In the final few minutes of any game of Wingsspan, it’s time for point-counting. Your turn was your last. You’ve played your last card. And now comes the dreaded task of counting everything while everyone watches. In Wingspan, with its many various points types and all of that goodness in the Oceania expansion, it’s simple … Read more

Ticket to Ride London ends with the decisive turn: who will win and who lose? Once a player’s pile of plastic buses drops to two or fewer, it’s time for final round. Each player gets their final move and it’s time to tally points. As you look around at piles of color-coded trains and hidden … Read more

The game ends quietly when you tap a victory card that you earned several turns ago. Resource shortage isn’t usually much of a threat in Cities and Knights. It’s an arithmetic problem: how many points do I need to devote to my defense? How many does that cost me if I want to win? Because … Read more

Seafarers plays like Catan on water (until the second time you play it), and then you know that the ocean is nothing more than an area for your plans to meet their death at the hands of pirates. The base game is wood, brick, and point-counting. This expansion is all about taking chances as you … Read more

So what’s a player to do when they see an adversary has just taken a noble tile and sits two points away from victory in Splendor? Gems abound in your hand, plus you have running discount engines; still, it feels like navigating your way to fifteen prestige points is more like walking through a maze. … Read more

It’s a bit of a look-but-don’t-touch experience at first, because Azul’s scoring rules has a way of throwing people off. There are times when you’ll confidently lay down a tile only to discover it triggered a penalty for exposed floor which can cost you dearly on the scoreboard. Most mistakes come from misunderstanding how points … Read more

Everdell’s scoring isn’t simply based off the cards you’ve laid out on your table. It’s about the points you didn’t see coming, or the slots you neglected to fill in, or those hidden efficiencies that will make all the difference at game end. Those legends is worth keeping an eye on: They’re valuable, but they … Read more