ends. If the team marker is farther past the goal line than all opponent markers, the team wins; otherwise they lose.
Only a German edition of Knowledge? is forthcoming for now since it has 630 German-specific non-questions that would need to be localized for release in other countries.

Even so, I got an overview of Knowledge? at SPIEL Essen 23, and it's a fascinating design. Clearly you want each of the opponent markers to move as little as possible, so knowledge can help make that happen. If you happen to know that Otto Waalkes was born in Emden, and one of the opponent markers is only one space from an E, then assign the card to that marker!

But what if you don't know this fact? To which marker should you assign the card? Colors and letters move around the track as the opponent markers move, so ideally you can keep an assortment of each available because if the closest yellow is nine spaces away and you're forced to play that card on an opponent...oof.

• Games from Edition Spielwiese are distributed by Pegasus Spiele, and in addition to a few titles I covered in mid-January 2024, in the first half of 2024 Pegasus will release German editions of Evacuation (designer diary), Spots (designer diary), Sync or Swim, Puerto Banana, Night Knight (as Kissenschlacht um Mitternacht), and Whoforwat (as Who the F*ck?) — the latter three of which I covered in a post-SPIEL Essen 23 post about Blue Orange Games' new titles in Europe for 2024.

Board Game: Evacuation
Board Game: Spots
Board Game: Sync or Swim
Board Game: Puerto Banana
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Raise Chicago, Build the Flatiron Building, and Construct New Highways in Tokyo

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Raising Chicago
Matt Wolfe's Squaring Circleville, a game from 2021 in which you convert a town's layout from a round grid to a square one, was labeled game #1 in an "Urban Evolution" series from Germany publisher Spielworxx.

Now Spielworxx has dropped details on game #2: Raising Chicago, with pre-orders openings in May 2024. Here's an overview of this 2-4 player game:
Quote:
During the 19th century, the elevation of the Chicago area was just a few feet higher than the shoreline of Lake Michigan. For many years, there was little or no naturally occurring drainage from the city surface, and this lack of drainage caused unpleasant living conditions. Standing water harbored pathogens that caused numerous epidemics including typhoid fever and dysentery, culminating in the 1854 outbreak of cholera that killed six percent of the city's population. The crisis forced the city to take the drainage problem seriously. In 1856, engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough drafted a plan for the installation of a citywide sewerage system and submitted it to the city council, which adopted the plan.

However, due to the minimal elevation above the lake, the sewer could not be built underground and had to be built at street level. The city council then decided to implement a radical idea: Prevented from digging down, they instead decreed the buildings of the city would be raised to allow the new sewer system to be hidden under the new street level. Representing one of the four companies that were created to tackle the problem of raising the buildings of Chicago, it's up to you to gather resources, take on the most attractive projects, and help solve the sanitation crisis of the city.

Board Game: Raising Chicago
Game board

On your turn in Raising Chicago, you place a tile on a resource slot associated with one of five building projects, then claim the resource you covered. After all players have placed tiles, each project is evaluated. The winning player pays resources to complete the project, claims the project reward, then places all of their tiles associated with that project as levels underneath the building onto a space on the board. Players earn points for placing buildings cleverly, doing the most work in a ward, and meeting the demands of council people.
Board Game: Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
• In November 2023, I posted about Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City, describing it as an expansion for the dexterity game Tokyo Highway from designers Naotaka Shimamoto and Yoshiaki Tomioka and publisher itten.

In fact, Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City will be available as both an expansion and as a new edition of Tokyo Highway with new gameplay elements and updated components that make the game easier to play...which can be good or bad depending on your taste for collapsing roads. (Specifically, the roadways have small tacky pads on each end, which makes the sticks more stable than in earlier editions when you placed wood sticks on wood columns. On top of that, the cars are a rubbery material instead of wood, so they no longer slide down tilted roads.)

Board Game: Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City

Here's an overview of how to play Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City, which is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter to make it more easily available outside of Japan:
Quote:
Each player starts with cars in their color, along with roadways (sticks), gray column pieces, and yellow column pieces. Players set up the city by placing one of their roadways with one end on the table and the other end on a column, then topping it with one of their cars. Next, they take turns placing city objects — buildings, an airport, a tower, a green area — around the playing area.

On a turn, expand your highway by adding a new stick to the end of it. When you do so, one end of the stick is placed on the column supporting your most recently played stick and the other end goes on a new column that you add to the table; this new column must contain one more or one fewer column pieces than the column on the other end of the stick. (If you create a column with a yellow piece on top and at least one piece under it, you can break this height restriction rule.)

Board Game: Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
Early in the game

If you've built this piece of the roadway so that your stick is the first to cross over or go under an opponent's stick, then you score by placing one of your cars on this roadway. If you cross over or go under multiple sticks on the same placement, you place one car per stick you top or bottom!

