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It’s a Wonderful World – Arnaldo Amaral:
It’s a Wonderful World has been a game of choice for me both for solo play and multiplayer. For a good while it was on my Wishlist as I had heard great praise from multiple people in the past and I finally decided to give it a shot and I sincerely regret not having done so earlier!
The basis of the game is that you are building an empire, and slowly you must choose your path to victory. At its core, it is a closed drafting and tableau building game where players race to get the best cards they can and to build them as quickly and as effectively as possible, trying to outscore their opponents. You can either play balanced games, where everyone starts with the same base resource production, or you can play with asymmetrical empire cards that produce different resources and have different scoring bonuses, pushing you to different paths to victory.
In the base game there are 5 different types of resources: materials (white), energy (black), science (green), gold (yellow) and exploration (blue) and your buildings will require a mix of resources to be built depending on their type. Once built, each building will either produce more resources for you or give you ways of earning victory points. The game is then played over the course of four rounds, each divided in three phases: Draft, Planning and Production.
During Drafting, players are dealt seven cards face down from the deck, then all players look at their cards, choose one (keeping it secret) and then they pass the remainder to a player either to their right or left depending on which round is being played. Once everyone has drafted a card, everyone simultaneously reveals their selected cards. This process is then repeated until every player has 7 cards drafted. During Planning, you must decide for each of your drafted cards if either they’re played into your construction area or recycled to acquire their recycling bonus. Finally, during Production, everyone simultaneously produces resources in the order indicated on the gameboard, and as each resource is produced, player place their produced amounts onto their planned construction cards, until all resources required are allocated and cards are built.
This game can become quite combo-y and it just tickles a certain part of my brain that gives me huge satisfaction. If you use your resources and cards wisely, you can really ramp up your empire compared to other players. It plays wonderfully (pun not intended) at all player counts because there is always something going on for everyone and the solo scenarios, which have a slight different gameplay, are easy to play and to manage.
It’s a Wonderful World is an absolute must have in any collection. It will entertain you and your game buddies for sessions upon sessions of play and it will always feel fresh, pushing you continuously to try harder and do better.
Worms: The Board Game - Sean Franks:
Incoming!
This month I started to relive my younger days of gaming, countless hours spent on the computer blowing up my enemies or my friends or even just myself. So of course, as soon as I heard Worms was getting a board game adaption I made plans to own it, and getting it to the table last month I've discovered that all the chaos has easily been directly translated to the tabletop.
When I first started learning the rules I was surprised to see that the game only has around 2 or 3 turns per player before reaching the sudden death showdown, I just didn't think it was enough time. After playing it now though I've decided it's definitely more than enough time. You might spend two turns picking off a weak rival with a precision shot and sending a bazooka shot or grenade into a mass of worms, then the third turn suddenly new weapons keep coming out one after the other, a banana bomb decimates one half of the map, the other half sees a chain reaction of barrel explosions coating the land with fire and piling up the injuries, another worm drops an airstrike but suddenly the wind picks up, instead of bombing a row of enemies they accidentally hit their own team. The injured survivors struggle through, once one team is eliminated the game ends a full round later, so temporary alliances are formed and broken as different teams emerge as the current leader, but all the while the mystery sudden death card for that game is revealed and wrecking havoc after every turn, it might be flooding so the combat land shrinks and possibly plops one of your worms into the sea and certain death, or maybe earthquakes throwing everything around and shaking up the land, or just one shot kills - no second chances.
These aren't long drawn out games either, my first play took much longer with learning the rules and looking up interactions, but with experience it's fairly simple to teach and get going, the total time I've found the last few plays was around 15 minutes per player meaning it's easy to fit into a game night with other games.
I've even enjoyed it so much it's motivated me to purchase some paints (several shades of pink) and get the miniatures painted, I've got the Kickstarter Collector's edition so theres alot of extra Worm figures in there!
