Nova Luna – K. David Ladage
There are designers that consistently tickle your fancy, others that consistently rub you the wrong way, and still others that seem to have a degree of game design genius you can plainly see but cannot always get your head around. For me, that last category includes Uwe Rosenberg. I have played many of his games, and I can see the brilliance of his designs, but every now and again it hits me with something like A Feast for Odin where I look at the game after setup and have no idea where to start. I can see the genius. I am just not up to the task.
Other designs he has include Patchwork. My wife and I love that game. It has an elegance and a genius I can see and understand (we have enjoyed the roll-and-write version as well). I was not aware that the game could be improved upon, but I was recently asked to play a game of Nova Luna, and it was eye opening. If you have played Patchwork, you will see its fingerprints all over this one (e.g., pattern matching, time-costs, restriction of choice to the next three tiles, etc.), yet you will recognize that this is its own beast. The puzzle is different, the fact that you can notice that you scored points you missed earlier has an “Ah! Eureka!” feel to it. Of the two, I think I prefer Nova Luna!
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from K. David Ladage.
Akropolis: Athena – Justin Bell
Our man Tom Franklin reviewed the Akropolis base game back in 2022, and in the time since that review, Akropolis has risen to a spot on the BGG list of the top 500 games reviewed by its users. Prior to the release of the recent expansion, Akropolis: Athena (2024, Gigamic), I had never even played the base game. The publisher handed me a copy of both the base game and the expansion at SPIEL 2024 and I recently had time to mix in-person plays with plays on Board Game Arena over the last two weeks.
My opinions of Akropolis mirror Tom’s thoughts…the base game is a solid piece of tile laying, multiplayer solitaire glory. It’s easy to teach and plays in about 30 minutes, just like it says on the box. The way scoring works, and particularly the way “plazas” boost scores based on the level where they are placed, is very intuitive yet very difficult to maximize thanks to the scoring elements of the five building types. Athena adds just enough to provide a new layer of challenge to an experienced Akropolis player, but a low-enough rules threshold that I could show this to new players in my review group having not played the base game separately. And there’s no additional time added to each play. My games have lasted about 20 minutes at solo and two players in person.
Then I went online and did solo plays and a four-player game on BGA, and I think I will only play Akropolis in the future with this expansion. Players now have four public milestones that can be achieved by building very specific layouts into their city, with a reward of single building and plaza tiles (as opposed to the tri-hex tiles of the main game) that can be added anywhere to a player’s map. A few of these single tiles feature two building types! That makes each of the milestones a mini-goal that everyone tries to build early on, but players could completely ignore Athena and still win the game. That last part is key to why I would always include Athena moving forward—engage with it or not, as this is something that adds a little flavor to the proceedings for both new and experienced players. I wouldn’t call Athena essential, but it is a very nice addition to a solid, family-weight city building game.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Disney Lorcana: Azurite Sea – Justin Bell
I’ve now had the chance to explore three sets of the trading card game (TCG) series Disney Lorcana—The First Chapter and Into the Inklands—and the game hasn’t skipped a beat. In the most recent drop of new cards, Azurite Sea, players can get their hands on more than 200 new cards, mainly featuring characters from the world of Chip ‘n’ Dale (which weirdly includes…the Winnie the Pooh series??), as well as the film Big Hero 6.
Neither of these two franchises really does it for me. Chip ‘n’ Dale, for example, are a chipmunk duo that first appeared in Disney short films in the 1940s. Big Hero 6 is sometimes confused by my wife and I with the film Wreck-It Ralph. Still, my kids love both of these franchises (in part because Chip ‘n’ Dale have had a comeback of sorts with recent Disney films) and that helped draw them into yet another round of fun with the new Azurite Sea cards and the rules for the Lorcana system.
The cards are still beautiful, some of the combos are still cool, and games are still quick…maybe too quick, especially if players don’t “Challenge” (fight) their opponents to slow their Lore game down a bit. Disney Lorcana: Azurite Sea has a lot of fancy extras, including a deluxe deck box with a magnetic close mechanic as well as Illumineer’s Trove, a bounty of extra booster packs and dice to help track damage on Character cards. The collection aspect of the Lorcana TCG system is now in high gear, so it’s been fun to see how my kids enjoy the cards and constantly hunting for “legendary” or even “enchanted” cards.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★☆☆ – Wouldn’t suggest it, but would happily play it
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Keyframes – Justin Bell
Shei Santos and Isra Cendrero, the design duo known as Llama Dice, have mostly done me right. Llama Dice now has two top-tier games that are all-time classics in my collection: The Red Cathedral and The White Castle. That means I will try anything else they design…but, looking back at previous Llama Dice game reviews, that hasn’t worked out very well beyond those two franchises. Flatiron was OK, but I’ve already given my copy away…ditto for Shinkansen Zero-Kei. Walkie Talkie was one of the worst games I played in 2022.
Still, I needed to know if their new small-box card game Keyframes (2024, Combo Games) was a future classic or not. The early returns? Not. Players take on the role of animators who are tasked with building a sequence of cards that tell a story, but only score points if the cards are drafted in just the right order. My first moment of concern came when I read the rules—the game only has five different cartoon animations. Across 50 cards, the short, two-to-five card animations come up multiple times but appear in different numerical sequences…meaning that a player who is holding the card labeled 14A should be looking for card 15B to go next in the turn sequence. But, due to a setup mechanic that removes a few cards before each play, what if the card I need is not even in the game?
Keyframes, right from the jump, confused the three other players I showed the game in our first play. After just one round of the two-round game (and only about 10 minutes!), one person said that he didn’t want to play any more. Every turn featured a player “hate drafting” a card that might give an opponent more points. The game has a wild card system that works to keep a sequence alive, but if there are no wild cards available to draft, everything breaks down quickly. This was a strange miss from Llama Dice, and for a game that initially looked like it had promise, I was surprised how quickly things broke down.
Ease of entry?:
★★★☆☆ – There were a few questions
Would I play it again?:
★☆☆☆☆ – Would play again but will cry about it
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
Black Friday – Andy Matthews
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, it appears that I enjoy economic games. While they’re some of the more complicated titles in the tabletop gaming hobby, I find myself drawn to them, particularly stock market types games. So when I first heard of Black Friday (no, not the post Thanksgiving retail rush), I was quite interested, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s from one of my favorite designers: Friedemann Friese.
In Black Friday players are buying and selling stocks, and purchasing gold—that’s it. And while there is certainly a depth of complexity to each of those actions, the core of the game centers around just three things players can do. The most important thing to keep in mind is what happens after each of those actions is taken. As stocks and gold are exchanged, players increase or decrease the value of the 5 companies. The cleverness and strategy come in knowing when it will happen and positioning yourself to strike when it does.
I’ll be honest and say that the teach was a bit of a struggle. There’s quite a few nitpicky rules that must be followed when certain things occur, and forgetting to do them can cause the game to take longer, or affect the value of the stocks. That said, if you enjoy economic games then Black Friday might be a game you should check out. I’m looking forward to playing it again at some point in the future.
Ease of entry?:
★★★☆☆ – There were a few questions
Would I play it again?:
★★★★☆ – Would like to play it again
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