Reni & Kristóf | Board Game Diaries

Ezra and Nehemiah is the latest arrival from @garphillgames and it might not come as a surprise that we immediately fell in love with it 🥰 . The action selection bundled with fun resource management is extremely engaging for us, and gameplay is very combo-heavy. Basically everything you do and pay for will give you something else (either resources or other actions), which leads to a satisfying experience. Decisions matter a lot, and you can focus on different aspects! 😉 Players are tasked with the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Repairing its gates and walls 🧱, building its temple 🕍, stoking the fires 🔥 of the altar, teaching the Torah 📃 to the returning exiles and traveling to outside settlements ⛺. In a game of Ezra and Nehemiah you are playing through a snapshot of 3 weeks of these efforts, which are split into 6 working days and 1 resting (Sabbath) day. So 3 rounds, with 6 turns and a scoring phase each. The action selection stands in the spotlight. 🧐 Your action cards have colored banners 🚩 on them, each color corresponding to a segment of the board and thus a pair of actions. Each turn you’ll play 1 card into 1 of 3 slots, then choose a banner/action color. The more banners with that color you have in your display (counting ones placed earlier too), the stronger the action will be. You basically get action points that you can use however you see fit. ☝️Since you only have 3 card slots, from the 4th turn on you will have to start playing cards onto already placed cards, meaning you have to sacrifice some icons in exchange for others. Cards also have an optional trade action ⚖️ on them which you can use. And to put an additional twist on things, at each Sabbath you will have to tuck 1-2 cards that you’ve played under your board. This is good for your engine because you get one permanent banner and a scoring condition that can be scored multiple times, however you also lose the card itself, so that banner combination and trade will be lost to you! The actions themselves you perform are fun too, making everything perfectly click. ☺️ There is so much more to say 🥺, but it will have to be in a future post. Review copy by @garphillgames

🌷Windmill Valley is the first of 3 ‼️ big games coming from @boardanddice this year. This first title leans more towards the simpler end of the spectrum. More than a gateway, but not too complex - a light-mid weight euro. 🤔 Inspired by the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and its world-famous tulip fields, you’ll be primarily building windmills and planting tulip bulbs with the help of your water wheels. ⚙️The water wheels are the central mechanic of the game. Each turn, you turn two interconnected gears, with the speed depending on the status of the floodgates, then pick an action the arrow points to (or possibly execute both if a gear tile has a plus sign). As the game progresses, you can buy upgrades to slot into your wheels, enhancing your choices. ☝️Interestingly, one of the wheels has six sections while the other has only five,  so the action pairings will change over time. The gears enable you to perform various actions:  👉🏻Most notably, you can place windmills on the board to perform actions in adjacent fields while also unlocking scoring conditions for tulips.  👉🏻You might want to get Farm Enhancement cards early in the game: you can tuck them above your board as a “Helper” for ongoing bonuses or below as a “Contract” for end-game scoring effects. 👉🏻Additionally, you can engage in foreign trade or use the local market, which acts as a rondel.  👉🏻Upgrading gears is essential as well.  👉🏻And let's not forget planting the tulip bulbs that you collect through various actions—tulips will contribute significantly to your end-game score! 🌷 👉🏻Finally, there is an action that lowers the water level 🌊 for some points or money. As players open the floodgates to spin their gears faster, water levels will rise, as does the amount of bonus you get if you choose this action.  The game’s length is entirely player-driven. As your big wheel completes full 360-degree rotations, you’ll progress on the calendar track. 🗓 The game ends after someone finishes their fourth rotation, then scores are tallied to determine the winner. As usual, we’ll be back with more impressions, pros and cons soon!😊😉 ❓What do you think so far? ❗️Review copy