Betrayal at House on the Hill - Harvey Brewer:
Released all the way back in the golden age of late 2010, Betrayal at House on the Hill still measures up great against more modern takes on the ‘horror game’ theme. I’ll admit, until recently it wasn’t a game that came off of the shelf very often, but over the last few weeks I’ve been ‘rediscovering’ some of my lesser-played titles with a group of friends, and we were all shocked that we hadn’t played this game more!
Betrayal sees you and a team of fellow explorers wandering through the eponymous haunted house. Along your travels you’ll encounter all sorts of eerie omens, strange items, and even the odd skeleton! At some point, someone will do something that triggers the ‘haunt’ phase of the game, and one player will turn traitor and be pitted against the others in one of 50 different haunts that unleash monsters, serial killer, and evil spirits upon the mansion.
Betrayal wins ‘Game of the Month’ for two reasons. The first is its varied and repeatable gameplay; though there are only 50 haunts (and you can buy more), you’ll be exploring a different mansion that builds itself solely based on players’ actions (for better or for worse!). The second is that it is a great gateway game into the world of horror-themed board games that is still really engaging and solid in its own right – it has a relatively easy ruleset that’s easy to become familiar with, there’s bucket-loads to discover, and it is extremely thematic whilst maintaining a well-polished gameplay experience.
Whether you have a penchant for horror games, are yearning for a unique gaming experience, or just want to try something new, Betrayal at House on the Hill has it all!
Legacy of Yu - Gillian Lee:
It’s been a hectic year for me but thankfully I’ve recently had more opportunities to play some games. My board game group is back from their holidays and I’ve missed playing so much. Despite this dive back into multiplayer board gaming, my game of the month has to be Legacy of Yu.
I was intrigued by a new Garphill solo legacy game and I knew I had to play it when it was recommended by a colleague who’s also a board game fanatic. I think Garphill Games are brilliant, I love their artwork and the puzzles they design. Legacy of Yu is no different and since it’s solo I’ve been able to really dig into the campaign and it’s so fun. I love unlocking things, that motivates me in most video games, so it’s really fun to be able to read new story entries as you play more games (even when they mostly give you bad things to work with). But it’s fun to discover new powers, buffs and setbacks, and feels better when you overcome challenges to unlock new things.
Legacy of Yu is set in ancient China and you’re playing as the townsfolk working to prevent the flooding of the village by constructing canals and barges. You’re also trying to fend off encroaching barbarians and make sure you don’t run out of townsfolk to do the work. There are many ways to lose, and I have lost many times. But it makes wins all the more satisfying and it genuinely helps you strategise for future games. The game consists of resource management and a little bit of engine building. You build different structures such as huts, farms and outposts to help with future rounds, giving you extra resources and allowing you to substitute workers. Building these structures are another incredibly satisfying part of the game. You have to fully maximise what’s available to you or you won’t last very long. But the crunching is really fun and all the more satisfying when it all comes together. I can’t recommend it more to solo board gamers.
Lorcana - Tom G:
September really has been a full-on Lorcana month for me! For those that follow Disney Lorcana, you will have known that the Birmingham Challenge was held recently at the NEC and as you can imagine, this has meant a lot of deck building, testing and playing, in preparation for the event. I ended up taking a SteelSong deck (amber and steel ink colours) with me to the event. It was my first ever large competitive TCG event so I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit daunting. Thankfully though, everyone I met throughout the two days was so incredibly friendly and I finished the weekend on 2 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.
Overall, I had a great time and thanks to the amazing experience, it’s safe to say why Lorcana was most definitely my game of the month this month.
Lorcana it is such a fantastic TCG, incorporating the delightful Disney IPs with a card game that is easy to learn and teach and accessible for most. As the game is quite new, it also means accessing the game now still isn’t as daunting as trying to get into the likes of Magic The Gathering.
For those brand new to Lorcana, the Gateway set is a great place to start and teaches you the basics of the game, drip-feeding new cards into your deck and showing how different cards interact with the game. Azurite Sea is due to release in November, brigning with it some brand new cards and synergies so it will be back to the drawing board, ready to craft some new decks with the new cards on offer. I cannot wait!
