Update: Mar 2022

Incredible depth and opacity! I really don't see a reason to play 98% of mid to heavy Euros when I can just play FCM.

===========================

The right mix between tactics and strategy - neglect one, and you'll suffer on the other. Wide decision tree. Every round is a big decision. Tense competition with no nonsense mechanisms and zero luck.

All this and yet the rule set of this game is around medium or medium-heavy.

UPDATE: Oct 2020



How can a small box card game, the same size as Coloretto can pack. So. Much. Game! Five star!

==================

This game is broken, chaotic, and wild. No Euro prudeness of order and efficiency. You build up combos. Exploit it and overwork it. Indeed, it is a game of agility and adaption. The best player is not the most aggressive, not the most efficient, but the one who adapts the best. It is "Arms Race: the Card Game". A game with no holds barred - all comes in a small box card game. Amazing show from Carl Chudyk.

This game might become a 10 after repeated plays.

Brutal auction game of building houses on newly done streets. Every auction round is tense and thinky. A game that is cruel but the game incentivises you to not dunk your opponents on scoring; otherwise, they will dunk you in return resulting in a massive minus points.

Includes:
Narrow Gauge & Erie Railroad Company
Nickel Plate Road



As a fan of Cube Rails, this is still my favourite in the Cube Rail family. The rules are so simple, a bit more than Irish Gauge, but less than German Railways. But it's a game filled with tough and interesting decisions. Zero luck and heavy in player interaction. This game is a masterpiece.

A hidden masterpiece from Leo Colovini. The goal is simple: have the most masters on the board. The three actions you can take in a turn are also simple: place a master, place 2 students, or send all students from one village to another.

And yet the game is a kaleidoscope of tactics where you try to send as much students as you can and preferably they are sent by someone else. To position yourself in a way that you cannot be dislodged by other players, and to position yourself to kick out the opposing masters on neighbouring villages.

Interactive, confrontational, tactically deep, but not mean at all. Simply masterful.

Including the USA & China map expansion

UPDATE: :Jun 2022



Looks like I need to write something rather than just "the best Knizia ever!!!"

The gameplay is very Acquire-esque where you try to have the most shares of the best companies, and also you want to have the most of the company that's gonna get acquire- Wait, what...

You also end up helping other people who have the most stations in that said company. So, again, people want to have the most stations in the best companies, and... have the most stations of companies that are getting acquired. Hmmm....

Yes. Very opaque decisions. So many avenues for inter-player synergy. Even the cities. The cities just gives incentives on how players carve England with its rails.

Aaaahhhh!! I left out the veto. You cannot spell aggression without "veto". You want to build that route? I'll veto it and now you have to pay up with shares on that company that you have been nurturing. So, do you want to lose shares or you let someone divert that rail line?

============================

UPDATE: Feb 2022

This is the best Reiner Knizia game. Ever.

==========================

Don't listen to naysayers. This is the best Knizia along with Tigris & Euphrates.

Opaque decisions and heavy in player interaction. Masterpiece of a design

Brilliant game of economic/logistics game from Splotter. The co-dependency between producers and shippers is pretty brilliant.

The merger mechanism is a tool for anything: takeovers, selling crap companies, opening up a slot. Fantastic aspect of the game.

Production quality is poor and usability is poor.

Splotter in 2 hours. It has the opaque decision making within tactical and strategic level and the shared incentives that you see in Indonesia and Food Chain Magnate.

The Great Zimbabwe is a triumph in 21st Century board game design.

Plus, the theme is just so charming!

Including Age of Reformation promo



Game is deep in strategy as well, not just tactics. So many tricks to pull. A triumph. This is the BEST Pax title from this family.

================
Perhaps the best Pax title so far. The shared map and shared kingdoms/units are so fun to manipulate. The game is very tactical, but it is rich in tactics and theme.

Alas, this game got a lot of rules to internalised, but the effort is worth it, imo.

A great sequel to the original.

My thoughts from Quo Vadis - which is still relevant:
I'm pleased on how much I like this. Typical Knizia structure - simple lean rules, player interaction, and interesting decisions. However, I haven't seen one with negotiation embedded in it. It's mechanical, but captures the theme of politicking and promoting yourself so well.

Nov 2021:



Easily Mac Gerdts' best game (with OG Imperial) and one of the best games out there.

Decisions are very opaque and the game is very dynamic.

=========================

Internalising the rules is easy, but since I'm the teacher of this game, it took me a while to appreciate this game. I can see the depth, from our first game, but after a few games, this game is unparalleled.

I was hesitant on giving this a 10 when I can see it being a 10, but I want to "get" the game first. It was worth it. Mac Gerdts, you are a genius.

The best traditional abstract game for me. Simple rules, but oh so many choices, clever plays and painful reversals.

INCLUDING:
Factions:
Ancients
Bubastis
Daemon Sultan
Opener of the Way
Tcho-Tcho + Tribes
The Sleeper
The Windwalker

Others:
Azathoth
Colour Out of Space
Dire Azathoth
Dire Cthulhu
Great Old One Pack 1
Great Old One Pack 2
Great Old One Pack 3
Great Old One Pack 4
High Priests
Nodens
Ramsay Campbell Horrors Pack 1
Ramsay Campbell Horrors Pack 2
6 to 8 player Earth Map
Plastic Gates

UPDATE: Nov 2021



Need to revisit this comment.

