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Kutna Hora: The City of Silver - Luke Pickles:
What if you need to kill the 90 minutes whilst the match is on?
Now, if you’re like me, you couldn’t care less that the football is on. Either your preferred sport is finished for the year, just starting up, or you could do with sports just going away. Either way, you probably want a solid 90 minute game, so I’m going to steer you towards Kutna Hora: The City of Silver. In this game, you’re building out the city of Kutna Hora, whilst manipulating the markets of production against the ever-changing demand of the population. Oh yes, this is a Euro game too, so double whammy in appropriateness for this article.
One thing that stands out from this game is the complete lack of resources, even though there are several different markets. Let me explain – every action you take has a particular cost in terms of a particular resource, such as wood or silver, but the cost of paying is a multiple of how much that resource would cost. So you have to keep track of your money, not the resources. Perfect for playing during a match whilst someone shouts on the sofa. You can play solo or with up to three friends, which is great if there’s a few family members who are up for the game, or the partners of your friends. There’s a great deal of depth in this game, and all sorts of combinations that could come your way, so it’s worth having on hand for the duration of the tournament.
Kutna Hora was one of my games of 2023, a fantastic addition to the gaming collection, so if you’re considering a flutter on the footie, maybe you could opt for this game.
Ticket To Ride: Stu West
As Euro fever grips the nation we have pulled what my family affectionately refers to as ‘the train game’ off the shelf. I am talking of course about Ticket to Ride. More specifically, ‘Ticket to Ride Europe’ for something wholesome to do as a family between those frequent stints in front of the tv watching the matches. There are very few competitive games that my kids can be trusted to play without a breakdown in civilised relations. However, the tweaks made to the European iteration of the Ticket to Ride franchise make it a winner for us. The ability to construct stations to jointly benefit from key pinch point lines makes playing this game with people that don’t handle cut throat, no mercy gameplay well just as much fun as the original version with my favourite sadistic opponents.
The gameplay in Ticket to Ride Europe is what you would expect from the series. Players take an action each round to either draw cards, spend cards to claim routes on the board, draw new route tickets or construct stations. There’s plenty of room for friendly discussion and the rules are light enough that kids and board game novices can play, yet thematic and strategic enough that seasoned gamers can enjoy themselves too. Points are scored by claiming routes with bonuses for those matching your hidden tickets. It’s fun, engaging and there’s very little downtime between turns so even the most impatient players can stay focused.
If you can find shelf space, I recommend getting the 15th Anniversary Edition of the game. The oversized board, additional route tickets and deluxe components gives the game an even more immersive feel and is of such quality that you’ll likely keep it as almost an heirloom piece - I am probably going to have to pick up additional copies as this is one of the few games that I think my kids will be wanting to take with them when they eventually move out…
Wyrmspan: Sam De Smith
It’s very hard to pick a favourite Euro, from the classics of Catan and Carcassonne to modern gems like Apiary and Bitoku. But I’ve gone for a crowd-pleaser with a more fantastical theme – because if you’re anything like me and look for something as far from sport as humanly possible, then Wyrmspan might just be the game for you. I need to flag up first of all that this not just a reskin of the wildly-popular Wingspan, though it does share some of the same (pneumatised) bones. And it is a different enough play experience to keep both on your shelf – we most certainly do!
Your aim, as an enthusiastic amateur dracologist, is to carve out a Dragon Sanctuary, entice different breeds of dragons to your Crimson Cavern, Golden Grotto and Amethyst Abyss (wherein the rarest of dragon hatchlings can be found). Dragons can be grouped by size, temperament, food preference, cave type... all for different bonuses both in-game and for end-game scoring. Your meeple explores your cave, opening up new areas from the location deck, and as you do so you also progress through the Dragon Guilds. There are 4 in the base game, but only one is ever in use (common to all players), and each provides different nuances to gameplay through rewards, objectives and bonuses, meaning there’s an added level of replayability.
The gameplay comes from the designer of Apiary with input from the original designer of Wingspan, so it’s a slick but accessible experience. It has a good quick start guide and clear iconography throughout. Also, as you’d expect from Stonemaier, the component quality is great, with everything feeling good in hand: high gsm and plenty of heft to cards and tokens alike. You even get beautiful wooden speckled dragon eggs and cheery little wooden meeples, all of which look fab on the sturdy and very attractive player boards. All in all, an absolute charmer of a game!
Power Grid - Harvey Brewer
With the Euros now well underway, a lot of us board-gamers are retreating to the darkest depths of our board game dungeons to last out the football season with some of our favourite games! This somewhat scary time of patriotic madness got me thinking; what are some of the best games put out by our great continent? As it turns out, there are quite a few, so I’ve chosen just the one to ramble about, and that’s Power Grid.
Germany is known the world over for its reliable cars, delicious beer, and (albeit less ubiquitously) great selection of board games. Everyone will recognise Catan, the ingenious city-building and card-trading game by Klaus Teuber, or perhaps Klaus Jürgen-Wrede’s classic Carcassonne, which is the subject of many of my articles! Power Grid (originally Funkenschlag) is no exception to this trend, with its intense, refined gameplay that features all the twists and turns of an actual energy market. It’s exciting, it’s addictive, and most of all, it’s great fun!
In Power Grid, you’ll be investing in several different fuels, from good old coal and oil to newer methods of production such as uranium, and even rubbish. To use all your shiny new fuel, you’ll need some power plants, so it’s important to keep money aside to invest in the latest technology as it appears in the market in real time. As well as this, you’ll be expanding your power network far and wide across one of the several maps available to play, and of course earning lots of cash from the electricity you supply. It isn’t all about the money, however, as at the end of the game, you’ll rank against other players based on the number of cities you are able to power, not the money you have, which will keep players engaged right to the end of the game, and prevent any early winners.
There’s an awful lot I could say about Power Grid, but as it already has an equally glowing review, I’d recommend checking that out as well for a full overview of the game. All in all, Power Grid is a game I’d recommend to anyone – the game plays beautifully and you always feel engaged, it has a great balance between strategy, competition and luck, and best of all, each game is always different from the last. What more could you want!
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