Get all the animals living together happily in Harmonies

Harmonies is one of those rare games that lives up to the phrase "deceptively simple." Placing tiles on your board to match the patterns shown on your cards sounds simple enough, but this game uses its theme, the idea that an ecosystem is a balance of interlocking pieces, to give players a bit more to think about when they're selecting and placing their tiles.

A game of Harmonies starts with five sets of three random tiles in the center of the table. Each player has their own small board, a grid made up of hexagonal spaces in either a 5x5 or a 4x7 pattern. There is a spread of four cards with absolutely stunning artwork by Maëva da Silva, depicting a range of animals from penguins to meerkats. Each card shows a specific pattern of tiles needed in order to place a cube representing that animal. The patterns will usually involve placing two or more tiles of different colors (representing terrain such as mountains, grasslands or water), but the cube only occupies one of those tile spaces -- there can only be one cube placed on a tile, but patterns that use the same colors can intersect, neatly demonstrating how different animals share the ecosystem they live in.

Players take turns, first choosing a set of three tiles to place, and then choosing a card from the spread. Each player can only hold a maximum of 4 cards at a time, so you have to be careful to pick cards with patterns that complement what you already have in play. Each card comes with between two and five cubes, to be placed each time the player manages to form that card’s pattern on their board. The more times a player is able to create the card’s tile pattern, the more points the card is worth, and when all the card’s cubes are placed, the card is moved to a separate victory pile, making room for a new card.

There is a lot to think about over the course of the game. You want to choose complimentary animal cards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean cards that use the same types of tiles – you also have to look at which tile in the card’s pattern the animal cube needs to occupy, so you can try to place the most cubes using the fewest tiles.

When choosing tiles, there are five sets of three random tiles to choose from. The catch is that a player must place all three tiles on their board right away, so there is a lot of anticipating where to place the tiles that you don’t need right now so that they’ll be useful on a future turn.

At the end of the game, players score based not only on their animal cards, but also on the type, quantity and patterns of the tiles they’ve played. Mountains score more if they’re connected in a range, and also if the tiles have been stacked to form higher mountains. Trees score based on their height, and rivers based on their length. Players have a lot of options for how they want to play: go for long rivers or high mountains, and seek out animals that will fit in those environments, or look for combinations of animals that can be placed as densely as possible.

Harmonies is very similar to Habitats in theme, look, and game play (although the artwork in Harmonies is definitely nicer), but I think they’re different enough that I won’t mind hanging on to both games. Habitats makes more of a game out of how the tiles are selected, where Harmonies is more about planning for how you play the tiles in order to maximize their position on the board. On balance I find Habitats to be a little more mechanically interesting, but Harmonies is just more delightful in terms of the artwork and overall attractiveness of the components.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Whenever I finish a game of Harmonies I almost always want to play it again. Everything about the game is just pleasing, from the gorgeous artwork to the simple but high-quality wooden tiles.

• Harmonies official website
• Harmonies on BoardGameGeek

Couture, a surprisingly fun card game about runway fashion

Last year I backed a Kickstarter campaign for a set of four small box games. The two that I was really interested in were Chomp (dinosaurs, need I say more?) and Sail (a two player cooperative game about sailing and navigation). I could have just pledged for those two, but the price was only a little bit more for all four games. Couture, a fashion themed card game, was the one I was probably the least interested in, but it has turned out to be my favorite in the set, and I've played it more than any of the others.

Couture is an auction game in which each player starts with a hand of four cards: two basic cards with a value of one each, an "iconic pose" worth two, a "signature walk" that's worth three. Each round begins with a spread of nine cards from the main deck, in columns of three separated by tiles indicating which fashion-forward city they are in: New York, Paris, or Tokyo. Players will bid cards from their hand for each of the three cities, with the winner taking their choice of card, then the second place bidder, and so on. Of course, there are a few catches that keep the bidding interesting.

Cards from the main deck fall into two broad categories: bid cards and scoring cards. Bid cards are added to the player’s hand, sometimes at the expense of discarding a hand card. They tend to have higher values for future bids, but sometimes they carry a cost, for example, the Agent card has a bidding value of four, but causes the player to lose two points if they still have it at the end of the game. An Assistant card, on the other hand, is worth zero for bidding but adds one victory point. Part of the strategy of the game is to control when to retain and when to discard certain hand cards.

Scoring cards do just that, score victory points. These are worth points on their own, but some score more when collected in particular sets. Streetwear cards each have a matching card, with an immediate bonus given to the first player with a matching set, and a lesser bonus for the next players to do the same. Ready to Wear and Haute Couture cards award extra points at the end of the game to whoever has collected the biggest variety of brands and largest sets of individual symbols.

But beware the dreaded Flop cards, which subtract points for the players with the most, next most, and so on. How would you end up with a Flop? That’s one of the key points players need to figure out when deciding how much to bid in each city. Bidding is a single round and simultaneous, with players arranging their hand cards separated by city cards so that it’s clear which cards have been used in which city, without revealing how many cards have been bid for each. It is allowed to bid zero cards.

When bids are revealed, the player who bid highest gets the first choice for that city. Then the next highest bidder chooses, and so one. There are three cards for each city; if there are fewer than three bidders in a city, the winning bidder takes the remaining cards, and if there is only one bidder that player takes all three. So if there is even one Flop in a particular city, you have to be thoughtful in how you bid, as it’s often better to come in second or not bid at all.

While the theme isn’t something I’m particularly interested in, it doesn’t overwhelm the game, and the fashion design style illustrations are quite nice. I imagine players who are enthusiastic about high fashion will find it even more engaging, and in any case the more “grown-up” theme and relatively straightforward game play could make this a hit with non-gamer friends and relatives.

