The appearance of Djinn cards in Five Tribes are deceptively straightforward. There they are, printed with victory points, promising to slowly lead you up to victory. And there lies the trap: Those point values don’t represent the complete picture. A 12-point Djinn may cost you 20 if the bidding for it saps your coin income. … Read more

Takenoko, a moment in the game: the bamboo’s growing and you’re standing there, frozen with indecision. Green shoots, pink stalks, yellow clusters. And then one move, and you feel like you’ve neglected the other. Growth isn’t linear here; it’s conditional and spatial; bad timing are punished. How do you make a decision? Well, looking at … Read more

Because that’s what happens whenever you reach an inn in Tokaido: You are nervous. Your coin pouch sits open; you look at the menu items, and consider enemy whose hand is stretched out toward a valuable item. It makes people freeze up, because you know that spending coins here might improve your score, but it … Read more

In Sagrada, you’re facing off against other players. Imagine you have three favor tokens left. Your private color objective is hanging by a thread, you might need a tool card to save it. Do you use those tokens now? Or do you hope to save them for the end game? Even veteran player get nervous … Read more

Splendor also has distraction pieces known as noble tiles which give three victory points. Because of this, they is a distraction for most players. It is tempting to get those tiles when you have the necessary cards on hand to go for them as free points. But that’s a dangerous instinct. Nobles are not there … Read more

In Viticulture: Tuscany, a new element of spatial tension is introduced, a level the base game doesn’t really require. You’re not only dealing with guests and vineyards anymore, but also a literal land grab, an auction of influence whose spoils is control of the board. Influence, though, appears easy enough on its surface until it’s … Read more

Most Star Realms games don’t end dramatically: Usually it’s more of a sigh as you realize you were three points short of having enough power to withstand that last punch. You had the cards, you had the ships, but you miscalculated numbers by a fraction. This is what separates winning from losing here. And that’s … Read more