Wingspan Asia Duet has an ambiguous last tally unless you just add them up yourself. You can play a solid game and create nice combos, only to realize you didn’t get the results you expected as quick as you thought. This make keeping track of that much easier. All those things is automatically totaled (points … Read more

Drawing risk, drafting tiles, playing them out, and then settling up at the end is what makes Azul so exciting. Jokers is spent when you place them but don’t come back in. Storage overflow and floor penalties subtract points from your final score. Your board points determines if you’ll win or lose. Use our calculator … Read more

Splendor Duel’s ability to make you pause before using a privilege scroll is often why you do it. You crave that instant gratification, but are concern that the board refill might aid your adversary. Why does this matter? Resource management is deceptively thin in this game. You know which cards you can buy, but you … Read more

In Flamecraft, running a town is less about building things and more about managing an orchestra where every instrument want to play a solo. There are piles of goods accumulating faster than you can sell them; there are dragons demanding special jobs; and there are shops that require magical enchantments. And by the final round, … Read more

It’s not as simple as counting up points on cards. Earth-style games adds levels of ecology onto simple arithmetic. In this game, you’re working with a constructed ecosystem. Every piece, from every token to every plant and resource, has value to a living system that add up in an odd way. The calculator do the … Read more

And that’s where Cascadia gets realy interesting. It’s a game about quietly working toward efficiency. Rather than announcing a sudden power grab, Cascadia scores success by counting wildlife and connecting habitats. That subtle nature make the scoring at the end of the game a fascinating problem. It feels less like a board game and more … Read more

Picking up Jaws of the Lion puts you in a room that has a certain vibe. It feels like playing Gloomhaven’s rules but different than your old habits will get in the way. The results of getting it wrong are large, so there is a mental adjustment needed when setting up a scenario. Permanent campaign … Read more