Legacy: Testament of Duke de Crecy is a game where players create a family tree and try to create the family with the most honour.  The game looks innovative as players grow their family tree by placing cards in a tree-hierarchy.  Each player starts with a couple who can have children who then get married, have children, buy mansions, and so on.  In each round, the gameplay is focused on the latest generation of family members.  So, children born from a generation in one round grow-up and become the focus of the actions of the next round, having their own children, etc.

The heart of the gameplay is a worker-placement game.  Players place action markers on their own personal actions (marry, have children, socialise, ask friends for money) and on action areas on the main board which any one player can use but these are first-come, first-served (acquire title, hire fertility doctor, buy mansion, initiate venture, undertake mission, and contribute to community).

Having children is important but these children also need to marry so they can have children too.  When a family member marries, the player places one of the friend cards from their hand to create the couple, receives a dowry (or pays for the wedding), executes any effects of the new family member (like gaining income, friends, etc.) and then places a child beneath them too.  (Yes, these newlyweds don’t hang around.)  You can even arrange marriages before the children grow-up. Read the rest of this entry »

I am very pleased to announce that this year’s Metagames’ Annual Spiel game giveaway is being supported by Funforge and I will be running a competition for one of you to win a copy of Funforge’s promising new game Quantum.

Funforge have very kindly provided a copy of Quantum for the competition.  You can read my preview of Quantum here.  You can also find out more about Quantum and read the rules on Funforge’s website by using this shortlink: bga.me/quantum

More details of the competition will be coming in the next week so stay tuned.  The competition this year will revolve around the games I have previewed for this year’s Spiel.

James.

What’s Your Game have released some excellent games like Vasco de Gama and last year’s superb (and undeservedly less-known) Oddville.  This year they are releasing Madeira which looks a like a very meaty eurogame with many elements that you need to balance.

In essence, players select a group of action dice and use these on different characters and buildings to perform actions with their workers and ships (visiting fields on islands, colonies, cities and the city watch.  However, this summary completely misses noticing all the many game mechanics and resources to balance.  So, I’ll try to give a more detailed overview of the game which is played over 5 rounds.

At the start of each round, each player selects a row on the Guild Board which gives them 3 dice (the values have been rolled already), plus the player can also select one of the remaining Crown Request tiles in the same row (which can earn points a the end of some rounds).  The row selected also determines turn order for the next phase, plus allows the player to make ready some guild favours (special abilities) if they have any matching ones. Read the rest of this entry »

In Magnificent Style played on the location of the actual combat. The top of the board shows Cemetery Ridge, and the real Cemetery Ridge can be seen at top of the photo.

For a long time, I have been interested in the American Civil War (which is slightly unusual for an Englishman).  I finally realised one long-held goal of mine to visit Gettysburg a couple of weeks ago.  If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know I played Alhambra at the real Alhambra (which prompted a friend to play Carcassonne at Carcassonne) – so I departed for the US armed with a Gettysburg game to play at Gettysburg.  The game in question was ‘In Magnificent Style‘ by Victory Point Games – a single-player game set entirely on Pickett’s Charge – the infamous vast, brutal and final action of the Battle of Gettysburg.

[I want to say a huge thanks to Mark Rivera (Boardgames in Blighty blog) for lending me his copy of the game as I couldn’t get one in time for my trip.  He is currently launching his own game Luchador.]

However, rather than just play the game just anywhere around Gettysburg, I set my sights higher once I saw the battlefield and I actually got to play out Pickett’s Charge on the actual site of Pickett’s Charge!  This is a photo of the game ready to be played on location.  At the top of the board is the Union forces’ position along Cemetery Ridge passing the copse of trees.  In the background of the photo you can see the real Cemetery Ridge and the real copse of trees.  So, I was playing the game whilst sat at the position on the board shown by the top-right square of area 8.

The bottom of the board shows Seminary Ridge from where the Rebels launched their attack which, in the photo, is about 1 mile behind the camera viewpoint which you can clearly see when stood there. Read the rest of this entry »

Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling have an impressive track record in their design partnership with games like the excellent Palaces of Carrara, Tikal, Tikal II, Torres and Asara.  In fact, Kramer has won the Spiel des Jahres 5 times (twice with Kiesling).  So, I’m always interested in any game they create.

Glück Auf is a worker-placement mining game.  Each player has their own mine which has 4 levels (each providing a different type of coal) and a lift shaft down the centre.  The coal trucks you buy during the game must be placed on the matching level and they must also be placed on one side of the lift shaft of the tunnels they are in are torch-lit, or placed on the other if their tunnels are dark.

In the centre of the table is the main board where players place their workers to (a) gain coal orders, (b) gain cash, (c) buy mine trucks (which start coal filled in the relevant mine level), (d) gain movement points (which are used to move the coal and the lift to get the coal to the surface), and (e) deliver completed orders.  The action spaces for delivering orders allow a player to deliver any completed orders that match the action space’s transport method, i.e. a player using the delivery action space showing a train can deliver any complete orders they have with a train on them. Read the rest of this entry »

In Rokoko, players are tailors who are trying to gain the most notoriety at the royal ball of Louis XIV by outfitting the nobles.  As you can see from the image of the game (which is what caught my eye in the first place), it’s a Eurogame with quite a lot going on.  Plus, it’s by Eggertspiele and Pegasus Spiele so that also drew my attention.