Serious strategic depth that it was completely unexpected to me. Turns out, you can have a deep strategic game and have big minis, both at the same time.

Throwing a bucket of minis to me is not an excuse to give us a poorly designed game. Designers who wants to design a troops-on-a-map with lots of minis nowadays need to step up.

========================

Amazing game. One of my top area control games of all time. The game is so asymmetric - like Root. The rules are very straight forward and learning it is very easy, which is what you want, really - unlike Root. The strategy is deep than at first glance of the easy rules. The choice of which spell books to go for will shape how your game will be played. If you like the Cthulhu Mythos theme, then this is an amazing choice.

The only flaws is the price tag (which is obvious), and the runaway leader if no one is balance each other - which you will find in other area control games.

Complex decisions and player entangling themselves, yet the game is very simple. A triumph!

One of the best party games I've play. A party game weight but gives you so much interesting decisions.

If you're the mob boss, how are you gonna distribute the wealth around? The question isn't just: who are the loyal ones? But also, who are your consistent voters?

If you're one of the people receiving wealth, should you vote yes to receive the money? Vote no to stop the incumbent from staying as the boss? Or do you want to steal some more to pad your patronage money?

If you aren't getting money from the boss, how are you gonna make money? Do you want to vote no to strike down the distribution or risk stealing money form others?

It's ridiculous on how good this is.

Oh wow. What a hidden gem this is. I know it's from Andreas Steding, but oof, not as well-known as his other works.

But this is good. The game is a two-prong fight between two side where every round the rules alternate between magic and sword. So, a better player will always plan for the next round while they are competing for spaces in the current round.

This game NEEDS to be more well known.

What a bomb! What a game! The partnership is fun. Good amount of screwage. Rules are pretty easy to internalise. This might be my fave Cole Wehrle

including:
Australia & Canada map
France & Germany map



Excellent excellent Cube Rail. No auctions, and so the game emphasises the alliances aspect more. Way more entertaining and weighty than expected.

Easily Mac Gerdts' best game (along with Imperial 2030) and one of the best games out there in board gaming if you love opaque difficult decisions. And the game is just very dynamic. Big decisions. Ruthless. A masterpiece.

Ridiculously mind-melting and opaque trick-taker. Hayashi manage to combine trick-taking with the 18xx-vibe. A triumph!

Nov 2021:

Nearly 6 years of owning this game, it still remains one of the best fillers. It's a mind-melting opaque game of chicken.

================================

I've called this "Lobbying: the Board Game". Such a tight and elegant game where you only have 8 cards (actions) in the entire game, but you are torn between using them and preserving them.

No luck area control game where there's no obvious strategy and so much player interaction even if it doesn't have any direct player interaction.

It's a game that packs a lot of punch with minimal rule set and smaller footprint. A classic among German style games.

Better rules. This revision is a big improvement.

Including:
Starter set: Phoenix Elves + Tundra Orcs
Skyspear Avians
Cloaks
Fungal Dwarves
Eternal Council
Sand Goblins
Obsidian Dwarves
Shadow Elves
Wayfarers
Swamp Orcs
High Elves
Crimson Order
Mountain Vargath
The Forged
Deepwood Groaks

One of the best social deduction, as it is pure social deduction! Still better than random-fest Secret Hitler.

includes all expansions

2 player High Form -

Simply an amazing game that requires creative tactics and careful strategic planning. Bloody hell, Vlaada. This is damn good

The very chess-like system is so charming with its many chess like pieces that have their own movement. The rule of not breaking the hive is so cool and clever. ALways up for a game of this.

Includes all the add-ons:
Ladybug
Mosquito
Pillbug

UPDATE:

I won't play it again with the cards that adds in more player pawns. They skew the decision trade offs so much that players almost always pick them up. Either you pick it up or you're hosed. Not really an interesting question.

=====================

A game like El Grande but more brutal and visceral game. The game is just so thematic and the ebb and flow of the gameplay is very satisfying. Playing it with 4 to 6 is a joy. haven't tried with less than that. Every game always emerges in a different way.

Without a doubt the best worker placement game and one of the best area-control game.

I prefer playing it without the cards that gives players action pawns.

However, I still prefer El Grande with its leaner design and quicker duration.

Update: MAR 2023

It really doesn't matter which expansion arc to use as they are all great.
GS + RvI is awesome with the goals and takeovers. Never tried it with BoW though.
Alien Artifacts is great. Without the Orb mode is the closest to OG Race.
Xeno Invasions gave military interaction more heft.

==============================

Not as accessible as San Juan nor Fields of Green, but this card game is the best one out there. Race for the Galaxy is the benchmark - If I'm playing a card tableau game and I end up saying "I'd rather play Race", then you just failed. That's how I highly regard Race.

The simultaneous action selection made the game deeper and more subtle. The addition of goals from the first two expansions made the game more interesting.

My favourite auction and speculation game ever. A game with so much depth:rules ratio, such a strong theme, and can be shown to anyone who is interested on joining the hobby.

Knowing when is the buyer's market and when is the seller's market is interesting and satisfying. Knowing when to sell which artist, when to refuse buying them (even if they are the most popular), when to collaborate with other players.

The best question that every newbies ask me is "How do you know the worth of each artist?" - that's the game.

Amazing. Wide open trading game where you can trade cubes, but also part of your engine. Tech discovery is useful for everyone, increasing tempo, but the points are all yours. A simple, but clever and subtle design.

This is the best big box trading game.

