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Seb Hawden
I have wanted to try Reiner Knizia’s RA for so long, I tend to love Reiner’s games and this one has quite a cult following. The issue I had was finding a copy as it was out of print and quite hard to source without shelling out loads of cashola. Luckily for me, it has recently hit Gamefound in a nice, new jazzed up version with the tried and tested gameplay of the original. It should ship to me in the next few months and will also be available here on Zatu.
Having not played it but scouring over the videos while I wait for my pledge to arrive fills me with joy. This version has updated components and artwork for Ian O’Toole, so not only will I get the great, classic gameplay everyone loves but with added updated artwork and easier to use components, it's a win-win as far as I am concerned.
So, what is RA? RA is a set collection, auction hybrid game with a few unique twists. Players are bidding for various tiles that will award points over three Epoch’s that award points in various ways. There are tiles that score every round, tiles that score at the end and tiles that will cancel out bad tiles you may have had to take due to other players' shenanigans. What I have read and seen with my own eyes through is how easy this new version makes it to keep track of everything with newer, better designed player boards and trackers.
The combination of a single bid auction, push your luck mechanics and when to call ‘RA’ leads to, what looks like, a fabulous, pure auction game. You only get one bid, the winner loses their bid marker and that becomes part of the next auction, it's genius. This leads to tomfoolery, up-bidding your mates and making some juicy decisions every auction. Just watch out for those RA tiles and disasters, RA RA, RA RA RA!
Sophie Jones
There are plenty of games on my wishlist. It is forever growing and never gets shorter despite my purchases. My most wanted, at the moment, are expansions for my favourite games; Parks and Wingspan. However, I do want to grow my repertoire. Currently my collection is made up of two player or family games. I am eager to expand my tastes and dabble with dice or roll and writes. With that in mind, Long Shot the Dice Game has taken my fancy. I am not a big fan of horse racing, but this game has a lot of things which I do enjoy. It has tactile components, can play with 1 to 7, comes in a small package, and includes push your luck mechanics. It's all my favourite things! It’s also a dice game and will improve my dice collection which only consists of Yahtzee. In Long Shot, players bet on horses in a race. You can bet on multiple horses and use chain reactions to improve your odds. Rolling an 8-sided dice will determine which horse will move and then the 6-sided dice measures how far the horse runs. This replicates the sports unpredictability and adds to its gambling gameplay. The whiteboards provided mimic betting slips and are reusable. Which is always a handy feature.
This little game also boasts a speedy runtime and quick to teach rules. Which makes it the perfect party game. This will be a welcome addition to my collection which currently lacks big player count games. Most of my 5+ games include wordplay and it’ll be ideal to have something not too thinky.
With a 91% approval rating on Zatu this game seems like the best one to diversify my collection. It’s quick run time and easy to learn rules are great for group events! Its theme, although not my favourite, is well crafted and fits the gameplay down to a tee. I just have to wait for the restock order to hit Zatu shelves!
Andy Broomhead
My love of Stonemaier Games is no secret, and since being introduced to Wingspan a couple of years ago, I’ve slowly but surely acquired almost all their other titles. While there’s definitely variation in those games, I definitely count a few of them in my all-time favourites (I’m looking at you Tapestry!)
With all that in mind, the game that’s top of my wishlist this month is Charterstone. In actual fact, this has been on my wishlist at one position or another for over two years. I’ve hinted at birthdays and Christmas a good few times, but I’m either much more subtle than I think, or I’m just being outright ignored.
I think this one will tick a lot of boxes for me, and I’m really excited to actually get my hands on a copy.
Firstly, it’ll be my first experience of a Legacy game, and that’s something I’ve long wanted to try. I like games that give me a sense of story weaving through them and I really get that feel from Charterstone.
A big consideration for me is family friendly gaming, and the art definitely has a look to it that’s engaging enough for my teenage daughter. Pumpkins as a resources feels like a lot of fun to me too! In addition, the whole campaign is a dozen games to complete, so there isn’t a huge amount of commitment needed to get through it.
Finally, I like that it’s designed to be replayable after you finish the campaign itself, so if there’s as much enjoyment from it as I hope there will be, we’ll get some longer-lasting enjoyment from it too.