Each round, players take turns taking one of the 6 actions such as gain resources (the different materials required to make outfits), gain patterns (the outfits to be made), hire employees, add a decoration to the ball’s location, etc.  Like you would expect from a Eurogame, players are trying to get the resources to make the best items, as well as other aspects, in order to score points.

However, it is not completely straight-forwards as simply picking an action.  Each player has a deck of employee cards (and they can hire new ones, and fire existing ones, during the game).  Each round, players secretly select 3 of their employees to use from their employee draw deck and they use each employee to perform 1 action.  Some actions can only be performed by specific types of employees; for example, the Master tailor can do any action; whereas, the Apprentice tailor can’t make a dress or hire an employee.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mauna Kea is a game about explorers fleeing from an erupting volcano.  This is not a co-operative game so players will be stepping over each other to reach the boats taking all the artifact they can with them.

During the game, players place tiles on the board to reveal the landscape.  Each tile without lava displays 4 smaller squares and these may contain artifacts (there are 17 white, 7 grey, and 1 black artifact in the game).  Some squares contain mountains which blocked movement.  Tiles with lava are added to the matching lava flow (there are 4 different flows) and an arrow shows the direction too.  Sometimes the lava flows split too.

The core game mechanic looks interesting as players have a few tiles in their hand.  On their turn, a player must play all of their tiles.  Tiles can either be placed on the board or they can be spent to earn movement points which the player then uses to move their explorers.  Each lava tiles shows on it how many movement points it is worth.  So, players will need to balance revealing new areas (thereby, hopefully, making a safe and beneficial pathway) and moving towards safety.  This definitely appeals to me as I do like multi-use items which the player can choose how to use them. Read the rest of this entry »

Image of prototype from Cliquenabend’s preview video. Click on the image to watch the video.

Bruxelles 1893 is a worker placement game with lots of game mechanics going on.  The setting is that players architects who are building Bruxelles in 1893.  The board is divided into two areas: the Bruxelles board and the Art Nouveau board.

Worker placement on the Bruxelles board locations is free (no coins); however, if a player wants to place on a location occupied by another worker, they must place one more worker than those already there; however, these extra workers go to jail/court when the player takes the action.  So, you can potentially use any action on the Bruxelles board but it may cost you workers.  The locations for workers on the Art Nouveau board is a grid and players must add coins to their workers when placing there.  The players with the most total coins in a column at the end of a round takes that column’s bonus card which can be used for either an instant bonus or saved for an end of point scoring effect.

The 5 actions are: gain resources for building, build a building, create a work, sell a work, and gain a character.  The income from selling a work (I believe a mix of cash and points) is based on the position of a marker on a grid – the income a player receives is based on the marker’s position and is adjusted by which player you are too.  So, changing the income marker’s position shifts all player’s potential income mix.  The resources required to build a building are determined by a dial and you can turn the dial after you construct a building.  Gaining characters gives a bonus but there’s a cost at the end of the game if you also keep the character. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always interested in the history of the Knights Templar and I remember seeing a prototype of this game at Essen a few years ago.  Players send their knights in missions so they can gain money and relics.  A mission if successful if enough knights are sent and these can come from a mix of players, so there’s some possible collaboration.

Players can then buy and sell at the markets and events happen.  After this, players can send their relics to different locations to put them on display; however, transporting anything takes money and is safer if escorted by knights.  Of course, there are various enemies that may attack locations too, so players must allocate their knights and resources carefully.

Towards the end of the game, the persecution of the Knights Templar begins and players must try to rescue their relics and try to get them to their havens.  When the persecution starts, players can only use money where it is currently located too (whereas, up until then, a player can move their money freely between their bases).  The winner is the player with the most victory points scored during the game, plus points for relics, knights and cash in their havens when the game ends.

I love the setting and the game mechanics sound interesting too.  I definitely want to try this one.  More information and the rules can be found on Stratelibri’s Mystery of the Templars page: bga.me/templars

James.

Rockwell is a mining game which mixes a little bit of worker placement (as you place your vice presidents at the start of each round to gain different advantages in the drilling phase) with tactical moving of your drilling crews.  Drilling is a often a joint effort by multiple players – if there are enough drilling crews of enough total strength on a tile then the resources recovered are revealed and shared between the players present (regardless of the amount of crews they have there).

Splitting the resources gained is intriguing as the players involved share out as much as they can so they have the same and any remainder is given to the player with the ‘priority’.  Players can move other players’ crews by bribing them, or they can pay to hire temporary crews (who don’t take a share of any gains).  Players can sell what they mine and buy other resources like improved drilling crews, permanent mine shafts and safety equipment.  Each player is attempting to complete some of the achievements which score fewer victory points if other players have already completed them too.

So, Rockwell looks like it contains a lot of interesting tactical decisions along with some strategy too.  More information and the rules can be found on Sit Down’s Rockwell page: bga.me/rockwell

James.