Rating: 5 (out of 5): Although it’s relatively simple, this is a very engaging and accessible game, great for playing at a noisy pub or family get-together.

Race, crash and shoot your way to the finish with Thunder Road: Vendetta

How many racing games is too many? I'll let you know when I find out, but so far I don't seem to have reached my limit.

Restoration Games has carved a sub-niche within the hobby gaming world by refreshing classic board games with updated game mechanics, components, and graphic design. They worked wonders transforming Star Wars: Epic Duels into Unmatched, and now they've given their restoration treatment to Thunder Road, a fairly obscure post-apocalyptic racing game that was originally published in 1986.

I never played the original Thunder Road, so I can't tell you what has changed with the new Thunder Road: Vendetta, but the game play in the restored version is very smooth and simple. Each player gets three cars, one helicopter, and four dice. The board is made up of three randomly chosen tiles laid out in a row, with spaces laid out in a hexagonal pattern. Cars can move straight ahead or forward to the right or left -- never backward, this is a race after all. The road is littered with hidden hazard tiles as well as visible obstacles such as mud puddles and rock formations that can slow your car down or destroy it all together.

Each turn, players roll their four dice and take turns assigning them to their cars. The number on the die determines how far the car moves -- it must move the full amount, this is a race after all. The fourth die can be assigned to one of a few extra options, such as nitro boost to make the car go faster, repair to remove damage, drift to allow it to glide past other cars without crashing, or the dreaded helicopter.

Helicopters are able to appear anywhere on the board and shoot at your opponents' vehicles, or even your own if they are in the way -- this is a race, after all. What's more, if a car ends a move in the same space as a helicopter, it is immediately destroyed and removed from play.

After moving, if there is another car in front of yours, you can try shooting at it. Each player has 3 different sizes of cars, with the smallest being the hardest to hit but the easiest to push out of the way by crashing into them. Damage is dealt via a stack of tiles that will generally have a one-time effect and then linger as damage counters. If a car takes two damage it is immobilized until repaired.

Crashes are probably the most fun part of the game. When a car enters another car's space, it is placed on top of the other car and then two dice are rolled: one determines which of the two cars (top or bottom) is moved, and the other indicates what direction. In this way, cars can get knocked into other cars, causing a chain reaction of crashes. They can also get knocked into rock walls or off the board entirely, either of which results in elimination.

The aforementioned hazard tiles add even more chaos to the game. They're hidden until a car moves into one, and they can be anything from clear patches of road to land mines. Often a player will be faced with a choice of either moving into a hazard that could be harmless or even helpful, or taking a safer, more predictable path around. Just as often, there's no choice at all, leading to all manner of hilarity with mud puddles that slow your car down, oil slicks that send it careening off in a random direction, or wreckage that triggers more crashes.

As soon as a car reaches the edge of the third tile, a new tile is drawn and added to the track. Then, any cars that are still on the first tile are eliminated from the race, and that tile is removed from play. This continues until one player has had all of their cars eliminated. At that point, the edge of the third tile is the finish line, and the first player whose car crosses it is the winner. It's a great way to take the sting out of player elimination as a game-ender, since the eliminated player will normally only have to wait one round (often less) for the game to be over.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Thunder Road: Vendetta is a little on the egregious and random side, but nonetheless it is a lot of fun, and makes for an excellent, low-entry-point alternative to more complicated games like Car Wars or Gaslands.

Note: I highly recommend the Carnage at Devil's Run expansion if you can find it, it adds new hazards and road tiles that push this game from good to great.

• Thunder Road: Vendetta official website
• Thunder Road: Vendetta on BoardGameGeek

Race to the finish with Heat: Pedal to the Metal

I'm a few years late to the party with regards to Heat: Pedal to the Metal, which is ironic given the game's subject matter. I've never been particularly interested in race cars or racing, but recently a few things have happened that may be changing my mind. One was Lacorsa, a beautifully designed racing game that lured me in with its deluxe components and simple but elegant game play. Another was Michael Mann's excellent film Ferrari, which is about the Italian car magnate and features a plot that revolves around a high stakes race.

It may be just as well -- Heat was extremely popular right out of the gate when it was released towards the end of 2022, so much so that stores around the world were having a hard time meeting demand. By the time I got to it, there wasn't any problem finding a copy as it has become a ubiquitous fixture at most local game stores. After I got a chance to get it to the table and play a few games, I could see why it was such a phenomenon.

It's a simple enough game, and mostly what you would expect. The board represents a race track (there are several to choose from) and the goal is to be the first to get your little plastic race car across the finish line after a set number of laps, usually two or three. Each player gets their own deck of cards that govern how fast and far their car can move. The faster your car is going (represented by what gear it is in), the more cards you play each turn. It seems simple, right?

The trick is that you need to slow down to get around corners, and this is where the real game lies. You have to look at your cards, and at your car's position on the track relative to the next sharp curve, and figure out how to slow down without falling behind the other cars in the race. Your deck consists mainly of cards numbered zero through five, and these are what you use to move. Each turn you have to play a number of cards equal to the gear your car is in -- no more and no less. Normally you can only shift up or down one gear at the start of each turn, but you can shift an extra gear by adding heat cards to your deck.

Heat cards are the primary currency of the game. Each player starts with six in their "engine," a separate pile next to their deck, and one already shuffled in with their other cards. Heat cards in your hand can't be used for anything, so they clutter up your hand and limit your options each turn. The only way to get rid of them is to cool down, which usually means spending a turn in first or second gear. The most important thing you do in the game is manage the back and forth of using heat, because...