UPDATE: Lowered the rating to 9, as many of the cards are US-centric (why would you do this?), and even some are very situationally dependent.

The best party game in my collection that I can show to almost anyone. Everyone is just laughing by Round 2 and 3.

Negotiation, alliances, and backstabbing condensed into a small box game. No-luck game. Cutthroat, mean, and rough. A triumph!

Magnificent Rosenberg game as usual. Squeezed Agricola into a lean game. Although, it did de-fanged the game too. The random buildings at set-up helps so much with replayability - keeping it to the spirit of Agricola.

However, why is this wonderful game have to come in a stupid sized box?

You bid as much as you want. 100? Fine. 100B? That's fine too. You're the government. However, at the end of the game, the player who spent the most money is eliminated. Very similar to High Society.

What makes it distinct is the way the game controls information. In High Society, you have very good information on roughly how much every other player have spent. In Q.E., the winning bid is privy only to the winner and the auctioneer. This information is the crux of the game. It allows you to gauge how much you want to spend. Misinforming your friends on how high they can still bid. It is also a game of chicken in which the game tempts you to break through the ceiling, hoping that someone will leapfrog you later.

I've seen games where it spirals to hyperinflation death. Some games where amazing restraint is shown where no one wants to break ranks. Some where it is somewhere in between. Playing this on different groups shows how different the meta is on different places.

Classic abstract game. Not my 1st choice of a 2 player game, but I won't say no to it.

A social deduction game where each player don't know who is their ally or enemy and both teams have to bluff and lie. Bluffing is now a form of defence against the opposing team. However, you want to be truthful too to gain the trust of your teammates.

The cards are randomised from the players hand, however, the player has control of the information. This is what I like about One Night Ultimate Werewolf in which the control of information is the key to winning. But Tempel des Schreckens is simple. Dead simple. So it is much easier to show to practically everyone.

including:
Climate
Flight
Gigantism
Promo Pack 1



Amazing card game with light rules and strong player interaction. I literally can't see why you'd want to play this without the simultaneous play. The turn-based play means you can over-analyse rather than evolving in parallel with your opponents - which I find more thematic. The former mode also means you can literally play this with 6 players in just an hour.

Increased to 5 stars

======================

UPDATE June 2021:
The timing questions that the game presents is very interesting. Definitely one of the best trick taking games.

=============

Very good trick taking game where timing and patience is required. Prefer this over Skull King.

Screwage card game, but you're playing with the probabilities, which doesn't feel as arbitrary as take-that mechanisms.

Rated with the two-sided variant

UPDATE: Aug 2020

More games on and the game is more interesting and deeper than expected.

========================

Negotiation and bribery. The game smacks with tasty "coopetition". The merging of areas and bribing the overseer reeks of strong player interaction. Brilliant show with very simple rules, that it is also a hit with non-gamers.

The game suffers from AP-ers who will try to calculate the whole decision tree, as the game is open and can be calculated.

It's a filler length 30mins-ish Cube Rail game. But oooffff! Why is it so good!? Very simple rule set as you would expect from a Cube Rail - 2 options on a turn, but it's a thrill as railway companies spider webs their way out of Paris.

Both open-hand shares and closed-hand shares are fine with me, but I prefer the open hand one for a deeper experience.

UPDATE Jun 2021:



Yep. This Euro flares the same way as a Mac Gerdts Euro do. It is fantastic. If you like Mac Gerdts' stuff or a deeply strategic Euro, Noria is sheer joy

=========================

Fantastic Euro. Very strategic, and yet it is very tense and has meaningful player interaction. The wheel mechanism is very cool, and it is deterministic. It is much more satisfying to use than bag-builder/deck-builder games. The politics phase is simple but sheer genius.

Elegant. Sublime. Subtle. Clever. A perfect specimen in this family called the Cube Rails. I prefer the zero luck of Chicago Express. However, the luck in this game doesn't degrade it - the game of probabilities factors in your thinking of what actions to take and how to use them. The ebb and flow of the probabilities of company payouts made the game more dynamic than first expected.

Oohhh it's like King of Siam but a bit loose and has a pseudo-spatial puzzle on top where swings can happen.

I'm liking this more and more.

Original, elegant, and beautiful, like a Black Rose

NOTE: I have the original Hansa Toot with all the expansions. Better to just have this as Owned for ease.

Such a weird beast of a Euro. It has the action-efficiency of its near peers, yet it is so different and radical. So radical that it's hard to find an adjacent for Hansa Teutonica.

The blocking isn't merely petty - there are interesting reasons why you want to block here and there. Why do you want to place your cubes here? There's always an interesting reason.

Hansa Teutonica will remain as a well-received game as it is a show-off that displays how different it is, but also how it excels on action-efficiency + board positionning.

Set in Afghanistan during the Great Game. Players play as Afghan lords who are navigating through a changing political landscape where the Russians, British, and local Afghans struggle to control the "Graveyard of Empires".

Players indirectly influence the three competing factions to their own benefit by swearing allegiances on them, send their armies to clash with other factions and other players, and change sides when it is convenient for them. Controlling areas with your tribes and sending your assassins to kill leaders under control by other players.

Pax Pamir 2e brings that onto the table with great production. The faction pieces looks beautiful and can be used as either armies or roads. The rolled up embroidered cloth map is very cute.