We have finished our 6-chapter Lost Ruins of Arnak co-op campaign playthrough, and what can I say? It is absolutely brilliant! 😍 I must confess, when it was first announced, I had my doubts. Co-op variations of competitive euro games tend to be boring high score races, but the implementation in Arnak by @czech_games_edition is exquisite. Each of the 6 games offer a unique twist, and the balance is so perfect that every game turns into a nail-biter, with us only managing to meet the objectives in the final few actions. 😁 I guess it also helps that Arnak is one of the very best euro games, so playing again and again is just fun. Whether you play solo or 2-player co-op, you will go against an Automa. 🖥️ Its goal is to get in your way and keep you guessing its next move, rather than just competing for a high score. (Though you do track your scores in relation to the Automa to get an end of campaign value). 👉The real fun is how all the scenarios have distinct victory and loss conditions, and special rules and objectives unique to them. 😉 Games thus feel different, and your strategy will have to vary thanks to them - what cards and assistants are more useful to you changes too. Additionally there are optional achievements you can strive for, which unlock new cards for the campaign semi-legacy style. This is all flavored wonderfully by the overarching story that you get from the campaign book each game, and also from the encounter cards which are specifically made for each chapter. Decisions you make and goals you complete moves you on different tracks that can unlock even more cards and story snippets. It all just works wonderfully, and immerses you in the adventure. 🥰 As you thematically play as an expedition team, you can also keep switching the asymmetric characters between games for even more variety and fun that we have known since Expedition Leaders. The Missing Expedition expansion is worth it for the additions to competitive games alone, but if you like euros and co-operative games, this is simply a must-have. Trust us on this. The metal upgrades for coins and compasses by @tinkertowngames elevate the fun even higher. 😊

To continue with some more upcoming expansions.. Well, there are even more of them! 😁 I love expansions because they can add more flavor to your favorite games - and in many cases without actually taking up valuable shelf space. So enhancing your collection with expansions is just awesome. 😉 ❓ What game do you wish had an expansion? 🏯White Castle Matcha - @devirgames White Castle was a great release from (before) SPIEL23 last year. A clever dice placement game with only 9 turns! Now Matcha will introduce a new location, new meeples and thus more ways to influence the royal court. You will also get an addtional action each round, taking things up to a whopping 12 turns! 🙀 ☢️Radlands Cult of Chrome - @roxleygames I was surprised to see an expansion announced for this one, but it seems like the spirit of the game will remain: a 2p TCG experience contained in a small box. Cult of Chrome is basically just a pack of cards, adding even more Camp cards. From what I have read there will be some very interesting ones that will change things up from game to game in big ways! 😊 🌳Evenfall: The Crystal Path - @nanox.games Evenfall was another one of last year’s great SPIEL23 releases. It’s primary strength lies in its tableau-building, and the interaction between cards and their numerous effects. This is why I am especially happy to see an expansion coming, as more cards will introduce even more variety and even more potential for combos! Can’t wait to see all the new cards. 🙂 ✈️Skyteam: Turbulence - @scorpionmasque I guess an expansion for this 2p no-communication coop hit is no surprise. It will add 20 more scenarios to play, plus new modules called Turbulence, Low Visibility and Alarms that will throw new hurdles in your way. And it looks like it comes in disposable packaging, so you can just add all it to your base game box. 👍

After our previous post about Salton Sea, I want to go over the tightness of the game in more detail. Because if you have the question: „Is the game good?“ or „Should I get this game?“, the answer would be a resounding yes. BUT ☝️‼️ only if you like similar tight games, that try to punish you for mistakes or bad planning, and where you generally always feel like you don’t have enough resources to do what you want. However, the game’s interesting mechanics coupled with this tightness do make it a very satisfying experience if you do well. The multi-purpose cards that act as both money and actions are the focal point of the game, and are immensely fun. 😊 You are often wondering whether to use a high value 5$ card for its powerful boosted action, or to spend it for something that furthers your plans. And this dilemma is constant! 😱 Even when we thought after a game that next time would be easier because “we now know better”, the struggle is still there. I feel like the designer deliberately made decisions regarding several rules to steer the game towards this tightness and scarcity. Like if you get paid and there are no more money cards in the display or the discard to take, you just get less money. Or how you don’t get change if you overpay. Things like that. With 2 players this can especially feel bad if one player is more successful than the other. The punishing nature of the game is even more evident then. I think that’s why Salton Sea will act as an amazing solo game, so you can focus on your own game and your competition against the automa, without feeling guilty about how you took away that card that would have made your opponent’s plan complete. 😶 In summary I really enjoy the flow and rhythm of the game, as you extract and process resources to build up your storage and sell for different purposes, collect research cards and buy more advanced cards to become more efficient, and navigate the dense decisions of this economic euro. Definitely one of the better games from Devir’s ever growing portfolio. Review copy by @deviriberia