Each corner on the track has a speed limit number attached to it, depending on how sharp the curve is. If your speed (the total of all the cards you've played at the start of the turn) is higher than the corner's speed limit, you have to take on heat cards equal to the difference. If you don't have enough heat, you spin out, which means your car stops at the beinning of the curve and is reduced to first gear. Plus, you have to take on stress cards, which make your speed unpredictable by generating a random number when played. The more stress you take on, the harder it gets to control your car.

The game is thrilling, in a way that not many board games are. The feeling of trying to decide how fast you can take an upcoming corner, or of knowing that you can't slow down enough, can't be a million miles away from what it's like to actually drive a race car. It's very easy for me to see why this game is so popular and well reviewed. It hits that sweet spot of being simple to play but extremely engaging.

Additional modules allow the game to be played with customized cars, weather conditions, and a multi-race tournament series. Additionally, the game has a simple but effective way to add non-player cars in order to fill out the track when you have a smaller player count. A recently published expansion adds new tracks, components for a seventh player, and rules for driving in the rain.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) A phenomenally well-designed game that brings all the excitement of racing whether you are a fan of the sport or not.

• Heat: Pedal to the Metal official website
• Heat: Pedal to the Metal on BoardGameGeek

Habitats, a game about good animals making good neighbors

I'm not overly interested in computer or video games, but every once in a while one comes along that catches my interest. In the early 2000s I was quite fond of Zoo Tycoon, a zoo-building game that covered everything from building well-balanced enclosures to managing crowds and balancing income and expenses. My favorite part of the game was building enclosures for the animals; you had to balance different kinds of terrain, topography, and just the right type and amount of trees and bushes to keep the animals happy.

A Zoo Tycoon board game came out last year, but I found it to be a little too fiddly and complicated to be enjoyable. I started looking around for another game that would scratch the same itch. Ark Nova is a great zoo game and includes some of the building element that I enjoyed in the Zoo Tycoon computer game, as do Dinosaur Island and DinoGenics, although they are more focused on cloning dinosaurs and stopping them from eating your park visitors.

I recently stumbled across Habitats, a game from a small publisher based in the Netherlands that has since been reprinted in the United States. And I must say, it is exactly the game I wanted.

In Habitats, you're managing a nature preserve rather than a zoo, so the thematic goal is entirely to create an environment that your animals will be . It's a tile-laying game with one really interesting innovation: the way each player picks up new tiles to play. The game starts with a grid of tiles in the center. Each player has a jeep meeple ("jeeple" just seems too precious) that moves around the grid, one tile at a time. On your turn, you can choose a tile that is ahead or to the left or right of your jeep. After choosing a tile you move your jeep into the tile's space, and then place a new tile in happy withthe space you just vacated. It means that you have a choice of three tiles to pick from each turn, but it also adds a lot of interesting strategic decision-making to the game. There might be a tile you really want that you need to move through a few less desirable tiles to get to, or you might be racing to a particular tile in order to get there ahead of your opponent.

Most of the tiles represent both an animal in search of a suitable habitat, and a type of terrain that adjacent animals might want. Tiles are played in a grid pattern in each player's tableaux. An animal tile will indicate one or more types of terrain, either water, desert, grassland, or forest, that need to be on adjacent tiles in order for that animal to be happy and score points at the end of the game. Other tiles represent watchtowers that score based on the tiles in various patterns around them; tourists that score depending on how your different terrain is grouped; and gates and campsites that earn points depending on how many tiles they are adjacent to.

The game becomes a puzzle-like exercise where you want to place your tiles so that adjacent animals can make use of each other's terrain as much as possible, and multiple animals can benefit from the same groupings of terrain. In addition to scoring your tiles at the end, the game is split up into three "years" composed of a number of turns (depending on the number of players), with two goals for each year that will award additional points to whoever fulfills them most completely. They are things like the most sets of different types of terrain or the longest unbroken line of tiles, and they give you something else to work for as you decide how to place your tiles.

An optional extra, available from the publisher's website, is a set of animal meeples that can be used to indicate when an animal tile has reached the conditions it needs to score points. They are entirely unnecessary (the base game comes with simple tokens for this purpose) but add to the tactile quality of the game and make it look that much more impressive on the table.

It's not a terribly complex game (the rules for the U. S. edition published by Allplay clock in at 4 pages), but it is very engrossing, giving you a lot to think about as you play but also requiring you to think on your feet and not get too attached to any one strategy or tactic. It's not quite Zoo Tycoon, but it definitely fills the same void, and in many ways it's more enjoyable.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) The highest praise I can give a game is that as soon as I'm done playing I want to play again, and that is definitely true with this one.

• Habitats (U. S. version) official website
• Habitats on BoardGameGeek

All roads lead to Gangs of Rome

I'm always on the lookout for games that try to solve the "everybody move to the center and fight" problem, and the even worse "everybody hide behind something and shoot for the rest of the game" problem. When I first heard about Gangs of Rome, it sounded like it focused on dynamic movement rather than just getting into an advantageous spot. But the real draw was the way the game incorporated non-player characters in the form of the mobs that wander the streets, and also the incola, individual characters who do things like fling scorpions at your fighters. Additionally, I liked that the setting isn't about military battles but rather on back alley skirmishes.

I bought some figures and terrain, played a few games, and found the game to be fun but a little fiddly, with a lot of small counters cluttering the table. I got distracted by other games, then heard that they were working on a second edition so I put Gangs of Rome on pause until the new version came out.

