There are certain publishers that have earned my attention whenever they publish a new game and Daily Magic Games has done just that. All of their games are visibly spectacular, but what I love most about the games I have played of theirs so far, is their elegant simplicity without taking away strategy. Thieves Den is no different in these regards
I’ve been to Grand Con, Washingcon, Portal Con, Origins, UK Games Expo and even SPIEL, but I had never been to Gen Con, so when the opportunity presented itself to go, I was all in! Similar to a bunch of other people, I used the Tabletop Together Tool to plan out all of the games I was interested in even a slightest bit.
I’m not an alien, but if I was, I like to imagine I would be the kind of alien who could change my body parts to whatever suited my every whim or fancy. Ok, so maybe I have never actually thought that, but after playing Chimera Station by Game Brewer and TMG. I kind of do think that is the kind of alien I would be. Since I will, most likely, never become an alien I’ll have to settle for creating a space station with my fellow aliens in Chimera Station.
Travelling is a hobby of mine, and one of my favorite things to do is visit cities that aren’t the biggest tourist destinations. So when I saw a game named after Riga, the Latvian capital, I was immediately intrigued. Riga is the third installment in Ostia Spiele’s Baltic city line of games after Visby (reprinted as Santo Domingo) and Tallinn. Essentially, in Riga, you collect resources and erect buildings to become the master of trade, but it is how you do this wherein the fun lies.
I’m a big fan of ice cream in both senses of the word big, in that I really like ice cream and I’m a big guy. So when I saw a game about making Sundae’s I knew I had to play it! In Sundae Split, designed by Nate Bivins and published by Renegade Game Studios and Foxtrot Games, your goal is to make the best sundae, but watch out for those vegetables…yup, you heard me right, vegetables in a sundae.
We are Merchants of Araby, trading magic, jewels, spices and fabric in order to create the most profitable business in the land. Wheeling and dealing to get the goods you need without giving others too much is the name of the game. Can you trick your friends into accepting an offer that is clearly better for you or will they convince you to take a bad deal, or will you be left on the side of the road with a whole bunch of spices nobody wants?
In Aura, a card game by Breaking Games, everyone is competing to have the most cards in their Aura at the end of the game.
Growing up near one of the best Roller Coaster parks in the world left a soft spot in my heart for all things amusement parks and yet, this theme has not been used too often in board games. Unfair seeks to fill that gap with a tableau building take on creating your own amusement park. Does it satisfy my desire for an amusement park game?
I love the classic card games like Euchre, Hearts and Spades, but after playing them for years they got a little stale. In comes Nyet!, attempting to shake things up a bit and take a normal trick-taking game and make it more exciting. Does Nyet! do enough to re-energize the trick-taking genre?
Round Houses, or Fujian Tulou, are essentially walled villages in rural China. In the game Round House, each player represents one of the families within the Fujian Tulou. As the head of the family the players try to achieve more glory than any other family in the Round House!
Railroad Revolution, a game about the expanding railroad lines in the United States, puts the players in the shoes of people like Cornelius Vanderbilt and James Hill. To become the Vanderbilt of the cardboard United States you must use your resources wisely to build the most efficient line.
Unlike other games, in Noch Mal! (also called Encore! and Keer op Keer!) there is no theme. You are not a city designer trying to best fill a city with buildings, or planning the best route to a vacation destination, or anything else for that matter. In Noch Mal! you are simply trying to fill all of the boxes in columns and of similar colours before the game end is triggered.