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Graham Silvanus - Castles Of Burgundy Special Edition
For someone who plays a lot of board games, there are definitely some notable gaps in my game playing experience. I’ve still, inexplicably, never played Wingspan. Castles of Burgundy was another modern classic board game I’d never played. Santa fortunately changed that by leaving a copy of Castles of Burgundy Special Edition under my Christmas tree…
I’m pleased to report that Castles of Burgundy Special edition’s reputation for euro gaming excellence is thoroughly well deserved. My first game was with my wife, daughter and my mum and it went over well with all of us. The core use of dice to dictate which tiles you can collect, where you can place them and which goods you can sell, led to crunchy decisions each and every turn. We worked hard to eek every last point out of our respective duchies.
It doesn’t hurt that the Special Edition is stunning. The sun dropped miniatures look every bit as beautiful as I’d hoped. The card stock is durable and the art beautifully done. Through in the metal coins, wooden goods tiles and custom draw bags and it all adds up to a premium quality game.
It proved so popular, that my wife and I saw in New Year’s Day playing Castles of Burgundy Special Edition again, this time at 2 player. The game scales really well and it was wonderfully rapid at this player count. 2024 nearly began with a domestic as I eeked out a 189-175 point victory thanks to game end scoring
It’s rare to find a game that is crunchy enough for my tastes and quick enough for my family, who don’t share my willingness to game for hours at a time. Castles of Burgundy Special Edition nails this niche and I can see it becoming one of my favourite games in my collection. Thus it really is an easy choice for game of the month and one I heartily recommend for fellow fans of euro games.
Matthew Thomasson - Fields Of Arle
I have been hankering over the past few months for some Uwe Rosenberg farming goodness. The type where you have a bunch of things you want to do, but you can’t do them all. You can go down different paths and points come from a variety of places. I had my eye on A Fields of Arle, which was released in 2014, and decided it was time to pick it up.
A Fields of Arle is a solo or two player game all about you managing a farm in the town of Arle in East Frisia. You play over the course of four and a half years with each year having two seasons. You can grow flax, breed animals, construct dikes, construct buildings, increase your tools and ship various goods to neighboring towns to name a few. There are a whole bunch of things you can do, but at its heart is a relatively simple (mechanism wise) worker placement game.
On your turn you place one of your workers on a worker placement spot and perform the action. The spots change from season to season and where the game shines is the puzzle of ensuring you have enough resources to be able to perform the actions you want to perform to score points.
What I really enjoy about the game is the sandbox nature. At the beginning of the game I can decide what I am going to focus on. Do I want to go heavy into animals, gain lots of goods and resources, construct buildings, export goods, increase my tools so I am better at a certain action or a combination of all? I love the puzzle and the optimization aspect of working out how best to draw out each and every point. As a solo game I can play this in under one hour and get a big box experience and game that leaves me feeling like I have accomplished something. I have been really enjoying A Fields of Arle and it has been on my table a lot recently and often play several games back to back, trying new strategies and new routes to score points. I have not hit the magic 100 point threshold but I am improving each game. Highly recommend this game is you are into your farming type games.
Pete Bartlam - The Quest For El Dorado
Thwack! My machete hacks through the last of the jungle and reveals a clearing with a small tribal village. Will I be able to traverse it unhindered? A small offering of gold to the head honcho ensures my safe passage and leaves me standing on the edge of a glistening expanse of azure water.
Should I press on? No! I decide to rest a while and spend some more of my gold on recruiting a boat Captain to my cause. He will help speed my way through the varied watery obstacles yet to come. But not yet. First I must wait whilst he prepares for further travel.
In the meantime I make an assessment of my route through the ever-changing terrain. Shall I take the shortest, but harder, route or a more gentle, but longer, path towards my goal – The gates to the fabled Lost City of El Dorado!
Will I take a small detour to explore the mysteries of a nearby cave and unearth treasures and artefacts that will aid my quest? Should I change my plan now I see a rival expedition blocking my way.
All of these mini decisions and more you’ll make 3 or 4 times every turn, which come around quickly, in my Game of the Month: The Quest for El Dorado. In fact from arriving in Santa’s sack The Quest for El Dorado has quickly established itself as my Game of the Year 2023! Another fantastic offering from the legendary Reiner Knizia, it has everything.
It is easy to learn, quick to set up, quick turns, sensible play time and it’s fun! Who doesn’t want to don that floppy fedora and set off through the jungle with the Indiana Jones theme tune running through their head? The eight double-sided map boards give an almost unlimited amount of combinations to go through and I’m even thinking of a variation where you don’t lay the next board down until you’ve broken through the barrier on the current board! Now there’s a thought.
Dan Hilton - Saboteur
It is often a hard decision trying to choose just one stand out game to talk about for this feature. Games are great. They all have their place, and they all standout in their own respective game groups. Well, most of them, there are a few stinkers out there of course. Subject to opinion. The game of the month for me goes to Saboteur.
Saboteur is an older game, and looks even older with the art style, but it is a fantastic game. Running the tabletop society at uni means that I am the one that has to supply the majority of the games. Having a variable number of attendees means that I need to bring games that can accommodate lots of players. And Saboteur plays between 3 and 10 players, and even plays great at any of those player counts.
Saboteur is a simple game that sees you working with your fellow miners in an attempt to discover the gold. The problem is, there are some miners that are out for themselves and are aiming to (surprise!) sabotage your efforts. Every player gets a secret role at the start of the game and you need to figure out who is on your side from the actions they take throughout the game. The game is incredibly well balanced as all the cards at your disposal work incredibly well no matter what your role is. The fun with this game comes with the fact that it is played over three rounds where the roles get reshuffled between each round. And then suspicions and feelings of betrayal carry over even though roles have been changed making each game just a bundle of hidden role fun. Saboteur is without a doubt worth a play. It is cheap, literally fits in your pocket and is so much fun. If you have a gap in your collection for games that plays well with a larger player base, this could be the perfect game for you.
Lee Underwood - Earthborne Rangers
Some games just get under your skin, don’t they? My game of the month (and probably for the next month too!) is a customizable co-operative card game, similar to Arkham Horror or Lord of the Rings Card games. However, Earthborne Rangers has as much in common with open world computer RPGs, offering players the chance to explore and branch off from the main story in a way familiar to anyone who ever picked up a Zelda game.
Each player creates their own Ranger deck, depending on the backgrounds, speciality and personality types they choose at the start. They then set off to explore a beautifully lush and verdant world known as The Valley set in a future where Nature, free of human intervention for a millennia, has reclaimed the planet. Rather than trying to tame or exploit this strange new wilderness, Rangers are tasked with seeking out the denizens of the Valley with the explicit purpose of helping all life to thrive over the course of their campaign. There is a main story which unfolds, however much of the game’s fun comes from going off the beaten track to see what you can find- as with all the best adventures.
It’s difficult to do justice to just how rich and well realised this world is. The card art is lovely, and the technology and architecture is fantastical but believable as a far future Earth. But most importantly, the theme of the game shines through as one centred around healing and respect for the world around you. In game, the main purpose is always on protecting the people and wildlife of the Valley; there is no killing involved no matter how threatening the encounter. It’s a genuinely refreshing approach, although a little sad that it is so unusual in this regard. It’s a philosophy extended to production also, as all components and packaging are plastic free and made with recyclable materials.
Over the last month, I’ve been completely immersed in Earthborne Rangers in a way I’ve not felt for a long time. It is not a light game by any means- it takes time to understand the mechanics and even longer to master. It’s also pretty tough once it gets going, frustratingly so at times. But it feels like the pallet cleanser I didn’t know I needed and I can’t wait to get back out there again.