After playing with the new rules, I have to say they are a vast improvement. The designers have eliminated all the fiddly stuff but kept the things that make the game interesting: dynamic movement and an environment crowded with non-player characters who have a meaningful effect on the game. The revised rules use an interesting action economy system that is quite different from the usual "each model can do one or two actions" that is standard for most miniatures games. In Gangs of Rome, when a fighter activates they can choose to do between one and four actions. The player has to declare what the actions will be, using tokens to mark them on the board. For example, a player might declare "Marcus will move to this spot, then climb the scaffolding, then move into base contact with Rufus, then make a melee attack against Rufus." That player then rolls to see how many of the actions can be resolved. If any planned actions go unresolved, the fighter accumulates stress, which reduces his ability to act until it is cleared.

Combat is nice an simple with opposed rolls and very little on-the-spot math, making battles between fighters quick and decisive. But the real innovation in Gangs of Rome is in the way the game simulates the crowded city streets, via the mobs and the incola.

Mobs are large bases of five figures each. A standard game uses between three and six, placed around the board at the start of the game. The mobs make two important contributions to game play. First, if a player's gang fighter makes an attack within view of the crowd, there is a chance they will react, either by being scared (moving away from the action), or by getting angry, in which case they will move towards and attack the nearest player-controlled miniature. It forces you to be careful about when and where you attack your opponent, and reinforces the idea that this is a living, breathing city rather than an empty battlefield.

The second feature of the mob involves the ability for player figures to blend in with the crowd. If a player's miniature is in contact with a mob base, they can temporarily remove themselves from the board, reappearing on the following turn in contact with the same or a different mob base. It can be used as a sneaky way to hide and also move around the board undetected, and is another way the game makes the environment seem alive.

At various points during their turns, players can be given the opportunity to move a mob, or force a reaction, rolling to see if the mob is scared or angry and possibly getting them to attack an opponent's character. This is a change from the game's first edition, where the mobs moved in random directions and often had no real effect on game play. This way, players can attempt to use the mobs defensively or offensively -- it makes them seem more like part of the game.

The incola (citizens of Rome) add another level of interest to the game's environment. These are individual non-player characters who wander the board in a similar manner to the mobs with different effects ranging from calming down angry mobs to stealing player characters' weapons. My personal favorite is Rufinus the scorpion thrower, who flings scorpions at anyone who passes near, inciting mobs and inconveniencing player characters.

Gangs of Rome is the only miniatures game I've played where I feel like the environment is a critical part of the game. It's an impressive feat of game design, given that the enviroment is a living, breathing city crowded with colorful characters outside the players' direct control.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) This is one of the most truly immersive miniatures games on the market today.

See my battle report at OnTableTop.com for a detailed view of the game. 

• Gangs of Rome official website 
• Gangs of Rome Facebook group 

More monsters please: Free League’s Dragonbane Bestiary

 The Dragonbane core set includes an entire multipart campaign, much more adventure content than many roleplaying games offer right out of the gate. But what is a voracious gaming group to do once they’ve played through the campaign? The game has been a success so further published adventures seem more than likely, but for now, the Dragonbane Bestiary provides not only a ton of suggestions for encounters with the monsters detailed within, but the potential to adapt adventures from any number of other games – all you really need is substitute monsters.

One of Dragonbane’s greatest features is the system that it uses to handle monsters. Rather than a block of statistics that require already overworked gamemasters to run them as though they were player characters, Dragonbane instead gives minimal information on movement and defense, and a random table of possible attacks and other options – interesting, descriptive things for the monster to do on its turn. It’s a great system that makes things easy for the gamemaster, but if an encounter you have in mind requires a new monster, it will require some heavy lifting to create a new table of actions.

The core rules detail a handful of basic fantasy creatures, a selection that is rounded out nicely by the Bestiary. which adds over 50 new creatures to the mix, and includes most of the monsters from the core rules in order to be a one-stop guide. Each monster entry includes an adventure seed describing a scenario where the players might encounter the monster, which the gamemaster can incorporate into an existing adventure or flesh out into a full-fledged encounter.

Dragonbane already has a wide variety of species for players to choose from for their characters, from the routine elves, dwarves and halflings to the more unusual Wolfkin and Mallard (yes, you can play a duck). The Bestiary adds many of the more humanoid monsters such as goblins or ogres as playable characters. It’s a simple addition, often no more than an extra paragraph per entry, that adds a ton of value to the book.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) A great resource for Dragonbane players and gamemasters, offering more than you usually get from a monster manual.

• Dragonbane Bestiary official website

Leaping and evading in Star Wars: Shatterpoint

Over the past 10 years or so there have been several new Star Wars miniature games, but for the most part I've avoided them, owing to what I must admit is a cognitive bias known as the "sunken cost fallacy." I invested heavily in, and have a large collection of, the pre-painted collectible Star Wars Miniatures Game published by Wizards of the Coast between 2005 and 2010, and was irrationally resentful of any new game that dared to suggest I should have to buy new versions of miniatures I already had. As a result I avoided getting into Imperial Assault or Star Wars: Legion (X-Wing wasn't a problem because I never bought into the WotC starship game).

So when Star Wars: Shatterpoint was announced, I didn't really pay much attention. At least, not right away. A few weeks into the release I started seeing images of the miniatures, which are gorgeous but done at a much larger scale than any of the other miniatures games I play, except for maybe Knight Models' Batman. Most of the terrain I already have would be too small, and I wouldn't be able to mix and match them with any of my older Star Wars miniatures. But wait! The core set for Shatterpoint comes with its own set of great looking plastic terrain! I started looking into the rules, and it looked like the game played differently from any other games I have. And those large miniatures were growing on me...

