Until the end of Viscounts of the West Kingdom, counting victory points are an exercise in faith. Workers is on the tiered castles, ribbons cover manuscript boards, and debt cards is piled up. These cards either reward or punish you based off which kingdom card flips over at the very last minute. It is beautiful … Read more

Paladins of the West Kingdom isn’t about adding up numbers; it’s like auditing a medieval estate. There are stacks of suspicious cards, outposts guarded by your garrisons, strength markers, and faith tracks. All of these vies for your attention at the same time. And when the game ends after only seven rounds, there’s not much … Read more

The final round in Champions of Midgard is calculated carefuly. After eight rounds of fighting draugr and trolls, it’s time to tally up your resources. Luckily, the calculator do this for you; but understanding what those numbers represent is key. Knowing them means the difference between winning by luck or strategy. While most is concerned … Read more

Raiders of Scythia has a certian sort of tension that isn’t quite strategy, and certainly not pure chaos management. It feels more like managed chaos. You form a party of raider, weighing the brute force needed to topple settlements against difficulty of feeding and protecting your crew. Expansion is aggressively rewarded here, while being reckless … Read more

Scoring for Santa Maria can be tough to wrap your head around. There are three years, there are various resources, there’s shipping routes and religious appointments and happiness tokens. When you draw last blue die, the board freezes and you add it all up. A lot of people have a gut feeling about who won … Read more

Your ship’s built, your crew’s engaged, provisions are loaded in the hold, now do you go raid? Will it pay off in points for you to mount up? That’s where Raiders of the North Sea create a slight tension as you weigh near term treasure versus building toward longer game. Do you bump your Valkyrie … Read more

In Marco Polo II, Round Six is the last round and it is more about counting than strategy. You’ve been shuffling your trader around the Silk Road for five rounds now building up trading posts, stockpiling goods, juggling dice pools. And finally you get to the end… but then the board falls silent. There’s nothing … Read more