Rating for 1st edition only

Excellent brain-melting opaque game with simple rules and actions. I can easily see this going to the top ranks with more plays

Very good stock speculation game where you have to sacrifice stocks to the charity to prevent yourself from losing. The sharing of info with other players is very entertaining

Great game. Things that seem calculable aren't that calculable. Evaluations of companies and its shares are very interesting. Making a connection isn't so straight-forward as you have to gauge the board state with everyone's incomes, who bought your shares, and which poor company will be denied some bonus dividends. All of it is interesting.

I might have some reservations on the luck of the draw, but would need more plays to see it.

This shedding game messes up with my mind

Long Live Tichu!

Amazing amazing card game. Long term strategies to be had. Dynamic and emergent gameplay. All with such a small footprint.

Same tough frustrating decisions as with Glory to Rome. But might end up preferring this over GTR upon further plays

Wutai Mountain included

2nd ed including:
All Your Base
Break for Launch



Another hit from Chudyk. Multi-use cards but in Spaaaaace. The mini 4x game with card combos you'd expect from this designer. But man, the rulebook is pants

I now prefer the alliances of Chicago Express/Wabash Cannonball with its faster and lighter framework. Might decrease it to 4 stars.

EDIT: Ahhh.. The Old Prince knocked this game down.

=====================

Incredible wide array of strategic options. Only prefer 1882: Assiniboia better than this one. Against most 1830-derivative, I highly prefer this one.

A genuine classic that stood the test of time.

It's a cooperative trick-taking. There's nothing groundbreaking in here. It's merely a trick-taking game with a cooperative element in it. But it's fun. It's a more complex version of the Mind, in which it restricts communication like the latter, but the timing on when to play the right card at the right trick is pretty interesting and always satisfying when pulled off.

The "campaign" contains several missions which are different variations on how many and in which order you fulfil the missions. But they don't dampen the experience of the game. They feel different enough for us to go through the missions.

Brilliant blind bidding + route building from Knizia. Not Tier 1 but still fab. Im keeping it for now.

Definitrly better than Dream Factory for me. Perhaps, even better than Taj Mahal.

UX issues with the awful shells that rolls around when placed. Placed tiles are hard to spot and the blue and green tokens are too similar.

Player count in base game EEG Deluxe:
Rust Belt: 4-5
Germany: ?-6
Poland: 4-?
France: 3-?

Includes: Exp Maps Vol 1 - 3



Update: MAY 2023

Lacks shared incentives that would put it in the Top 10 or lower, but this is one of the best efficiency snowball game out there.

=========================

Update: JAN 2022

The late game dullness isn't accurate. It is more about lower player count for the Rust Belt map, which makes it loose. The correct map for the player count will result in tense late game moves and claustrophobia

=========================

A proper train game and a Wallace hit. Played with 3 and 4 so far, and it is really enjoyable. Every choices is tight and tense. Early game is always worrying about your budget.

Unforgiving game, but if you do pass that stage, it felt great.

Late game tends to be about maximising points, rather than making tense decisions though. Needs more plays to confirm or just my inexperience.

Incredibly dynamic. I'm still pretty new, but how to play well remains elusive to me.

Another fantastic 1830-style game with "short duration".

Undecipherable and opaque on first few plays. Ridiculous.

Amazing and thrilling! Almost a race just to stave off the emperor from killing your companies. A game of alliances, discipline, and timing. This is, in every way, better than her other work, Iberian Gauge.

I am seeing more depth here with more plays. More tricks discovered and more nuance seen. Excellent game! The box size makes this one of my top heavy games ever.

============================

Not as thematically compelling as Pax Renaissance, but the optimistic hard Sci-Fi is very evocative. I understand the aversion of some people with the Eklunds' Libertarian angle, but most cutting edge stuff that comes out in the 21st Century are done by private enterprise (and universities) using patents they commercialised, rather than by the state. As much as I dislike the personality of the CEO of SpaceX, this company have made strides on space travel in years, but took state-run NASA decades to do. It becomes much more convenient for states to simply subsidise or subcontract corporations in order for them to achieve their strategic national interests (obviously, this stands in contrast with the philosophy of the game, but that's not my point). I feel like a lot of well-meaning people are still instinctively stuck with 20th Century thinking.

Anyway, the game... the strategic and tactical decisions here are very interesting. Realigning the regime towards one that is most beneficial to you is very compelling. The perks and the end game scoring are something to consider. Player collusions happen, but I feel like Pax Renaissance got this better. But I feel that it did it better than Pax Pamir 2. More plays require to see this more clearly.

Very different game in which it's much more constructive than destructive. 3 different types of trains and 2 different ways to capitalise a company means that there's a lot of options that you can do to play creatively.

Often deride as "18xx: the Euro game", it does capture the vibe. But it's a tag line that actually works for me.

I might decrease it, as the best choices seem apparent.

This game is one of a kind. I can see myself just playing this one game forever and I will be okay.

Including:
1817 Volatility
1817WO
1817NA
18USA

One of my fave trick-takers. The tension on how high or how low everyone plays is pure mind-games as the rule where the 2nd highest played card will take the worse tide card messes with everyone's head.

I have realised something. I thought there was a decline of Ameritrash games in the context of number of releases (outside of the reprints). But I was looking at it wrong. Recent Ameritrash or "experience" games have formed a different style, but kept their core priority. John Company is one. And John Company is one of the best experience/Ameritrash games out there. This is easily THE best of its type of 2022.

And that is good. We need to move on from Fantasy Flight Games' ageing design philosophies.