All my objections to the game seemed to be melting away, so I bought the core set and a few expansion packs, and sat down to start assembling and painting. Normally I don't really like putting together miniatures -- like most people I can't seem to open a tube of superglue without getting it all over my fingers, and assembling gaming models is usually an exercise in patience, small motor skills, and figuring things out without the benefit of instructions. Not so much with the Shatterpoint models. I actually found myself enjoying the assembly process, no doubt thanks to the larger size and especially the helpful step-by-step assembly guides.

I don't mind assembling terrain, but normally I don't really enjoy painting it. Again, the Shatterpoint pieces defied expectation by providing a nice surface with a lot of interesting details for the paintbrush to pick out. Even if I never got the game to the table, I was having a lot of fun with the model kit aspect of it all.

The Shatterpoint rules are...interesting. It was clearly designed to be a competitive tournament game. The rules are written in a bizarre legalese that understandably wants to be consistent and clear but often ends up explaining the simplest concepts in the most complicated way possible. However, there is a good game design in there, and after a few games we did manage to find it.

Most skirmish-level miniatures games (games where each side usually has between 5 and maybe 15 models that represent individual characters) tend to follow a familiar pattern of "everybody run to the middle and fight" -- players spend the first few turns moving their models into position, and the rest of the game rolling dice to see if they can hit each other. Additionally, most games tend to focus on eliminating your opponent's models as the primary path to victory, which makes sense but at the same time can be demoralizing once you start losing, as you watch your forces slowly dwindle away.

Shatterpoint gets away from both of these clichés by using area control as its primary focus. Rather than eliminating your opponent's pieces, the goal of the game is to gather your models around Objective tokens which are placed on the board in a simple grid pattern. Controlling an objective at the end of your turn gains you momentum, in the form of a marker which moves back and forth along a track like a tug-of-war. If you move the marker close enough to your end of the track, you win that struggle and the momentum tracker resets. If you win two out of three struggles, you win the game.

The trick is that as each new struggle begins, the objectives you need to control move, and after the first struggle their position randomly changes every turn. You can predict where they might be, but you can't know for sure where your models need to be at any given time. The game encourages a lot more movement than you normally see in skirmish games, and this is reinforced by the terrain that comes with the game -- it takes the form of small buildings and gantries that create a multi-level playing field that forces a lot of interesting tactical choices and looks great on the table.

The game's combat resolution system supports the idea of fluid action as well. Like most of Asmodee's Star Wars games, Shatterpoint uses proprietary dice -- the attacker rolls, looking for a number of "hit" results, and the defender rolls, looking for results that will cancel the hits. It's a very common system that many skirmish games use, but Shatterpoint adds what on first glance looks like a flowchart. For each successful "hit," the attacker is given a choice of results that can include damage to the opposing model, but also more dynamic results like pushing the target away or allowing the attacker to move or reposition. It makes combat more interesting, and further supports the idea that the game is about movement and position more than it is about inflicting damage on the enemy.

Shatterpoint does a great job of emulating the high-energy action of the Clone Wars animated series, no mean feat for a turn-based strategy game. Players who are used to more traditional skirmish games will need to adjust their expectations (and their tactics) a bit, but if they can, they'll find a unique and refreshing game.

Rating 5 (out of 5) From assembling and painting the models to actually playing the game, Shatterpoint has been a joy from start to finish.

• Star Wars: Shatterpoint official website
• Star Wars: Shatterpoint on BoardGameGeek

Old school roleplaying with a modern sensibility: Dragonbane

Thanks to the very successful relaunch of Dungeons and Dragons in 2000, and the even more successful re-relaunch of 5th Edition in 2014, we are in the middle of a roleplaying renaissance. There are more, and better, roleplaying games on the market now than there have ever been, and the discerning roleplayer is overwhelmingly spoiled for choice – our roleplaying group is only half joking when we say that we’re scheduled out to 2026 or later with all the games we want to try.

Dragonbane is a “re-imagining” of Drakar och Demoner, a Swedish roleplaying game that was in turn based on Worlds of Wonder, an early rival to Dungeons and Dragons originally published by Chaosium (of Call of Cthulhu fame) in 1982. Drakar och Demoner ran through several editions before eventually landing at Fria Ligan (AKA Free League Publishing) who successfully crowdfunded a new edition, dubbed Dragonbane for the English language market, that had been redesigned from the ground up, combining the basic rules system from the original game with several new innovations pulled from their stable of well-received games.

The Dragonbane boxed set is an incredible value, with a complete rulebook and an 11-chapter adventure book, both lavishly illustrated by noted Swedish artist Johan Egerkrans, along with a poster-sized map of the game’s setting, a smaller gridded map and cardboard standees for playing out battles, character sheets, dice, cards to randomize treasure and improvised weapons, and even a solo adventure to help teach the game system. It’s a great introductory set for anyone new to roleplaying, but there’s plenty to interest experienced roleplayers too.

The game system is smooth and easy to play, without a lot of the superfluous rules and options that can lead to analysis paralysis in other games. Each character gets one action and one move on their turn – the action can be used to attack, defend, or do something else that requires a skill roll like picking a lock or looting a corpse for its valuables. Skill rolls (including attack rolls) are made by rolling under a target skill number, with no pesky adding up of bonuses to slow down play.

One of my favorite innovations is the way monsters are handled in the game. Most modern roleplaying games have the gamemaster running monsters as if they were player characters, with a complete set of statistics and options, but I’ve never liked this approach. It adds unnecessary detail and complication where the only thing that should matter is how the monster’s presence affects the players and their story. Dragonbane borrows its monster concept from other Free League games such as Forbidden Lands and Alien – each monster has some very basic information like movement and defense, and a randomized table detailing different things the monster might do on its turn. It’s a great approach that makes running the game a lot easier and more fun.