Over the weekend we have played a lot of games, both existing and upcoming. We had a great time, so I wanted to write a bit about some of them. So in no particular order, here we go! 😉 ❓️Which of these games would you like to know more about? 👕Shinjuku A route-building game in which players are building stores to attract customers that are added to the map each turn. The game is controlled by playing cards from your hand that match the regions where you want to act. The game has a great flow. 🧚Yro A small tableau builder. You are making a 3x3 card tableau by adding 1-2 cards to it each round, gaining income, strength and all kinds of bonuses. It plays really fast, but making a synergistic tableau is satisfying, and it has a JRPG-esque theme. 🕍LUZ A trick-taking game with a twist: you only see the color of your cards, but not their value, because they are turned outwards to you opponents, as are theirs to you. You also have to guess how many tricks you'll win. 🐸Snatch It This is a new family-children’s game. For us it lacked player agency, but it will provide fun to many others who enjoy similar games. You are playing cards with a higher value to claim cards from the pond, or steal piles of cards from your opponents. 🐶Super Kawaii Pets A very simple card drafting game. It's about collecting cats, dogs and bunnies, and meeting their needs to make them happy. Fun to play, and the artwork fits the theme perfectly. 🌨️Eternaut Eternaut is based on a comic series with a fascinating story: a mysterious deadly snowfall arrives and whoever is touched by a snowflake dies. You play with a few characters, trying to survive as you play through scenarios with choose-your-own-adventure type story snippets. 🦋Pergola An upcoming game from Rebel Studio who also brought us Meadow. Pergola has a similar chill nature theme, as you are building your little garden by drafting a pair of actions each turn, gathering flowers and insects to have the highest scoring ecosystem. @iello_fr @studiosupernova_games @heidelbaergames @pendragongamestudio @rebel_pl

At the Castle Event, we got to play two full games of 📡SETI, the upcoming euro from @czech_games_edition . We’ve been dying to try it out because it looks awesome with its rotating solar system, and the science theme is right up our alley. 🌌 It's actually not sci-fi; it's based on the real-life SETI organization that searches for signs of extraterrestrial life. In the game, you play as members of this organization, exploring space for any traces of life. 🔭 SETI has five rounds, each with a variable number of turns. You basically keep taking turns as long as you have stuff to do and resources (energy and credit) to spend. 🧐 The framework of the game is pretty straightforward. Each turn, you do one main action (and as many free actions as you want) in clockwise order until everyone passes. The main actions are all things you’d thematically expect: 👉launching probes from Earth, which you can move with free actions. Upon reaching planets you can either send these probes to orbit, or land on the surface. Every now and then the solar system will rotate, affecting probe movement. You can also send out signals to distant stars, process data you have collected, or upgrade technologies for advantages. A big part of the complexity comes from the action cards. The big deck has all kinds of cards, with diverse effects and actions. Cards are also multi-use: besides playing them you can also discard them for a bonus, tuck them in for income or discard them for their color when you are sending out signals. Played cards might also have missions or end-game conditions for extra bonuses! There are three different traces of alien life 🧫 you can find, which unlock special alien species boards. Each game, you randomly choose 2 out of 5 species, each with unique decks and mechanics that change things up. So with the huge deck of interesting cards, unlockable upgrades (from which you can only get some), and the alien species, replayability is huge. If you’re into mid-heavy, combo-rich gameplay, SETI is definitely a game to keep on your radar when it releases later this year. We are hyped! 😁 ❓What do you think? Will you check it out? Let us know in the comments! ☺️