Okay. I love it! This is one of my top trick takers now

=======================

Brilliant trick taking game where the initial dice drafting produces tough decisions. Tough decisions on influencing what would be the trump suit and number. Tough decision on which die to use to get the right leftover die as your trick bid.

Oh Nokosu Dice, why did you elude me like this? Now, you are gone. Please come back!

Basically: the Crew 2. The missions are different, but not necessarily better. Just different. As such, it automatically commands a high rating in my eyes.

I have the objectives decks and missions booklet from both games in one box for easy transport, as everything else are duplicates between Crew 1 and Crew 2.

Snappy dexterity game that comes in a small bag and simple rules. It's my portable crokinole.

Really tricky hand management rules. But once you get past internalising that rule, it is one of the best trading games I've played. Bohnanza is pretty stripped-down trading. The planting mechanic gives players an incentive to sell. The board state isn't a bloody mess so you can actually read what people want. And the cards have different values, which makes the trade more complex than a simple 1 for 1 value.

Very good abstract game of indirectly influencing the board - a la The King of Siam (alas, I can't help but to compare it with King of Siam). The tie breaker is more transparent and easier to manipulate. Indeed, the tie-breakers are a nice incentive to push players to expend their influence on the board.

The wide distribution of different types of bombs made this more gradual and more interesting than the original Tmebomb/Tempel des Schreckens

Amazing game with 3! Not sure about 2.

More comparable to Schotten Totten/Battle Line lineage than Trick Taking. It is though one of the best 2 player games I have ever played

Very good "whodunnit" game. Not as good as Sherlock Holmes, but it's still great

Base game:

UPDATE: Aug 2021:

Not sure if this OG edition is enough for me without the King & Intrigue module as my preferred "advanced variant" for El Grande. Decennial or the Big Box is pretty much a must now.

UPDATE Oct 2020:

The King & Intrigue mode is very interesting spin and surprisingly strategic. This elevates El Grande into something grand - a very tactical game with strong player interaction with a strategic "deck construction" as its base. Very very excelllent.

===================

El Grande is still a timeless classic to me. The game is easy to understand, but has great depth with the combination of action cards, power cards, and the King. The tower mechanic stops it from becoming a dry stale game.

Replaced by the Decennial edition of the game.

Fun bidding card game with player-driven alliances. When to play and when to fold is key.

However, you must play with the old rule set where the Bishop triggers a tied match with no winners. If you use the new rules, then it becomes a snowball game for the player with the strongest hand. With the old rules, there's a strong tension point on where players must be careful on playing too aggressively and get Bishop'd. But players are also punished if they play too conservatively due to the Key card.

Great auction game from Knizia. The asymmetric incentives between players is really interesting on top of such a simple rule set.

However, I don't find it as interesting as Modern Art or Medici or Strozzi. The area majority contest in Strozzi is much more interesting for me.

Many years on. Dixit is a game that I wont turn away, despite liking dozens more light games over this.

Surpassed by Dixit Odyssey

One of the best trading games I have played. Plus points for being so dead simple

Really enjoyable solo/partners game where you use your wits to figure out the mysteries of the cases. I love this to bits.

I'm currently on the 2nd case, at the moment. I might raise the rating as I progress through this volume.

UPDATE: FEB 2024:

========================

UPDATE: Feb 2022
This game has been surpassed by Stephensons Rocket

==========================

Reiner Knizia's best game he ever made. I've spent so much time playing with the app, and more with the board game. Tigris & Euphrates shows that you can have thrill and tension with tile-laying games. The game is also very thematic, invoking the theme of the rise and fall of Mesopotamian Bronze Age kingdoms.

Despite the random tile draw, the game allows and rewards thoughtful movements and long-term strategy - something that Yellow & Yangtze does in a lesser extent.

Many years on. Dixit is a game that I wont turn away, despite liking dozens more light games over this.

Odyssey is much better than the original

Not sure if this should be on the same level as Spirit Island. So, I need to play this more.

Simply put: this version of Pandemic have made base game Pandemic obsolete to me. It introduces a 5th player, the diseases are more difficult to contain, and the railroad feels way more strategic than the research centres. Production and art are stellar in this game. The game is still very reactive due to the card draws, but this is tolerable against the improvements in the game.

What's probable the best is that the game is much more difficult. Ramping up the difficulty is nice, and the game also offers much more souped-up diseases that are more deadly and potent. Also, Pandemic Iberia is the closest of all spin-offs to the original theme.

Includes:
Illusions
Quests
Traps
Queenie Box

A game with party-game length and light rule set. This game always thrills non-gamers. The "sharing" of dice actually makes this much MORE cooperative than Pandemic where players have agency to contribute, rather than having one person analyse the board state.

It can get samey with veterans, but the expansions saved this by making it more difficult.

Very tense back-and-forth 2 player game by Reiner Knizia. The light weight of the game was helped by the mechanic to make 3 card sets a la 'Gin Rummy'.

People dismiss it as a simple filler game, but neglects that you can play well by card-counting, timing, and choosing where to place your powerful sets.

Rated higher due to Spor o Bor's production value

includes:
Cities in Ruin
Forsaken Lore
Mask of Nyarlathotep
Mountains of Madness
Signs of Carcosa
Strange Remnants
The Dreamlands
Under the Pyramids

UPDATE:

Starts to show it's age. The N+1 bidding is getting really lame, and The Estates end up being a more profound experience.

