Dale Yu: Review of Cartographers Heroes

Posted on October 28, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Cartographers Heroes

  • Designer: John Brieger and Jordy Adan
  • Publisher: Thunderworks Games
  • Players: 1-100
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30-45 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B07jaOVRP
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

The expedition to the Western Lands is the kind of honor that comes once in a lifetime for a royal cartographer. But these are dangerous times. War ravages the land, and you are sure to encounter Dragul forces determined to thwart Queen Gimnax’s plans for western expansion. Fortunately, brave heroes have risen to the defense of Nalos. Chart their deeds alongside the queen’s edicts and secure your place in history.

Cartographers Heroes is the sequel to the critically acclaimed map-drawing game Cartographers. It includes all-new map sheets, scoring cards, explore cards, and ambush cards with unique abilities. Cartographers Heroes can be played on its own or mixed with components from the original game for a greater variety of gameplay possibilities.

Though this game is a bit old, I was introduced to it now as a precursor for an upcoming campaign version of the game – Cartographers Adventures – you can learn more about it at: https://thunderworksgames.com/products/cartographers-adventures

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Sanctuary Wins DSP; Take Time Takes a la carte Award

Posted on October 26, 2026 by huzonfirst

Several significant game awards announce their winners during the Essen game fair.  The IGA’s present their awards to the winning designers during the festivities, but their results were announced earlier.  However, two other awards just made their results known during the past few days.

The DSP (Deutscher Spiele Preis) award is usually considered to be the second most prestigious board game award in Germany, behind only the SdJ’s.  They had previously announced the top 10 games in their voting, but did not give the order of the top three.  The actual finish was provided last Thursday and the winner is Sanctuary, the more streamlined version of the celebrated Ark Nova, which won the DSP four years earlier and is currently the #2 rated game on the Geek.  Like Ark Nova, Sanctuary is designed by Mathias Wigge and published by Feuerland Spiele.

The DSP committee also announced the winner of their Best Children’s Game award and it’s Toriki, a cooperative exploration game designed by Wojciech Grajkowski.  Here is the full list of the top 10 games, together with their designers: Continue reading →

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Simon W – Sunday Report from Essen Spiel 2026

Posted on October 26, 2026 by Dale Yu

Last day at Essen– today the halls were noticeably quieter even in the morning. I had a great day though! First up was a look at Ashes & Amber, a Kickstarter game published, designed and illustrated by David Falla de Acebo – thanks to Dale for the recommendation. I didn’t get to play the game but had a chat with David about the game, the art and well, the general effort he has pout into the game, which he gave up work to create. And boy did he create! the game contains over 700 beautifully illustrated cards, divided into decks that span 5 civilisations.

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Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2026 (Part 16)

Posted on October 26, 2026 by Dale Yu

Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2026 (Part 16)

 

New-to-me games played recently include …

216 (2026): Rank 25178, Rating 6.0

Roll three dice. If you can fulfil one of the 4 contracts in the open draft, score it. If you can’t, roll once more and if you miss, take a help card that allows you to do dice wibbles to help fulfil contracts later. That’s it. Your strategy? Roll well. There’s nothing interesting, and nothing to do on opponent turns. At least it goes quickly enough.

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Simon W – report from Saturday Essen Spiel 2026

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Dale Yu

…My first day without appointments, and a chance to play more games and wander round the smaller publishers too…here’s what I found.

The day started off with a play of Cardia Tide and Storm, the new standalone expansion for Duel for Cardia, – for which I had the honour of presenting the International Gamers Award for best two-player game 2025. Tide and Storm consists of 2 new decks to play with – an Island deck and a Storm deck! These decks can be played standalone or mixed with the original game, and I gather involved a lot of work to ensure that the game still functions well with the different cards played. As with the original game, each player simultaneously reveals their played card; the higher card wins a victory point while the lower card can enact its action – which can lead to all kinds of interesting effects on the opponent, on cards already played in previous rounds, etc. One feature of the new game is the increase of the number of points needed to win from 5 to 6. In the Island decks, the game features 3 island cards and 3 ships which may be moved by players. Should you move a ship onto the island nearest you, you will gain a VP – if the ship stays there! Moving onto the middle island forces a player to lose a card from they deck or allows you to draw an extra card. Indeed the deck features a number of cards which move the ships and which invite you to reduce your hand size for a benefit or occasionally to increase your hand size. Plenty to think about here! The second deck uses a new resource called “Phials” and involves abilities in which you place  the phials onto cards to trigger their abilities. Such abilities can modify the value of other cards already played, for example, to switch around who actually won a previous round. The deck is more complex and requires more planning than the Island deck. I really enjoyed playing the new expansion and I’m excited to get it back to the table soon; and really admire the depth of development and the ideas that I saw in the game!

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Dale Yu: Review of Citadels Duel

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Citadels Duel

  • Designers: Guillaume Montiage and Manuel Rozoy
  • Publisher: Asmodee / Zman
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0b6pIUw0
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to Citadels Duel, a tense head-to-head contest of cunning and ambition. Two rival city planners compete to shape the future of the Citadel, striving to design the district plan that generates the greatest wealth and earns lasting renown.  Construct powerful buildings across diverse districts—from bustling Commercial hubs to formidable Military strongholds—while enlisting influential figures such as the cunning Queen, the deadly Assassin, and the ruthless Warlord to your aid. Every ally you recruit is an advantage your opponent may also claim, so anticipate their moves and act decisively. When the final building rises, the planner with the most gold claims victory.

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