You can branch once from a column of yours topped with a yellow piece. Also, you can place a stick as an exit ramp if one end is placed on a single column piece and the other end on the table. This piece is automatically topped with a car — but it's also the final placement for this branch of your highway, so don't get stuck in a dead end.

If you run out of construction materials, you're out of the game. If you're the only one still in the game or you've placed all of your cars, you win.

Board Game: Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City
Check out the pads on the ends of the sticks

Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City includes a "mission" variant in which all of the basic placement rules apply, but your goal is now to score the most points. Every car placed is worth 1 point, three roadways in a row with cars on them is 2 points, a loop around a building is 1 point, an exit ramp at the airport or green area is worth 2 points, placing the same type of car on a roadway as the opponent's car on the road above/below you is worth 1 point, etc.
I've played Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City once on a review copy from itten, and the pads make a big difference in how stable the overall structure is. Don't get me wrong — on your turn, you can easily still knock over cars, columns, and sticks, an error that costs you a column piece — but the pads allow you to "stick" pieces together, whereas in earlier editions the wooden sticks tended to slide off the columns or other sticks if tilted sharply.

Board Game: Junk Art
Original edition
• The dexterity game Junk Art from Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim debuted in 2016 from Pretzel Games. This game came packed with giant wooden bits that players were challenged to handle and balance in various ways, with a lower-cost plastic version being released subsequently.

The game has been off the market for several years, but now Spanish publisher Ludonova has picked up global rights for the game, promising to "re-publish it in a new, expanded and revised edition, with new art, which will be available worldwide". Says Cormier, "We love the game and know it can have huge legs! Looking forward to this as we have a lot of ideas that have been percolating that Ludonova is interested in!!!"

For those unfamiliar with the game, here's an overview of the original release:
Quote:
In Junk Art, players are presented with junk from which they must create art. Thus the name.

Junk Art contains more than ten game modes, along with more than sixty big colorful components. In one version of the game, players pile all of the wooden or plastic parts in the center of the table, then are dealt a number of cards, with each card depicting one of these parts. On a turn, a player presents their left-hand neighbor with two cards from their hand. This neighbor takes one card in hand, then takes the part shown on the other card and places it on their base or on other parts that they've already placed. If something falls, it stays on the table and the player continues to build on whatever still stands. Once players have finished playing cards, whoever has the tallest work of art wins.
From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Ludonova has also announced a new design themed around building structures, specifically one iconic structure: the Flatiron Building in downtown Manhattan.

Flatiron is a game for 1-2 players from designers Isra C. and Shei S. that will debut in October 2024. Here's what to anticipate:
Quote:
The Flatiron Building, originally known as the Fuller Building, is a historic 22-story skyscraper located in Manhattan, New York. It is known for its distinctive triangular shape reminiscent of an old-fashioned clothes iron. Since its construction in 1902, it has become one of the most recognizable icons on the New York City skyline, situated at the intersection of Fifth Avenue with Broadway, East 22nd Street, and East 23rd Street.

Board Game: Flatiron

In Flatiron, you will be transported to the Big Apple to participate in the construction of this iconic building. Both you and your opponent will need to develop your companies by adding new cards to your personal board, thereby allowing you to perform more and better actions on each of the surrounding streets. The ultimate goal is to earn more points than your opponent, primarily by undertaking construction tasks but also by maintaining an impeccable public image and adhering to the decrees of the New York City Council. When the roof is placed, and everything is ready for the grand opening, the game ends. Victory and recognition will go only to the player who has accumulated the most points.
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Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:00 am
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Game Overview: Tokaido Duo

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Tokaido Duo
Tokaido Duo is a two-player-only adaptation of Tokaido, a game from designer Antoine Bauza and publisher Funforge that has enjoyed a long life on the market since its debut in 2012, including multiple expansions and a second spin-off game, Namiji.

Tokaido Duo debuted in Europe in 2022, but it's taken a long time to make it to the U.S. market. I first demoed the game twice at GAMA Expo in April 2023, but I held off on writing about the game since it wasn't available — and that long wait was worth it since I've been able to play the game a handful of times more since then.

The short take: The first few plays had me wondering whether something was off with the design because I won handily by exploiting the merchant, one of the three characters that each player has a copy of on the game board.

Thankfully, that short take was wrong. My first opponents were apparently focusing so much on what they were doing that they didn't pay attention to how I was crushing them. Now that I've played Tokaido Duo with savvy opponents who have also played the game more than once, the gameplay is more balanced and provides a quick, yet thinky challenge.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Player boards for (from left) merchant, pilgrim, and artist

As I mentioned, each player has three characters — artist, merchant, and pilgrim — that each move differently and score points in different ways. On a turn, the active player rolls three dice — one for each character — then chooses one, moves that character, and carries out an action. The opponent chooses one of the two remaining dice, then the active player gets the final die, after which the other player becomes active and starts the next round by rolling the three dice again.