===============

One of the best auction game and push-your-luck game in the planet. It goes up to 6 players, but the game is so easy to teach and so fast to play. It is also a very simple form of those economic games of "spend money to get more money" types. Very interesting decisions all around. Much purer than Ra or Amun-Re.

I prefer Modern Art, but this is still a master class in elegance + depth.

The Grail Games edition got stupid scoring track that is difficult to use. Poker chips are used instead, which is easier for usability and also easier accounting.

UPDATE: FEB 2024 - still a very good game, but after playing most of the Wehrle's ludography, I found Root to be his oddest design and also the weakest, in terms of depth. AIT, JoCo, Pax Pamir, and even Oath are all better than this

=============================

One of the best asymmetric game I've ever played. I don't know how I can dive into the COIN genre after playing this.

Unfortunately, the different mechanisms made the game feel solitaire-ish in comparison to other games like the Pax series, or Cthulhu Wars.

I end up preferring Cthulhu Wars with its ease of internalising of the rules, while maintain the depth that the asymmetric factions provide.

Includes:
Landmarks Pack
Marauder Hirelings Pack & Hireling Box
Riverfolk Hirelings Pack
Exiles and Partisans Deck
Marauders expansion
Riverfolk expansion
Underworld expansion
Vagabond Pack
Underworld Hirelings Pack

including Tea & Trade expansion

Really good classic filler game. Won't get tried of playing this. Double think and the appraisal of houses/checks is also engaging.

The best light area control game in my collection. The scoring is very cute and novel, but gives you interesting choices, as it prevents players from just monopolising the board.

The multiple ways of scoring is brilliant. You have to think of one action which allows you to advance yourself on multiple scoring avenues.

A masterpiece design from Schacht. I will keep this forever.

Update March 2020:



Despite having a bad streak of drawing crap tiles, you can still win by consistent good play.
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Easily one of my top economic games ever with its every approachable ruleset and its tense mechanic of merging and acquisitions. The area-majority with the shares is just brilliant. Just the magic that this game needs to make it a classic. Brilliant and genius trade-off between short-term and long-term investments. Always a winner to anyone I showed it to.

Included:
New Dynasty
Sun Ship Tiles

Update: 29/05/2022



Top tip: Buy the expansion which adds more variety, and you can now fit the entire game + exp in the expansion box. Suddenly, Imhotep is now a deep thinky filler small-box game.

===========================

Very unique and Knizian game where you can only do 1 action out of 3. And every time, you want to do more actions on your turn.

This game is always a joy to play, and decisions are always interesting. With the expansion, the game-by-game variety is increased.

The cubes in this game are also very tactile and larger than the tiny cubes you usually get in your bog standard game.

- with the advanced rules, especially the face up tiles

- with the basic default rules

Timing and strategic patience is everything in this game.

One of my Top 10 of 2019!

Only consisting of 9 tiles as the list of components (aside from the rule book). Only 2 actions you can do on your turn: place the tile from the top of the face-up deck, or rotate a tile on the map clockwise. This game manage to be a very minimalist game that gives you tough decisions, and it gets better for me after repeated plays.

I'm impressed with this. The Good Doctor knows, not just good game design, but good minimalist game design.

Played it on Essen several times, since it's a quick filler game.

An area control game where the tectonic plates shift all the time and you score when a continent is separate from the rest. So, fight for these continents via an area majority contest while trying to time it correctly is the crux of the game. You can also move the plates and make these dinos swim. The Dino meeples are very cute.

Including:
Beaches
Construction Zones
Interstate
Points of Interest
Wrecktar
Roadwork

Agropolis
Seasons
Invasions

Naturopolis
Nessie

Combopolis
Ultimopolis

Interesting. More plays required

4/5 stars for now. I need to play this more to see more of it. But this has good potential to be a 5 star. Simple rules with deep gameplay. Very good team dynamics. Wide roster of heroes.

Includes:
Defiant Hero Pack
Devoted Hero Pack
Renowned Hero Pack

Awesome classic game. Bidding up and keep raising the ante until someone calls someone's bluff. Good players are the ones listening to other people's bid and bid according to the information they are getting.

UPDATE: APR 2024 -

Down to 4 stars. Maybe back to 3? Not as compelling as Renaissance, Transhumanity, nor Pamir.
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Very good card tableau game that feels very alive, but the area-majority gameplay is often shallow in relative to Pax Renaissance and Pax Pamir.

I am now more inclined to just play either of the latter two titles.

UPDATE: MAY 2024 -

Down to 4 stars. Total non-participation on the area majority doesn't work.

===========

Excellent trick-taking + area majority hybrid. I am also biased due to its Philippine theme

UPDATE: OCT 2022 -

Wonderful game. I'd say it exceeded both Brasses. It surpasses Lancashire for a smidge, and easily beats Birmingham.

Age of Industry is no longer constraint by fixed number of turns, which releases it from its efficiency-gameplay prison. AoI is more open and creative on its plays. Yet, I found that the positioning here is much tighter as there are no inter-era reset that both Brass do. If a spot is taken, that is now taken forever. To emphasise, positioning is much much tighter and more consequential.

Flipping tiles are now about momentum and tempo, rather than efficiency VP hoarding. Flipping tiles is how to get more money, which you use to build more buildings, which you will flip for more money - and so on.

Ships are now useful, unlike in Brass: Lancashire. And they are more interesting than the Potteries in Birmingham.

All in all, this is the best one out of all the three.

