As the game continues, the available board space decreases, creating awkward spaces where difficult decisions must be made. Do I take this one tile? Or do I risk taking something worse while scoring less? That’s the essence of Isle of Cats: the connection between score and shape. That’s what the calculator does, it help you … Read more

In Isle of Skye, spatial planning are replaced with market economics when shields go up. You have three tiles of landscape, but only two can live through the round. Discard one by axing it down. Price the other two for sale to your opponents. Your opponents will either buy them or let you keep them … Read more

A key part of playing Quadropolis is that sometimes you draw tiles that look great on paper, but aren’t possible to build out based off your current board configuration. So maybe the tile has lots of points, but there’s no physical way for you to build out the space because of where else you have … Read more

In Suburbia, you put down a pretty tile. Income goes down. Population growth halt. That tile looks great on the board but the math doesn’t work. Your turn determines what happens next. See penalties coming so predicting the turn is important. Understand why they are moving. The math move. The winner understand the reason behind … Read more

For Notre Dame players there’s an additional level of dread: that rat marker on the board. Sure, it means giving up some prestige points; sure, it means shuffling around those cubes. But more than anything else, it feels like realizing you got the wrong answer to a math problem. The plague track doesn’t care how … Read more

In Troyes, you are sitting at the table looking at a yellow civil action card. It’s the type of merchant chain you require. Your district has a good die, one with a four on it. To advance to the next multiple to gain the cards yield, you must roll a six. In an opponent’s district … Read more

Rather than do the mental math yourself, the calculator weighs movement costs against clan board spots. In Glen More II, there are rivals to contend with and sometimes it’s a matter of seeing one turn ahead or three that means the difference between winning than losing. Understanding which inefficiencies you can afford is more important … Read more