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THE GAME
I get the impression that Viva Il Re isn’t that well-known, although it got a Spiel des Jahres recommendation in 2004 and it’s recent re-release as King Me is sure to have increased awareness more recently.

Viva Il Re is about selecting a new king and having your candidates in the best positions when one is chosen.  The board is split into numbered levels (from the bottom upwards: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 10).  The candidates to be king are placed on the different levels. Each player ‘owns’ several candidates but, apart from their own, players do not know which opponents own which candidates.  Multiple players can own the same candidate too.

Players take turns moving any one candidate (not just their own) to the next level up so long as no more than 4 candidates occupy any one level.  The top level is slightly different – when a candidate is moved there, the players simultaneously vote using their vote cards showing Yes or No.  If at least one No vote is cast, the candidate is executed and the game continues.  Read the rest of this entry »

THE GAME
Ra is one of Reiner Knizia’s classic games.  In this case, it’s an Egyptian themed auction game.  Players take turns either adding a random tile to those to be auctioned, or they can start an auction for the already drawn tiles.  If a Ra tile is drawn an auction is automatically initiated.  Three times during the game, the players score points (depending upon the type of tiles) for the tiles they have won, but the heart of the game is the clever, yet simple, bidding system.

During an auction, players get one opportunity each (going clockwise) to outbid any previous bid using one of their sun stones which each have unique values between 1 to 16.  Players start the game with a pre-defined group of 3 sun stones (4 in a 2-player game) ensuring each player has a fair mixture, plus 1 sun stone is placed in the centre of the table. Read the rest of this entry »

Dakota is an area-control game of settlers and natives in the Wild West.  The game mechanics are simple but their combination creates a very clever game which forces players to co-operate with their opponents in uneasy alliances.  At the start of the game, each player secretly chooses if they will play as a settler or as a native.  Any combination is acceptable so long as all players aren’t on the same side.  Each player starts with 3 pawns (representing their natives or settlers).  Depending upon the number of players on each side, some neutral native and settler pawns are also placed each round ensuring there are equal total numbers of native and settler pawns.  There are always at least 4 neutral pawns of each side.

During the game, players will gain resources and they can use these resources to gain extra or stronger pawns, plus they can be used to build buildings/totem poles and gain equipment which give the player extra abilities as well as score victory points (VPs).  Resources can also be sold for cash which can buy VPs too.  The game ends after a fixed number of rounds and the player with most VPs wins.  This may all sound fairly straight-forwards; however, it’s the area control part of the game which gives Dakota its identity and great gameplay. Read the rest of this entry »

THE GAME
In Cadwallon: City of Thieves, each player has a team of 4 thieves and they attempt to steal as much treasure as possible from around the city and from each other.  The board shows the corridors and rooms of an area of the city – a treasure tile is placed on each room, the players place their thieves on the board edges and 2 militiamen are placed on the board too.  Before the game begins, one of the 8 adventure boards is selected which sets special rules.  Players take turns comprised of moving a militia man, drawing an arcana card and spend 7 action points (APs) to move/use their thieves.

Militiamen
The militiamen are neutral city guards who block player movement and can attack other player’s thieves.  The current player rolls a dice to see how far the militiaman they choose moves.  The loser of a fight with a militiaman is moved (by the winner) 3 spaces and pays 2 ducats (cash) to the bank too. Read the rest of this entry »

Basilica is a fast, relatively simple and tight 2-player only game where players are building a cathedral and trying to score the most points. It may start out as a nice amiable building game but, don’t be deceived, soon you’ll be obstructing your opponent as much as assisting your own building.

THE GAME
The main game components are the double-sided game tiles – coloured vault floor on one side and an order (special action) on the other.  Each player has 5 builders (cubes) as well as one coin.  On the game board are 2 rows of 3 tiles – the bottom row are vault side up and the top row are order side up.  The game board also shows the current scores and the king’s progress. Read the rest of this entry »

Black Market is a stock market game so, as you would expect, players buy and sell the 5 different colour shares to make as much money as possible. However, the way the prices change is the key game mechanic that makes this game fun.

THE GAME
At the end of the game, the player who has bought the most silver bars wins.  Why not just base the winner on cash?  Well, the silver bar price increases throughout the game.  The ever rising silver bar price also works as the game’s timer – as soon as it hits 100 (per bar), the game ends.

Player Actions
On their turn, a player can either: buy shares, sell shares, or buy silver bars.  A marker for each of the 5 shares on the price grid shows the price at which shares of the matching colour can be bought or sold.  Shares are represented by little wooden, coloured briefcases.  The shares available for purchase (the ‘market’) are represented by a pile of briefcases next to the board.  Read the rest of this entry »

Water Lily is a very simple game and short enough be a filler but there’s a lot more fun to this than you may expect due to the clever scoring system.

The goal is to move your colour frogs so they score the most victory points (VPs).  There are 4 frogs in each of the 5 colours and each player is secretly allocated a colour so they don’t know which colours the other players are.

Players take turns moving the top-most frog on a space (there can be up to 4 on any space) in a straight line.  The frog can be moved a number of spaces equal to or less than the number of the frogs on the space it moves from.  So, if there are 3 frogs on a space, you can move the top-most frog up to 3 spaces. Read the rest of this entry »

Troyes was in the top games on the Spiel Fairplay rankings throughout the show.  Fortunately, I pre-ordered my copy as it sold out quickly.

Troyes is a mixture of worker placement and dice allocation.  The goal is to earn the most victory points (VPs).  Players start with a few workers and one use for these is to place them in one of the 3 principal buildings: town hall (yellow), palace (red) and bishopric (white).  At the start of each round, players receive 1 coloured dice for each of their workers in these buildings (yellow dice for workers in the yellow building, etc).  Players roll their dice and place them in their area of the town square.

Before the main actions, 2 event cards are drawn which threaten the city and cause negative effects (like a loss of cash).  The first player (and maybe players after them if required) will need to discard dice to combat the immediate effects although this doesn’t remove the events from the board. Read the rest of this entry »

There have been a lot of pirate-themed games in the past but not many have covered the full pirate experience.  To make it worse, the Sid Meyer’s Pirates boardgame never made it to completion.  So, when I read the rules to Merchants & Marauders, I was very pleased that a big Pirate game was coming.

THE GAME
The goal of Merchants & Marauders is glory – the first player to score 10 glory points wins.  Each time a player gains a glory point, they also receive a glory card too which is a special ability or item, so your captain becomes more accomplished throughout the game.  Glory is gained through impressive feats such as defeating a ship in combat, trading large amounts of goods, completing missions, gaining wealth, and more.

The board shows the Caribbean split into sea zones – each zone contains a port, plus has a special rule too making every zone different.  Read the rest of this entry »

When I first read about Isla Dorada I knew it would be something to check out because it sounded different to other games.  The players have crash landed on a desert island and aim to collect the most valuable treasure to win.  That’s not too different, but the way the players move is.  Rather than each player moving separately, the players are a single expedition party which never splits up.  So, players bid to decide who will choose the path along which they will next travel.  The island has various named locations on it and these are joined by different types of paths.  Players take turns bidding (stating which path they will move the expedition along if they win) and the highest bidder gets their way.  Players need to pay for a successful bid using adventure cards from their hand and the cards must match the type of path being used, i.e. kayak cards to move along rivers, yak cards to travel mountain paths, and so on. Read the rest of this entry »