The thing I find most reassuring is that I’ve not say down and played a Stonemaier Game that I’ve not enjoyed. There are some closer to my heart, but a lot of my favourite gaming memories have revolved around their games, and I’m hoping Charterstone can add to that too!
Pete Bartlam
I’m a big fan of the Undaunted series of board games and I felt that Undaunted: Stalingrad was a masterstroke taking the series to the absolute pinnacle of achievement. I also play quite a few Air Combat games in different periods : Blood Red Skies for WWII, Wings of Glory for WWI and Star Wars : X-Wing for the far future. These are all great miniatures games and it’s interesting to see their differing approaches to 3-D combat in a 2-D world. Notably, too, they all use a pre-planning technique for simultaneous movement.
So I’m fascinated to see how Thompson and Benjamin will recreate this ethos with a world of counters and Tiles : 116 cards, 31 large map tiles, and 58 tokens to be precise plus a Scenario book no doubt chock full of action in Undaunted: Battle of Britain.
They claim they will “recreate the dynamic dogfighting of aerial combat. Maintain cohesion between your pilots, evade anti-aircraft artillery, and leverage talented aces to win the battle for the skies!” Well we’ll see. I’m sure if anyone can they can. I’m looking forward to them working their magic plus another healthy dose of Roland MacDonald’s evocative artwork.
I can hardly wait.
Chocks away!
Rachael Duchavony
What better way to spend the evening then battling it out to the death with my husband over a game of Unmatched. With the recent news about Unmatched Adventures bringing a new way to play, I reflected on the Unmatched games I own… and those I don’t. So on my Wishlist this month is Unmatched: Houdini Vs The Genie.
Unless you own other Unmatched games enabling you to combine different characters and use a board with a higher player count this latest Unmatched is only a 2 player game. Which is just perfect for a husband and wife to duel over who does what household chore responsibilities. Two new characters, that I just happen to love, are brought to the table with this latest edition of the game series.
As a child I was always in awe of magic. I still remember the Christmas I got my first Paul Daniel’s magic trick set. The disappointment on learning that I am, in fact, rubbish at magic even when I know how to ‘do the trick’. But still, the wide mouthed awe I experience when watching magicians remains through adulthood. I have on occasion still dabbled in the odd bit of magic, and I can confirm, that I am still just as bad at sleight of hand as I was as a child. My clumsy fingers just won’t work the way David Copperfield’s seem to. I want to know how ‘tricks’ are done whilst secretly hoping I never find out because that might take away some of my wonder. With this in mind I’m super psyched to be able to try out the powers that Harry will bring to the Unmatched table.
What human hasn’t sat and pondered at some point in their life… what would I do with 3 wishes. Unfortunately, my board game experiences with The Genie as a central theme has been quite sparse. I mean sure my Genie edition of Something Wild sits proudly on my small game shelf, enjoying an occasional play using his genie powers. But it’s a real shame I just don’t have more interaction with this character in the board gaming world I love so much, because whether I’m reading up on Arabic mythology or simply watching Disney’s Aladdin, The Genie is a truly fascinating character.
The power to grant whatever wishes you want and the consequences of such power delivering that moral message to ‘be careful what you wish for’ can open philosophical debate during any dinner party. So needless to say I’m intrigued to see how the Genie will play in the unmatched gaming system, not least because I fully anticipate this being the character my husband will inevitably be forced to play due to my sheer love of magic.
I can’t recommend the Unmatched games enough, sure some characters are not as good as others. Some people prefer certain characters over others. If you’re a completionist and new to this game then Bruce Lee and Deadpool are going to make you want to cry. And whilst you can mix and match of course you don’t have to. You could happily just buy 1 of the 2, 3 or 4 player sets and never deviate. However, for me, this new edition to the series is one I simply can’t wait to get my hands on and I’m eager to play putting it high up on my Wishlist, heck, what am I saying… it’s up there on the pre-order waiting list.
They say in battle there are no equals… and that is the only way my husband can beat me… that killer range attacker with the melee sidekick or the unstoppable fog. I can’t wait to see what Houdini and the Genie will bring… and most importantly who will win and who has to do the washing up!