Tokaido Duo is akin to an "I cut, you choose" game in that your first choice in a round as the active player — the cut, as it were — has a big impact on what follows. Can I occupy a space you want to visit? Can I take a die that will hamstring you, yet leave me with a good move for my second die no matter what you do? The choices are relatively simple, but if you're thinking only about what's best for you when taking your first die, you might let the opponent run away with the game.

As the second player in a round, you want to leave the active player as little as possible with their second die, but you also want to set yourself up for your role as active player next round, so your choice isn't only a matter of how much do I earn vs. you for each of these two dice.

The game ends when one of the characters has maxed out its score, so the endgame becomes an interesting dance since all of the scoring is open. If you're ahead in points, I have to keep that in mind so that I don't accidentally let you slam that door before I can sneak through it.

For a detailed explanation of gameplay and more on how my opinion of Tokaido Duo evolved over time, watch this:

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Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:00 pm
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Climb Peaks, Farm Rabbits, Build a Nature Reserve, and Explore Boreal Ruins

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Boreal
• For the seventeenth month running, the hottest tabletop game setting remains nature — that thing you encounter when you set aside the games and return to reality.

Admittedly I might be casting too wide a net in my categorization of what counts as a "nature game", but I keep seeing designs that focus on growing plants, walking outside, looking at animals, or staring off a cliff at the majestic scenery below, as with Boreal, a two-player game from Japanese designer Masafumi Mizuno and French publisher Spiral Éditions that will debut in February 2024 in time for the FIJ game fair.

Here's the brief game description offered by the publisher:
Quote:
In Boreal, two adventurous women explore the ruins of the ancient world in search of knowledge.

On their turn, players draft cards from a common river (or reserve a card) to try to get the ruins cards that bring the most knowledge. Depending on how many resources players have, they will have access to a limited number of cards, possibly all of them.

After one or both players have reached ten cards, the game ends, and whoever has the most knowledge wins.
That's not much to go on, but we do have this image as well:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Spiral Éditions debuted in 2022 with District Noir, a new version of a brilliant two-player game from Nobutake Dogen and Nao Shimamura, so I'm curious to learn more about this one.

• Another game about exploration due out in 2024 is Peaks, a design for 1-6 players from Sam Gray and Tangerine Games that is pitched as follows:
Quote:
In Peaks, you are aspiring mountaineers, beginning the game hiking up iconic hills from around the world as you build your stamina and experience. You will gather equipment and meet companions to assist you in climbing the world's tallest mountains!

Board Game: Peaks

On your turn, choose one of three actions: rest to regain your stamina; prepare to gain mountain passes and equipment; or climb to climb a mountain and reap its rewards. A "tag along" mechanism keeps players engaged even when it's not their turn, adding a collaborative element. Mechanical player mats with moving tiles and dials, a custom die, and flag minis make for a new, tactile experience.

At game's end, the player with the most flags on the board — plus any extras from bonus cards — wins.
Kavango is the first title from UK-based publisher Mazaza Games, and designers Matt Brown and Zara Reid have been attending many events, such as SPIEL Essen 23, to promote the game ahead of a Kickstarter campaign that funded this Q3 2024 release:
Quote:
Grab up to four friends and travel to the abundant Kavango Region of southern Africa. In Kavango, you take on the role of one of ten different conservation experts, each with special abilities that will help you re-wild your own landscape into a thriving nature reserve. Invest in protecting your animals from threats by earning money from research tasks. Compete to build the highest scoring nature reserve, scoring points by playing animal cards and winning conservation awards.

Board Game: Kavango

With 160 beautifully unique species cards, forty research cards, and five landscape boards, there is ultimate replayability to reflect the incredible biodiversity of Kavango.
Let me insert the usual caveat that having a variety of set-ups and components is neither a requirement of nor sufficient for a guarantee of replayability.

Coney is a small card game from designer Giampaolo Razzino and Italian publisher Little Rocket Games due out in April 2024 that puts you in the role of rabbit farmer.

Board Game: Coney

Not a rabbit who is a farmer, mind you, but a human who farms rabbits — you know, a human rabbit farmer. That's a thing, right? Anyway, here's a briefing on this 2-4 player game:
Quote:
In Coney, each player must set up their own rabbit farm by placing rabbit cards in a 3x3 grid according to the unique placement rules on the cards themselves. At the end of the game, you gain victory points (VP) shown on the top right of each rabbit card in your farm. You also receive VP for each card with end-of-game bonuses, store icons, and remaining extra resources, but you might also gain negative points.
• Little Rocket Games has also teased another nature-themed release for 2024, Fall, while revealing only the cover for now — and please don't confuse Fall with Devir's card game Autumn, which is due out in early 2024!