Probably the best value in the Dragonbane core set is the Adventure book. Most roleplaying game rule books give you a single introductory adventure (if you’re lucky), so unless the publisher follows up with additional adventure modules (or you have the creative energy to write your own adventures), you’re out of material after a game or two. Dragonbane gives you an entire multipart campaign with eleven fully developed locations to explore in a linked story that builds to an epic conclusion.

That brings up one other element about Dragonbane that I find especially appealing: rather than inserting the players into complicated plots and drama, the adventures are primarily based on exploring locations, mainly underground tunnel systems that might feel familiar to old school Dungeons and Dragons players. But there are still plenty of interesting characters and plot twists to satisfy players who like a more story-driven approach to their roleplaying.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) The combination of gorgeous visuals and solid game play, plus the large number of fully developed adventures in the core set, makes Dragonbane an incredible value for new or experienced roleplayers.

• Dragonbane official website

Starship Captains: reporting for duty

For the most part, the point of publishing a game based on a licensed property such as a book or television series is to take advantage of brand recognition and a pre-existing fan base. They present fully realized characters and worlds that game designers can assume the audience is already familiar with, and thus don't need to be explained the way they would if the game took place in a new setting. Star Trek presents an interesting case: its tropes are so well known and ingrained in our culture that it's possible (even fairly easy) to do Star Trek without doing Star Trek. It's what makes it possible for Seth MacFarlane to do his own spin on Trek, or for the jokes in Galaxy Quest to be easily understood, even by an audience of non-Trekkies.

All of which brings us to Starship Captains. This is easily my favorite new game of 2023 (although it came out at the end of 2022), and possibly my favorite Star Trek board game of all time. Of course it's not an official Star Trek game, but it's close enough in terms of the world it describes and even in terms of the gameplay structure. In particular it very strongly evokes the tone and story structure of the brilliant Star Trek: Lower Decks animated series -- it's a game about assigning cadets and ensigns to do menial tasks aboard the ship, and occasionally sending them on missions where they're sure to be out of their depth.

Each player takes on the role of the captain of a starship which starts out in a state of disrepair. You start with a small crew of ensigns and cadets who need to be assigned tasks, ranging from repairing and upgrading the ship, to moving the ship to new locations in order to solve missions. Solving missions (and fighting pirates) awards medals and other benefits, which allow you to train your crew so that they are better and more efficient at their tasks. Whoever scores the most points after four rounds wins.

One of the things I really like about the game is the lack of randomness. Tasks are performed by assigning crew of the appropriate color to them, who then go into a queue that determines which crew will be available on the following round. Each round players get a new cadet, who starts out grey but can be upgraded. Additionally, crew can be promoted, which allows them to do two tasks in a turn, or pull another crew out of the queue so they're available for use sooner.

The range of tasks in the game covers the Star Trek gamut, from fighting (or maybe just outsmarting) pirates using diplomacy to get in good with other cultures, another way to score points and other bonuses that will make future turns more effective. The rules are deceptively simple but there are a lot of interesting decisions to be made, and a little but of forward planning is needed, as the order in which you assign your crew determines which ones will be available later.

The components are as good as they need to be, and the cartoony artwork keeps the tone of the game friendly and fun. If I have any complaints, it's that games tend to end a little abruptly -- I often feel like I'm just getting started when the final round is over.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) A well designed, well presented game that evokes the feel of a certain beloved franchise in a way that many "official" games don't always seem to manage.

• Starship Captains official website
• Starship Captains on BoardGameGeek

Blade Runner the Roleplaying Game: too good not to talk about

I don't normally review role playing games here. I do spend a fair amount of time playing them, but I feel that the experience of playing an RPG is so vastly different than that of playing a board or card game that I honestly don't think the two types of games have all that much in common, the fundamental difference being that in a role playing game, the game mechanisms serve the story being told by the players, while in a board game, the story (if there even is one) is secondary to the game mechanisms.

However, Free League's Blade Runner: the Roleplaying Game is just too good not to talk about.

Swedish publisher Free League has a much deserved reputation for high end design and production value, and that is certainly on display here. The rulebook is beautifully designed and illustrated, using entirely original artwork by Martin Grip and Gustaf Ekelund rather than stills from the Blade Runner films, and the starter set comes with a wide variety of maps and other props created to the same high design standard.

The starter set contains an absurd amount of material: a condensed rulebook, four pre-made characters, two sets of engraved dice, a giant poster map of future L. A., a mountain of player handouts, and one of the best-written roleplaying adventures I've ever seen.

The game takes place in the year 2037, roughly midway between the two movies. Players take on the roles of replicant-hunting Blade Runners in a world that has just recently reintroduced a replicant work force and is still wary of them, in spite of assurances that they will obey every command. The starter set gives players two human and two replicant characters to choose from, and drops them into a murder investigation where they will need to interview suspects and witnesses, gather evidence, and make some interesting moral choices along the way.

The game system is a variation on the Year Zero game engine that forms the backbone of most of Free League's games, modified here to focus on gathering clues and pursuing investigations, with short bursts of violent combat that are very evocative of the setting. Dice rolling to accomplish tasks is very straightforward, with a system for rerolling failures that supports dramatic storytelling. One of the game's more interesting features is a card-based system for resolving chases, something other role playing games often struggle with.

 In place of experience points, players are rewarded with promotion points as they uncover vital pieces of the story's puzzle, and also humanity points when they make choices that favor compassion and humanity, or when they interact with important background characters. Characters can get into combat situations and take damage, but more interestingly, they also take on stress, and the game has a whole mechanical system for how they spend their down time, whether it's drinking in the local bar or relaxing at home with a beloved (and most likely artificial) pet.