❓How was your weekend? Did you play anything? We had an amazing weekend full of gaming! 🥰 We spent the last 3 days at the 🏰Castle Event, which is a joint event organized by @heidelbaergames and @czech_games_edition . Alongside them there were also several other partner publishers present, showing off some cool new games. In spite of the name, this year the event took place in an old monastery in Pielenhofen, Germany. 😊 The event is described as a combination of gaming, business, networking and fun, which sums it up perfectly! We had such a great time, meeting awesome people and trying out amazing games 🥰 - both existing games and prototypes of upcoming ones. The biggest gaming highlight for us was undoubtedly the soon-to-be-released mid-heavy euro 📡SETI from CGE; of which we played 2 full games! We would have played it even more, but games take long, and there was a lot to see - but it’s the best kind of long game, filled to the brim with intriguing decisions and ways to play. SETI definitely needs its own post, it’s an outstanding game! 🥳 A surprising hit (well, for us at least as we rarely play party games 😅) was 〰️Ito, a clever cooperative deduction party game, in which you use theme based clues to hint at the value of your card. Ito was actually the first game we sat down to, and the last game we played before having to pack up and leave. Even though we aren’t much into party games, this one is excellent cringe-free fun and the perfect ice breaker! We’ll be back soon with more about the games we played, but feel free to ask anything if something in the photos catches your attention! 😉 Thank you @heidelbaergames and @czech_games_edition for the invite and for making such a wonderful event! ☺️ #castleevent #convention #boardgames #brettspiel #bordspel #juegosdemesa #társasjáték #boardgaming

Rafter Five is one of the 2 @oinkgms games we bought at #UKGE2024 . It's a dexterity game which we don't own many of, but we decided we needed this because it looked so funny. 😄 The game is played on the box itself, where you put the 5 meeples: the rafters. Then you just spread out cards around the box to act as the sea - these will be the plank cards that you draw to add to the raft. Gameplay is very simple: 🧐 on your turn you have to lift up a meeple, put a plank card on the raft overlaying another plank card, then put the meeple on it. You have to deftly weigh down cards so nothing topples. To end your turn you put a treasure chest on the plank. Whenever the precariously constructed mess of cards topples, the player who did it has to collect all the chests. The goal is to get rid of all your treasure chests, or alternatively whoever collects 5 chests loses. And funnily in this game there is only ever one loser, everyone else wins. 😅 As you might imagine, stacking cards without knocking stuff off gets hard fast, especially with the raft (box) being so small. Overall I think this is a fun little package, something you'd expect from an Oink game, and I love all the little meeples! 😍 ❓️Do you like dexterity games? What's your favorite? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 #rafterfive #dexteritygame #dexterity #familygame