======================

A weird redesign of the original Brass. It is as if Wallace grafted a bit of Age of Steam with a bit of Brass

Very good shared incentives card game, but the options can be rather limited, which limits who you want to ally with

Heavily derived from Chicago Express. It's a great game in itself but I still prefer Chicago Express. However, I have strong sentiments with this as it is set in the Philippines.

Included:
Warped World
Moon of Mystery

Very fun bluffing game, and it made Welcome to the Dungeon obsolete to me.

Glorious trick-taking game. Inverts a lot of expectations from other trick takers

Great co-op in a small box. Does the standard Pandemic formula in such a compact space that it kills what's left in me to play any of its big box kins.

Provisional rating - might go higher with more plays

Simple but complex. The rules on formations made it less weighty than chess but manage to introduce depth with its different abilities with formations.

More plays needed, but this might be one of the best 2 player trick takers. Very dynamic!

A jolly jolly 2 player filler game with fun thematic immersion about the Battle of Waterloo. Good show!

Concerns about roteness with more plays, but that is a minor one for a light weight filler game

Much more interesting at more plays once you internalise how to play number/suit cards

provisional - more plays needed

The game just has too much going on. It's unsurprising that it's a KS release game. No publisher with a brain would publish this mess.

However, Feudum got some things right. It's a cube-pusher that tells a rich narrative. It tells a story of a few vagabonds of yours that roam the land and make their own fortune in this kingdom. The playing area is so open that you're free to chase which avenue you want to go, and whichever direction tells you a story.

It's a game with an dynamic and interaction economy. The guilds are a layer of production chain that goes from one end to the other. And it is all driven by the players themselves. So much rich decisions can be made there.

But, like I said, it's a mess of a game, made by a designer without restraint, and without editorial control. Even the art direction is a joke. It puts too much priority on the prettiness over usability.

It remains to be seen if investing on this game would be worth it for me.

Including the following expansions:
Royal Chalice Promo
Royal Signet Ring Promo
Rudders & Ramparts
Rudders & Ramparts - Lone Isle Promo
Squirrels & Conifers
The Queen's Army
The Queen's Army - Atticus Promo

Quick fire MTG-style game for casuals like me. If I want something more involved, I would play Summoner Wars or Netrunner and so on. So this one manage to carve a niche in my shelf.

Including:
Mindbug: Beyond Eternity
Mindbug: Beyond Evolution
Promo Pack 2022
New Servants

Fun filler card game where you bid for points cards ranging from positive to negative points. The more players, the better.

Includes:
K1
K2
K3
K5
K7
R1 Wales
R2 South West
R3 North Norfolk

Includes:
K1
K2
K3
K5
K7
R1 Wales
R2 South West
R3 North Norfolk

Fun blind bidding game where you allocate at the start of the game how much money you start with on each of the 3 legs of the race

That's Not a Hat but now it has cards that allow you to send it to anyone on the table

NO SPOILERS

Update: Halfway into the campaign - made me love Ticket to Ride again by fixing the serious issue I have with this game by removing the skewed route scoring and focus the system towards ticket scoring.

I will really get into TTR (any map) again if we play with the Legends of the West basic rules

=================

Amazing campaign game. One of the few that got it right. Rules changes are also very well done! I really like how they removed the scoring on routes and instead have remaining trains as points

Highly recommend

Airlines Europe: the Card Game. Very good area control game with very simple ruleset

Amazing 2 player trick taker with a cool theme

Including:
Daimyo Box
Dynasty Invasions (KS edition)
Kami Unbounded
Monster Pack
Promo 1 - Sacred Warrior, Phoenix, Nure-Onna

UPDATE: JUL 2022 -

Good game, but suffers with the typical one-dimensional asymmetric factions. Again, this flawed logic where asymmetry is suppose to make the game interesting, but instead, it limits player creativity.

=============

Rising Sun pretty much suffered under the "Scythe syndrome". Never believed the publisher's hype because it's BS.

The supposed premise that Rising Sun as a negotiation & alliances game MUST BE IGNORED. It must be seen flat-out as a hybrid game with strong elements of "old-school German" (e.g. El Grande). Seen with the latter lens, you'll find that this game is one of the best in the genre. If looked with the former, as touted by their own PR marketing and other reviewers, it's rather lacklustre.

As for the game inside the game itself, it is a tense and dynamic game of double-guessing and spatial positioning. The engine building is also great with better decision space than Blood Rage's very tactical drafting.

Alliances is a necessary mechanism in this game to stop it from being boring, but I still find it shallow in terms of decision-making.

=============================

The game play is interesting with the blind bids and the several avenues of scoring. The alliance and negotiation is very bizarre and lacklustre. There isn't any incentive to go for one way or the other, which makes negotiation aspect of it non-existent. There's also no negotiation in terms of drawing borders on the map. The ones that were agreed are very obvious deals e.g. Player A won Province X and Player B and Province Y, so they made an agreement to switch places. The game play is also very disorienting to the theme, in which you lose the battle, but win loads of points by simply bidding on the correct action? Another bizarre thing.

UPDATE: APR 2024 -

Keeping this really rare English Z-Man 1st edition as a collectible. The game itself isn't THAT good.

==================

UPDATE: DEC 2022

Same thoughts as from DEC 2021. Yes. The grid pattern lack strategy, but the jostling for player position made me interested on this game again. Will play more to see if this will bump upwards to 4 stars

======================

UPDATE: DEC 2021

I found the game to have a predictable samey grid patterns - which is half of the game. The other half of the game remains the screwage denial of scoring and tight hand management that made Arboretum a strong game.