In addition to the starter set, Free League has published a core rulebook that provides rules allowing players to create their own characters and case files in order to continue the adventure, but honestly, after how excellent the starter set adventure has been, the idea of having to come up with my own material for the game is daunting to say the least. Hopefully they will continue to publish further adventures and maintain the game's current high standard.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Playing through the starter set adventure has been the most fun I've had with a roleplaying game in quite some time.

• Blade Runner: the Roleplaying Game official website

Unmatched: Now that's an epic duel

“A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.” -- Bruce Lee

To the best of my knowledge, there is only one tabletop game that lets you determine the winner in a fight between Bruce Lee and a tyrannosaurus rex. That game is Unmatched, and it deserves your respect.

Unmatched began its life as a Star Wars game called Epic Duels, published in 2002 by Milton Bradley and sold primarily in the toy store market. As a grid-based tactical combat game, Epic Duels was quite a bit more interesting than the usual toy store fare of the time, with players invited to imagine match-ups between characters from across the Star Wars timeline (as it existed in 2002, anyway), and realize those battles with a unique game system using miniatures, dice and cards. It was an interesting little game, especially by the standards of the time, but its nature as a piece of mass market movie tie-in merchandise meant that it didn't stay in print for long.

Robin Hood fights off a pack of hungry velociraptors

Fast forward to 2019. The core structure of Epic Duels has been revised, refined, and freed from the chains of the Star Wars license. Each player takes control of a character drawn from a wide range of mythology, literature, and popular culture, featuring everything from the aforementioned Bruce Lee to King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, and even a selection from the more obscure side of the Marvel comics universe such as Moon Knight and Ghost Rider. The game then uses miniature movement and card play to imagine a duel between whatever unlikely combination of characters have been chosen.

Most games of this type such as Heroclix or Firefly Adventures use a reasonably large board or map printed with a grid to determine movement and distance. Unmatched instead employs a small board illustrated with a series of connected, color-coded circles to establish each character's position. Miniatures can move along the connections between circles, and the circle's color indicates areas where ranged attacks can be made, eliminating the pesky line-of-sight arguments that are the bane of most miniatures games' existence.

Character actions are determined by a deck of cards, unique to each character. Cards represent attacks, defenses and special abilities that can be employed throughout the game. When combat ensues, the attacker plays an attack card with a numerical value face down on the table, then the defender plays a defense card, also face down. Both cards are revealed simultaneously, and the defender takes damage equal to the difference between attack and defense. Most of the cards have an effect that takes place either before or after the attack, which spices up the game and gives players a lot of tactical options to consider, both when attacking and defending. Damage is tracked using a simple dial. It's a wonderfully elegant system that handles attack and damage in one play, and eliminates the egregious "luck factor" of dice rolling.

Apart from the simple yet elegant game play, each Unmatched set is a class act from start to finish. The game is sold in stand-alone sets of 2, 3 or 4 characters, which allows players to try out the game with minimal investment, and also to stick to only the characters that they find interesting. Are you a Marvel fan with no interest in Little Red Riding Hood or Bigfoot? No problem, Unmatched has you covered. The boxes all come with a high quality plastic tray for all the components (a rarity these days), and while the cards are plenty durable, the trays will even accomodate sleeved cards. The miniatures don't come pre-painted, but they do come with a wash applied that brings out the details of the figure, and also a colored ring for the base that makes it easy to tell each player's characters apart.

The artwork on the cards is all original (even for the characters from licensed properties) and consistently excellent, and the graphic design is slick, contemporary and (most importantly) easy to read. The rulebook is well organized (also a rarity these days), but honestly, once you have the basics down you will rarely need to look at the rules -- the game design really is that good.

Ghost Rider artwork from the "Marvel: Redemption Row" set.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Not just a great dueling game, but a great card game and a great miniatures game all rolled into one.

• Unmatched official website
• Unmatched on BoardGameGeek

PARKS: the magical quest game

PARKS (I don't know why the title is always in all caps, it just is) stands out in the overall world of hobby gaming for two reasons: its high end graphic design, and its theme, which avoids the usual wizards, goblins and Marvel superheroes who still seem to have a stranglehold on the industry. I don't want to say it's a game for adults, but it's definitely a game that should appeal to those who might be a little turned off by the more juvenile trappings of the gaming hobby.

The game is about hiking through the national parks of the United States. Each player has two pawns which move along a path, with spaces representing different types of terrain such as forests, or lakes, collecting resources that are spent in various combinations in order to pick up cards representing different national parks, with stunning artwork from the Fifty Nine Parks print series. Along the way, players acquire equipment such as trail guides and water bottles that make collecting cards easier, and take photos for extra points. after four "seasons" of play, the player with the most points worth of parks cards and photos wins the game.

As I mentioned earlier, the sedate theme, amazing illustration and design, and high quality components make the game stand out from the pack, but in terms of game design, it still has its roots in "quest" style adventure games like Talisman, which in turn call back to "move around and pick up stuff" classics like Monopoly or Clue. You're still moving around a board collecting treasure, which you then use to make the game play easier, with the ultimate goal of earning points to win. The only real difference is that in PARKS, your thematic goal is to take a nice hike and see some amazing scenery, rather than defeat the dragon king or whatever. It's a tried and true game concept, the innovation is in making it appeal to a new audience. And the amazing artwork builds a world just as compelling as middle-earth or the Marvel universe, with the added bonus that the world it describes is real.