From gallery of W Eric Martin
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Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:00 am
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Collect Looot, Deduce Codes, Interpret Stamps, and Greet Pixies in the Forest

W. Eric Martin
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• With the FIJ game fair in Cannes taking place February 23-25, 2024, French publishers are continuing to tease new releases and designs that you might see later in the year. Here's another round-up of these games, starting with the oh-so-charming cover of Pixies, due out March 1, 2024 from Johannes Goupy and Bombyx:

Board Game: Pixies

The cover is the work of Sylvain Trabut. Here's how Bombyx describes his work: "From 2018 onwards, he devoted himself entirely to a practice he describes as 'pocket land art'. He creates his characters and settings with elements he collects on his walks. After meticulously composing and photographing his scenes, he takes his creations home with him."

As for this 2-5 player card game, here's a short description:
Quote:
In Pixies, you move through the seasons to meet little creatures emerging from a flower or sheltering in the hollow of a tree. Choose one of the revealed cards, but be careful which ones you leave to your opponents!

Board Game: Pixies

Place that card in your playing area according to its number. Cards placed one on top of another are validated and earn you points at the end of the round, as do your largest color zone and your spirals. Easy...yet you'll find that the other players won't be short of bad advice.
Looot is a 2-4 player game from Charles Chevallier, Laurent Escoffier, and Gigamic due out in April 2024 in which players use their Viking figures to gather resources, capture buildings, fill their longships, and complete your construction sites.

Board Game: Looot

Each turn, you place a Viking on the game board next to a longship or another Viking. If you place on an unoccupied resource space, you add one of those resources to your longship. Place next to a house, and you capture it; create a chain of Vikings between two watchtowers, and you capture those; castles can also fall thanks to a long chain of Vikings. Fill your longships to avoid losing points, and place the right buildings in your fjord to earn points from a completed construction site.

Board Game: Turing Machine
Board Game: ArcheOlogic
• Designer Yoann Levet has written designer diaries for the deduction games Turing Machine (here) and ArcheOlogic (here), and if either of those games appealed to you, perhaps you want to check out Temple Code, a game for 1-4 players coming from Bankiiiz Editions in June 2024.

Here's what you'll find waiting for you:
Quote:
Face rival archeologists in a race to unlock an ancient temple's forgotten secrets. Before you can lay hands on the invaluable treasure it's holding, you have to deduce the combinations of statuettes unlocking the hidden vault!

Board Game: Temple Code

At the beginning of Temple Code, each player receives a combination card with a series of three unique statuettes that everyone can see but themselves. Each round, two combination cards are dealt face-up in front of each player. On your turn, pick a set of cards in front of another player, then take one for yourself and give them the other one. By aligning this card next to the one you're trying to guess, you will get hints about the matching statuettes: each blue circle indicates a statuette that is on both cards at the same place, and each orange triangle stands for a statuette that is on both cards, but in different positions.

At any time during the game, a player can guess the card in front of them. Whether they guessed correctly or not, they receive a new combination card to guess.

Whoever first correctly guesses two combinations wins.
Temple Code will be preceded on the market by Ink It!, a Romain Clément and Kévin Gauvin design that Bankiiiz Editions will release in April 2024. This 2-8 player co-operative party game sets you up to fail, as such games regularly do:
Quote:
Have your teammates guess words with stamps and ink pads! However, as the game goes, the pictures you create have to be more and more minimalist. Co-operate so that your team makes the fewest mistakes and complete the final round to win together!

On each of the five rounds of Ink It!, a different player — or several, depending on the player count — is the Captain. Each other player is dealt a word card with one concept or item to represent. To do so, they can use only the four rubber stamps to draw red circles, blue squares, green triangles, and yellow rectangles, but the number of "stamp strokes" per drawing is limited and gets smaller the longer the game goes on, from five stamps for the first round to only one for the final one!

From gallery of Mattintheweb

The players who draw may use the same stamp multiple times, stamp over a part of another shape, and stamp partially or completely out of the frame, but they cannot use the stamp as a pen to stretch a shape, use another color for a shape, or spell letters. When everyone has finished their drawing, all words and drawings are revealed, then the Captain must find out which word card goes with which drawing.

If the cumulated mistakes made by the Captains exceeds the number of players, the game is immediately lost — but if they can complete five rounds without losing, they win!
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Sun Jan 21, 2024 7:00 am
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