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David Ireland - Carcassonne Big Box#
I’m a huge fan of the Carcassonne series. I own the first edition of Carcassonne as well as some of the first edition expansions. This includes Inns and Cathedrals, the Princess and the Dragon, the Tower to name a few. We’re now up to 3rd edition. It’s an amazing game that is highly competitive every time it comes out on our tabletop. This Big Box does nothing but taunt me as I would love to pick it up.
This Big Box contains everything you will ever need for plenty of tile placing, meeple scoring fun. Within it you have the base game of Carcassonne and nothing short of 11 expansions, to which a lot of them are actually different to the expansions I currently own which is incredibly exciting, appealing and highly wanted. I know I could then combine everything to make a ginormous game of Carcassonne.
It’s a simple set of rules. Each turn, players turn a tile over and have to fit it into the board in best way to score points. You place the meeple (if you want to) in an attempt to score those points. Points are scored by the meeples of closed off roads or cities. Or you have the monastery, scoring points when all tiles around it are placed. Then the fields are scored at the end of the game and points are given out for how many closed cities are within the meeples field. The expansions add more methods of scoring. Obviously, the player with most points after the final count takes the win.
For me, expansions make Carcassonne with each one adding a different layer of depth to the game in how you can score and achieve points. So, the Big Box is perfect. As noted, the base game is included and this simple game is still highly enjoyable, and can be played out in just over 30 mins which is pretty cool if time is limited. I absolutely want the Big Box within my gaming collection. A great game with new gaming options in the expansions I do not own, yes please!
Arnaldo Amaral - Fit To Print
It’s Christmas time finally! The streets are alight, and the sweets are bliss, so let’s sit tight and review my wishlist! Ho-ho-ho!
We are officially on my favourite season of the year. It’s the time to get the lights dim and play comfy board games around the coffee table, with a hot chocolate in our hands and a blanket over our legs. And currently, I can’t think of a much better game to play in this setting than the most wanted game currently on my wishlist: Fit to Print!
Fit to Print is a game by Peter McPherson who also designed Tiny Towns and published by Flatout Games, also publishers of Calico, Cascadia and Verdant. The game is currently on pre-order after a very successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. It’s polyomino tile drafting and placement game for 1-6 players that usually plays in around 15 to 30 minutes and, very honestly, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
The artwork looks incredible, and the gameplay looks super fun and addictive. There’s lots of different tiles to choose from so I am sure that replayability will also be top notch, as it’s very unlikely you’ll end up with the same tiles in different plays. I highly regret missing out on the KS campaign for it as the Kickstarter exclusive cards and tiles look awesome as well, so I’ll probably be aiming to snatch a KS copy.
The game seems to be super beginner friendly and with such a varied player count (including a solo mode by Shawn Stankewich who designed the award-winning Cascadia solo mode) it really promises to be brought on the table time and time again. Dear Santa, please leave this one under my tree!
Andy Broomhead - Tenpenny Parks
With Christmas just around the corner, there’s one game in particular that’s moved its way to the top of my wishlist, and that’s Tenpenny Parks from Thunderworks Games.
In truth, this has been on my ‘to play’ list for a while, even checking it out of the lending library at AireCon way back in March, but not quite having the time to actually set it up, it went back soon after, completely unplayed.
This has all the hallmarks of a good game at our house – some great tile laying, and bit of worker placement, and some good old fashioned income to help you along your way each round.
You’re trying to construct the grandest theme park in the town of Fairview, by clearing trees so you can build concession stands, rides and attractions to make your park the most amazing.
I also really love the artwork for this as the tiles and cards have some incredibly colourful illustrations and a really nice looking vintage feel that carries over to the board. I also think the centrepiece carousel which is a focal point for placing workers to build attractions. It also rotates on the board allowing you to shift the relative cost of attractions each round too!
There’s a twist on most tile-laying games as well where you can’t place tiles if they’d share a flat edge with another one, you can, at best, place them in a diagonal space only.
Overall I’m really excited about the combination of some great art and familiar mechanisms so hopefully this will make its way onto my shelf soon!
Luke Pickles - Orleans
It’s Christmas time again, and what better way of making a game you really want become manifested than by writing about it on a blog? Yes, long gone are the days in which I would write a letter to Santa, so now I write a few words about a game I desire. This time around, there are two games which have risen highest on my wishlist. The first is Orleans, the bag building, worker placement game where you attempt to fulfil contracts, complete events and generally stop Orleans from falling into ruin. This was out of print for a while but a new expansion releasing at Essen has reignited the desire to own this game, and thankfully given the publishers a prod to make a new print run of the base game. I played this back in March and I’m really excited to give it another go. The other game is Legacy of Yu, the solo only resettable campaign game from Garphill Games, who are possibly my favourite publishers. The goal here is to live through the dynasty of Yu the Great and Yu himself, building canals, defending against floods and neighbouring barbarians in the process. I’m really getting into bigger solo games lately, and the chance to hide away whilst the Christmas arguments happen is quite enticing to go away and play my latest acquisition.
Rebecca Robinson - EXIT
As the festive season approaches, my thoughts are drifting towards what I hope to receive this year and high on my wish-list is an Exit Puzzle – a new twist on the original Exit escape-room-in-a-box. Whilst the original games use cards, riddles and clues, these new puzzles require you to solve 4 jigsaws. There are three options of varying difficulties and themes, I'm hoping I'll be lucky enough to have my wishes answered!
Co-operative challenges have long been a passion of mine, as our household can be highly competitive! The usual Christmas shouting matches over Monopoly aren't our thing and instead, we much prefer to work in harmony to solve puzzles and riddles to achieve a win together.
I've played lots of the standard Exit games, with varying success and mixed thoughts on some riddles, however despite occasional frustration over the years I've always come back for more.
Nightfall Manor, The Sacred Temple and The Deserted Lighthouse are the three Exit Puzzles that are currently available. The new mechanic is to solve an unseen jigsaw puzzle which will then contain clues and riddles leading to the next jigsaw puzzle. Each has a unique and intriguing theme, and from playing previous Exit's I can't wait to be immersed in each world!
Whilst you can play these games in the traditional sit-down-and-play-for-three-hours, there is also the scope to split the game into sections and solve each jigsaw over a few days of play – with busy schedules this really appeals to me.
I'm currently in the process of one of their Advent calendar games Hunt for the Golden Book which is a magical combination of all things I love - the countdown to Christmas, puzzle solving and teamwork. The fact that this experience is 24 days of clues means you really feel like you're getting great value, despite the puzzle being one and done.
The Exit Puzzles seem like a great combination of the two styles of puzzles that Exit have already done so well with – I just hope I manage to snag one for my post Advent January fix!