General Orders: World War II is an abstract little war game for 2 players by @ospreygames . I am particularly enamoured by the aesthetics of the game. A small box format with a small board and colorful wooden pieces. Let’s see how it all works! 🕵️ The game is a bit like a cross between chess and worker placement. You have these hexagonal pieces (commanders) that you can place to do actions - either on the separate supply board to do things like bringing in new units or drawing cards; or on the game board to move units, bombard territories or paradrop in new soldiers. As commander slots are occupied, certain actions will be blocked: most notably, if you conquer a territory, your opponent won’t be able to march in or retaliate in that round. The goal is to have more points after 4 rounds than your opponent by controlling more territories with stars on them, so defense is important. Some territories also have bonus tokens - if you control these, you have powerful ongoing bonuses. There are also action cards that spice up the standard flow of the game. They all state when they can be played, and change some rule to catch your opponent by surprise. Alternatively you can discard a card to reroll dice. 🎲 Yes, there are also dice in the game unfortunately. I feel like the fun and strategic nature of this tiny war is kind of upended by dice randomness. Battles are mostly deterministic, as both attacker and defender will simultaneously remove units until only one side survives - however before that the defender gets to roll a die and remove that many attackers. The bombard action is worse, as it involves rolling 2 dice and removing that many units from the target area. Even though dice have four ‘1’ faces and only one ‘0’ face and one ‘2’ face, it is still too much randomness for our taste. A bombardment could be a 0 damage wasted action, or a 4 damage devastation. I wish the designers went with a bit more nuanced system. 💭 Otherwise I really like the framework and how small the game is (both box size and table space), so we might explore the game further. It also comes with an alternate board where aircraft and air zones come into play. ❓️💬Have you played it?

❓What’s your favorite board game upgrade? I sure found mine now… Look at these tokens for Arnak! They are out of this world, I’d say. 🤩 I've always been a huge fan of the aesthetics of Lost Ruins of Arnak, especially the pieces for tablets, arrowheads, and jewels. However, I always felt that the cardboard coins and compasses didn’t do the game justice, and I was never convinced by the available third-party token upgrades. Now, after being gifted these amazing metal tokens by @tinkertowngames , it finally feels like our copy of the game is complete! 🥳 The tokens are heavy, thick, and the compasses have this amazing green enamel filling! This was also the perfect opportunity to continue our cooperative campaign of the Missing Expedition, and what can I say. It continues to be absolutely amazing, and even more fun than regular competitive Arnak. The scenarios are so well balanced, and such nail biters every time. For the 5 scenarios we played so far we only managed to eke out the winning conditions by the end of the last round, and only barely. It’s so good. 😁 We have one more scenario left to explore, so prepare yourself for the inevitable love-post about it. 😅 #boardgameupgrade #token #metalcoins #arnak #lostruinsofarnak #boardgames #brettspiel #bordspel #juegosdemesa #társasjáték #boardgaming #boardgamecouple #boardgamereview #boardgamer #boardgamergirl #boardgameaddict #boardgamer #geek #gaming

A deck-building area control game with a rondel action-selection? Yes, that is Pillars of Heracles! 😁 An exciting elevator pitch for a game, and it works wonderfully. After our previous post about the game, let’s dive deeper! There are 5 actions you can do with the rondel: 🕵️ Settle: claim territories on the map so you can exploit their resources Deploy: place out new units so you have more power and flexibility to manoeuver around Build: place out new buildings to benefit from their special abilities Procure: get new cards for your deck with all kinds of powerful effects Ascend: move up on tracks to claim diverse ongoing abilities All of these actions can be repeated, so e.g. if you do a build turn you could build as many buildings as you can afford. This means that efficient planning and execution is rewarded - but on the flipside, doing an action for only a single thing can feel really bad. 😄 You have to be more efficient than others. This is where 2-player games might fall short (at least in our limited experience), as an amazing start for one player could snowball the game out of control for the other. Area control stands in the spotlight - and it brings with it lots of arithmetics. 📊 The different pieces will add up to a combined Power value, and their individual Power might change due to abilities from tiles or tracks, so you often have to recalculate who controls which territory. There is no combat in the game, but the game cleverly steers players toward conflict: even though you cannot remove enemy pieces from lands, if you dominate them by having more power present, it rewards you with track movement. Controlling a set of 3 lands with the same icon does the same. 💪 And the tracks are not just any boring tracks either, they play a huge role! ☝️ They can give you flexibility for rondel movement, improve your troops, increase your hand size or give you powerful mythology cards. The game felt very engaging and intense - but maybe a bit cutthroat with 2p, however I do think it is an amazing system and it feels very rewarding when you manage to pull a combo off.😁 Check out the currently running Kickstarter for the game! 😉 @apeirongames