Building Egypt One Block at a Time



designed by Phil Walker-Harding, published by Kosmos




Panda Death Garden



designed by Antoine Bauza, published by Asmodee

Such a cute game with a little cute panda munching bamboo as you lay bamboo hexes and send the gardener to grow different color bamboo. Each round begins with the roll of the event die: get more actions, or double up on action or get move the panda or gardener for free. Then choose two actions to perform during the round. Choose a new hex tile to add to the garden, or move the gardener to grow bamboo, or move the panda to eat (collect) a bamboo shoot. Race to complete your secret objectives: having combinations of bamboo eaten, or grown, or hexes in certain patterns. Win the favor of the emperor and the player with most points from objectives win!

So very cute, but it can be so brutal and cutthroat as you work at cross purposes against the other players. It almost drove my son to tears because you can totally mess someone up quite unintentionally.



“Millennium Blades”




Poker Made Even More Vile and Disgusting


“Cockroach Poker”

designedly Jacques Zeimet, published by Competo/Marektoy

In this pure bluffing game, keep the vermin away from you by passing them off to other players. Pick a card from your hand, hand it to the next player and declare boldly what it is: truth optional. The next player can decide to pass: then he looks at it, passes it to the next player and he declares boldly what it is. Or, he calls the bluff: “that’s not a cockroach!” Guess right, and the original player gets the card in face up in front of them: or guess wrong, and you get the card. First to four of the same vermin in front of them loses.

Complete crap if you’re bad at bluffing or trying to read your opponent. So, good thing I won by not going out first.  Otherwise, quick and light and a great filler.

Can You Escape…this Game?!


“Escape Room: The Game”

designers unnamed, published by SpinMaster, Ltd.

Use your puzzle-solving skills to solve the puzzle and escape the room in one of four scenarios! An escape room in a box, the game comes with plastic keys and a neat timer/decoder that counts down from 60 minutes. Solve the puzzles to figure out which are the correct four keys to insert into the box and win the game! Each scenario has multiple stages, with each stage getting progressively more difficult. Look at maps, do logic puzzles, and yes, even word searches in your quest to escape! Or lose. You can do that to. The best way to do that is miss one vital, if fairly obvious clue in your haste to get things done.

It’s all in the title, and presents a fun experience in that vein. Getting the breakthrough: awesome, But, can also be terribly frustrating and at times and players will just sort of spin their wheels.

Always with the Steampunk…



designed by William Attia, published by Ystari Games

Become a steampunk industrialist using the newly discovered element spyrium.  Locations providing special powers and actions are placed in a grid on the table with space between them.  Place workers between two different locations you need: build buildings, hire workers, patent techniques. The trick is, the more demand for that thing (that is, as more people place workers around a location), the price goes up. Build up your mines and factories to earn you spyrium and then transform that spyrium and workers into victory points.

Putting the workers between two locations really opens up the possibilities and makes it so that when someone takes an action you also want not so bad. Worker placement and engine building fun.  As with other worker placement games, awards careful planning and long-range thinking.

YACG (Yet Another Cthulhu Game)


“Don’t Mess with Cthulhu”

designed by Yusuke Sato, published by Indie Boards and Cards

Social deduction meets the Lovecraft mythos. A simple game where players are secretly either investigators or a sneaky cultist. Five cards are dealt to each player, take a look at them, and then place them randomly in front of yourself. Try to get players to open Elder Signs (if you are an investigator), or ill omens (if you are a cultist). First side to get all their necessary cards face up wins. So, basically, lie, bluff, cajole, and convince other players to do what you need.

Plays quickly and easily, and fun as well, if a little like other social deduction games.  But, theme?

The Most Euro-y Game of Them All?



designed by Reiner Stockhausen, published by Tasty Minstrel Games



Heroic Deeds for the Young’uns



“The Heroes of Kaskaria”

designed by Benjamin Schwer, published by HABA