As I understand it, this game is widely available in national park gift shops and the like, and the publisher has done a good job of getting it into mainstream venues like Barnes & Noble and Target, which is great for the hobby -- it brings in new players rather than competing for the existing ones with more of the same.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) While it's not necessarily a game of subtle complexities, it is a gorgeously designed game with an extremely solid, dependable structure.

• PARKS official website
• PARKS on boardgamegeek

Lost Ruins of Arnak: the days of hybrid adventure

Like Dune: Imperium, Lost Ruins of Arnak is a hybrid of two game types: worker placement, where each player is given a set number of pawns, which are placed on the board in order to gain benefits, and deck building, where players start with a deck of relatively simple cards, and then add better and more effective cards to their deck over the course of the game. 

The two games are similar enough that they get compared on a near-constant basis, and debate over which one is better is both extensive and inconclusive. We started playing both at around the same time, and quickly concluded that yes, they are similar, but they are also different enough to justify keeping both in our collection.

The game consists of three elements: a worker placement board representing explored and unexplored locations; a card row populated by two different types of cards for players to add to their starting decks; and a research track, where players spend resources in various combinations to advance along the track, gaining bonus points and other benefits. What makes the game especially fun is the way these three elements interact with one another.

There are several different types of resources: coins and compasses, which are used for buying cards, and tablets, arrowheads, and jewels, which are used in different combinations to advance along the research track. Placing workers at locations is the main way to gain resources, but the more lucrative locations are unknown quantities until someone places a worker there for the first time. A temple tile is revealed, which tells you what treasure (resources) you find there, but there is also a guardian tile, a monster that must be defeated by discarding a particular combination of resources. If you don't defeat the guardian by the end of the turn you gain a Fear card, which goes in your deck and is worth negative points at the end of the game. Defeating guardians will gain you various one-time benefits as well as additional points.

In order to place a worker, you have to play cards from your hand with matching travel symbols -- the more remote the location, the more travel symbols it costs to get there. Most of your starting cards also provide either coins or compasses, which are used to buy better cards, but you have to choose whether to use a card for travel or for its resource, you can't do both.

The thing that makes the card-buying row more interesting than in a lot of deck building games is that there are two types of cards: tools and artifacts. Tools tend to have simple, practical game effects, while artifacts are more powerful and worth more points, but also cost more resources to use. At the start of the game, the card row consists of 1 artifact and 4 tools, but each round the number of artifacts increases and the number of tools decreases, substantially changing the nature of the available cards over the course of the game.

It's a great example of a game whose different elements interact with each other in such a way that you have to pay attention to everything that's going on, but the game play is smooth enough to keep this from being overwhelming. There are only five rounds in the game, which doesn't seem like enough in the early rounds when you're only able to do a few actions, but the point of the game is to build up your deck so your cards give you longer and more efficient turns. It's very satisfying, and sufficiently different from Dune: Imperium that I don't see a problem with owning and enjoying both games.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Lost Ruins of Arnak has been a huge hit for us: it hits the table regularly (which is a struggle when you own 200+ board games) and we always have a great time with it.

• Lost Ruins of Arnak official website
• Lost Ruins of Arnak on BoardGameGeek

Dune Imperium: worker placing and deck building to keep the spice flowing

The vast majority of deck building games use a simple economy at their core: the cards you play generate resources, which you then use to buy better resource-generating cards from a common pool, repeating until you've generated enough resources to accomplish the game's end goal. Competition tends to be indirect, with players vying for the same cards but not directly attacking each other (although there are a few exceptions to this, such as Star Realms).

The structure of most worker placement games is nearly identical: players compete to place their workers on the most advantageous spaces on the board, which then generate resources that are used in various combinations, ultimately earning the points that will win the game when it comes to an arbitrary conclusion, usually a pre-determined round limit or the accomplishment of a game-ending goal.

It was only a matter of time before someone had the bright idea to combine these two popular game mechanisms. I don't think Dune: Imperium was the first to do it, but it does it very well, creating a game that gives players enough strategic decisions to make them feel like they're at the head of an interstellar political family.

Like most deck building games, players start with a deck of fairly mediocre cards, with the goal of using them to buy better cards that will give them the resources they need to have more efficient turns. And like most worker placement games, players start with a few workers that they take turns placing on the board in order to generate resources. What makes the game especially interesting is how these two separate mechanisms work together during play.

In order to place a worker on the board, you also need to play a card with a symbol that matches the space you want to play to, and which will often have an additional effect when you play it. The spaces on the board generate the world of Dune's much- needed resources such as spice, water, money, and political influence, and also troops which are used in a conflict phase later in the turn. Any cards left in your hand after you've played out all your workers can be used to buy new cards, but some will instead give you other of the aforementioned resources, or increase your strength during the conflict phase.

At the end of each round, players compare the number of troops they managed to generate over the course of the turn, combined with any bonuses from leftover cards, with the winner gaining a prize, usually more resources, control over the board's locations, or the victory points needed to win the game.

The game gives you a lot to think about, but the different resources and economies all flow together in a very elegant game design, with rules that rely on smoothness and consistency over the dozens of sub-rules and exceptions that can plague games of this complexity. Add to that some well-produced components and beautifully illustrated cards that still manage to be easy to read, and you have an epic, satisfying game.

Since the game's release there have been two expansions that do exactly what expansions should: they make the game better without making it more complicated. In this case, some of the underdeveloped and less interesting sections of the worker placement board are replaced with new game mechanisms, and of course more cards are added to the deck building selection.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) A great variation on both the worker placement and deck building genres that fits the theme like a glove.

• Dune: Imperium official website
• Dune: Imperium on BoardGameGeek