Rolling Heights

• Designer: John D Clair
• Publisher: AEG
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Says AEG: “Roll Your Meeples, Build the City.”

It’s the 1920’s and your career as a general contractor is about to take off. You have just started your business in a rapidly expanding city.  In Rolling Heights, players roll workers in the form of meeples. Standing meeples work hard that day and provide special actions and building materials, while face-down meeples provide nothing. You can always push your luck for better rolls, but you might lose valuable materials you need to construct new buildings. Completing buildings gains you prestige, as well as new workers to help you construct even larger buildings, including skyscrapers.  Will you construct the next famous landmark?

Continue reading →

Bonsai

• Designers: Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzi, Martino Chiacchiera
• Publisher: dv Games
• Players:1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

To paraphrase the publisher:  The Japanese term “bonsai” means “planted in a pot”. A bonsai is a living work of art, a perfect miniature plant, identical in all respects to its full-size simile, but several times smaller. A bonsai is a microcosm that contains within itself the mystery of the universe, unchanged in all but dimensions.  In the game Bonsai, players take on the role of expert bonsai masters intent on growing their own bonsai. Whoever grows the best plant will be appointed to show their Bonsai at the Imperial gardens.

To set up, each player gets a Pot in their color as well as a starting Seishi tile; additionally, players get some starting Bonsai tiles based on their position in player order.  The main board is placed on the table, and 4 cards from the Zen deck are placed on the spaces.  Finally, goal tiles from three of the five possible colors are set out.

Continue reading →

• Designer: Scott Almes
• Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
• Players: 1
• Ages: 10+
• Time: 30-45 mins
• Review copy provided by publisher

The age of solo boardgaming is among us. With the business of everyday life, there will always be boardgamers who simply can’t get free on a regular basis to play with their friends. For years, one’s only option was to take a boardgame and play against oneself. With the rise of cooperative games, it was possible to take on a game without having to be your own enemy. Unsurprisingly, solo boardgaming received a big bump during the pandemic. While digital implementations of boardgames are available, sometimes it is nice to lay everything out on the table and play the game with easy access to the entire game state at once. Wreckland Run is a recent solo boardgame entry by Scott Almes (designer of another good solo game, Warp’s Edge.) Wreckland Run has you driving your armed-to-the-teeth, tricked-out car through a post-apocalyptic gauntlet of enemy vehicles. If you manage to drive and shoot your way successfully to the end, another six adventures await.

Your Best Life

• Designer: Yaniv Kanaha
• Publisher: Wizkids
• Players: 1-8
• Age: 10+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Says the publisher: “Will you go on vacation with each other or build the house of your dreams? Will you raise a big family, or do you prefer to party with friends every evening? Why not both?! Go ahead — try to have it all! Your Best Life is a flip-and-write life story game. Playing as couples or singles, players manage their happiness and joy as they experience various choices in their lives. Each turn, players choose cards with the actions that will build their character and family unit. Players mark their actions on their individual or family sheets in order to “live” the most successful life!

Continue reading →