I am, however, downgrading it to a 2 star due to the samey strategic gameplay.

===============================

The rules are very simple and the scoring system is also very simple - except for one exception where 1 can turn 6 into 0. But other than that, the flow of the game is pretty smooth, as players juggle more with strategy than with mechanics.

The pace of the game can be slow, as players agonise over their choices. Which one to pick up, which one to play, and which one to discard. But that is good, as it shows the awesome depth of the game. Even with that, the game doesn't drag on and overstay its welcome. The ending remains intense as players show their hands and score.

A very brutal and tense game compact into a deck of cards in a small box with no board whatsoever.

Including:
Alliance
Conflict
Dominion
Eons
Incursion

UPDATE: MAR 2023
Default Rules:

This now seem like a negotiation party game to me. And now that I have played more and more negotiation games, this one seems lacking if you just play with the standard rules.

I still prefer the blind choosing of alliances to add a 2nd guessing tension.
The 2 aliens variant to ramp up the weirdness.
And Rewards deck is a MUST.

I end up preferring Intrigue and Bohnanza for your short games. John Company and Sidereal for the longer ones.

================

Ameritrash at its finest. The wealth of the thick alien deck - especially if you add in aliens from the expansions - makes the game infinitely replayable.

NOTE: Keeping this tiny 1st edition as a collectible.

Good area control and bluffing game, with Twilight Struggle-esque card system. A very underrated game.

The 2nd edition box looks awful. The fact that this is a microgame is the main appeal to me.

Includes both promos

Moonlight expansion and other mini-expansions included

Including:

Dangers & Muisca
Dragons, Treasures, & Mysteries
Heroes & Hexes
Promo pack
Letter of Recommendation promo
Telegram promo

UPDATE: APR 2022:

No longer own it. Trains is the better deckbuilder.
EDIT: Rebought it because of the Nordic edition

===================

I'm not a deck-builder person, and this one is the only deck-builder I have. Knizia did his usual magic in this. It follows the Dominion-style where the market is open. However, the game was made accessible by restricting it to a certain number of cards allowed to be purchase at a time.

The race being the main focus of the game distracts me from the deck-building aspect which is often about face-down gaming focusing on your own deck. Instead, I'm more concern with the map and the race, even as I browse the market and build up my deck.

Probably my least favourable game from Chudyk. It's a filler game, but it's too rules wrought and too clumsy.

If I want thinky filler card games, I'll just play something else

Based on Gerdts' streamlined 2020 rules variant.

This is much more interesting than Concordia. For two reasons:
1.) the ships become obsolete, so this modern design of snowballing is blunted.
2.) The scoring is much more interesting. In Corcordia, you can examine the board and the initial shop and decide which gods combo you wanna do and do it. More of than not, you'll give away with it. And strategy then becomes very linear and samey.
Not so much in Transatlantic. When a red ship is discarded, it becomes a VP modifier to all players who holds a red ship. So, you might want to let some red ships go to the scrapyard, but then it makes the red ships more appetising for other players to grab. Hmmmm

So, yes, under repeated plays: Transatlantic end up being more compelling than Concordia. However, it still cannot beat Imperial/Imperial 2023

Including:

Buka Invasion
The Aqua
The Flit
The Khind
The Mimix
The Pillar
The Terrah

Emissaries & Inquisitors - Allies
Emissaries & Inquisitors - Blessings

Earth Spirit
Water Spirit

This is a game that you need repeated plays as a group to fully appreciate. With repeated plays, the narrative-driven-by-gameplay is pretty good and the meta-gaming between members of the group makes it a more immersive experience.

A decent fun game of tug of war between different characters towards your line. Each characters have effects that are interesting. For a micro game, it's fun pulling the levers and finesse things.

Blue Moon meets Battle Line.

Provisional rating. Needs more plays

The Formula:

Squek & Sausage:

The Island of Doctor Goorse:

Unlock:
Escape Adventures
Heroic Adventures
Mystery Adventures
Timeless Adventures
Secret Adventures
Epic Adventures
Exotic Adventures
Mythic Adventures
Game Adventures
Legendary Adventures
Extraordinary Adventures
Flight of the Angel
Secrets of the Octopus
Secret Recipes of Yore
In Pursuit of Cabrakan
Awakening of the Mummy
Doo-Arann's Dungeon
Star Wars

Interesting tech tree game. Better than Beyond the Sun, imo, in terms of interaction. The interaction is subtle, but allows very clever synergies between players.

Amazingly lacking on fiddliness as resource bits aren't there at all, instead resources are represented by "capacity" by placing cube workers on factories which powers these capacities.

A mediocre designer would have given us gajillions of resource bits and would have made trading a separate action in itself that takes a lot of effort to do that players are instead incentivised to trade little, and you can only trade with the bank (I wasn't thinking of Clans of Caledonia, but after typing this block, Caledonia immediately came to mind).

But the random cards seems to act as blinkers for the players and pretty much shove them one way or the other when making a strategic choice.

Blue Moon meets Battle Line.

Provisional rating. Needs more plays

Includes:
Androids
Chaos
Cultists
Folk
Union

More plays required

Very group dependent. Members must immerse themselves to the improv and storytelling. The dynamic between players' characters and the Queen, and between themselves is interesting to see.