Dale Yu: Review of Moytura

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Moytura

  • Designers: David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin 
  • Publisher: Bitewing Games
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 45 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3T2MQ9J
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

The battle of Moytura has begun. As a leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann, spread your influence across the land to succeed in your quest to become High Ruler of Ireland, invoking the powerful deities of the Tuatha Dé Danann to aid you in your cause with their command of water, travel, war, and creation — but the road will not be easy for in your path to legend stand the sinister Fomorians and other mythical beings hungry for battle, not to mention a rival clan with ambitions of their own. Steel yourself and prepare for a legendary struggle. Rewrite the myths of Ireland, chieftain, and take your place as the true High King!

 

Moytura features seven map set-ups for any combination of clans. The game also includes three special enemy clans that replace 1-3 of the standard Fomorian clans. These special clans introduce more challenging foes with asymmetric abilities: the Ellén Trechends (three-headed beasts) expand in all directions, the Oilliphéist (sea serpents) expand rapidly along the coast, and the Banshees invade targeted regions instead of spreading out from their largest group.

You can also enjoy a solo / cooperative variant if you prefer playing that way! Thanks to the intuitive enemy faction system built into the main game, Moytura lends itself easily to these optional variants.

 

In Moytura, you and your opponent command competing factions of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but you are not the only ones struggling for control of ancient Ireland. Three enemy clans act together as a third opponent faction that competes with the players and scores points. Points are gained by having the most influence across Ancient Ireland at the end of each era. Within each of the eleven regions, the faction with the most or second most units across all the spaces of a region will score the indicated points. After two eras, the faction with the most points wins.

 

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Convention Report: Gulf Games 56

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Mark Jackson

Gulf Games started in 1998… and I’ve had the honor of being a part of it (on and off, due to living halfway across the country for a decade) for twenty-eight years. In 2015, I started bringing my oldest son with me, followed in 2017 by bringing both boys with me. With them grown up (25 and 21 -sigh) and living away from home, Gulf Games is not only a wonderful 4+ days of gaming, it’s also a really special time for the three of us.

The aforementioned fish-shaped ice cream sandwiches…

I won’t bore you with our family conversations, which covered everything from the haplessness of the Tennessee Titans to the merits of a fish-shaped ice-cream sandwich… but I will attempt to entertain you with my thoughts on the 41 different games I played over nearly five days. (They are grouped by number of plays and then alphabetical order.)

Games I Played Three Times

Natera: New Beginning (designers: Eric Fugere & Hugo Tremblay-Ledoux)

My good friend (and former boss – who my sons affectionally hail as “King Bob!”) described Natera: New Beginning as being “the right amount of crunchy”. I would heartily agree.

Thematically – in what should be no surprise to us here in 2026 – humans did something stupid and manage to kill themselves off… leaving behind animals getting smarter & smarter due to the “something stupid”. Which means that each of the players is part of an animal group trying to gain dominance by utilizing the stuff humans left behind. Natera is not that dark in its theme – it’s closer to Everdell than to Watership Down. It does remind me of Everdell in some ways – worker placement with resource management and tableau building – but with some interesting twists and its own rhythm.

Bob & Braeden making beaver faces in honor of Bob’s victorious beaver tribe.

Over the week, I had the opportunity to play Natera three times: once with three players, once solo (in my hotel room), and once with four players. While I am perfectly happy to play it any player count, I think the sweet spot will be three players – balancing length of game with some extra freedom of tribe member worker placement. The solo game pits your animal tribe against the robots the humans left behind, who really aren’t trying to kill you as much as they just get in the way over and over again – I liked it.

Collin (my younger son) won the three player, while “King Bob” and I tied in the four player game – which was resolved by him having SLIGHTLY more progress on the authority tracks than I did. All hail King Bob, indeed. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Review of Cyberpunk Unfolds

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 Cyberpunk Unfolds

  • Designer: Jordi Muntaner
  • Publisher: Key Enigma
  • Players: 1+
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 120 min on packaging (65 min for us)
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In a cyberpunk world where class difference has divided society between the poor living in the slums and the rich residing in luxury estates; YOU are a recruit of the revolutionary group, who plans to infiltrate to the heart of this corrupt system and overthrow it. There is only one chance to do so and it is now or never, you are the only hope.

 

Cyberpunk Unfolds is a single chapter escape adventure trying new things from Pop-Up elements, foldouts and 3D paper figures. We want you to be able to explore the escape room scenario and even build it. You will unfold the escape room progressively until you build a large structure to investigate. No additional materials such as scissors or glue are required, everything can be simply put together. 

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2 Mattel Games: Deep Sea Diamond Dive and Skip-Bo

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Dale Yu

So, I’m already home from Gen Con 2026, and we had some friends over for the day, and it seemed like a great time to look at a few of the new games.  Today, I’ll talk a bit about two of the games from Mattel that we tried out.  Mattel is probably best known for its many different version of UNO, but they do occasionally produce games of interest to hobby players – last year, Spirits of the Wild was a big hit here.  This year, I was happy to see that they had re-done a very cute family game Mr. Diamond – originally done by Ravensburger last century, but most recently done in Japan in 2024 by Jelly Jelly.  I had played that Japanese version a few times, but I was never able to get a copy.  If you’re still at GenCon, you’ll find Mattel in the middle of the dealer hall at Booth 1035.

 

 

Deep Sea Diamond Dive

  • Designer: Gunter Baars
  • Publisher: Mattel
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 6+
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4bJib83
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

 

Dive into fun with Deep Sea Diamond Dive, the action-Packed, quick to learn kids game where players race to grab gems and score points! Pick a gem. Watch out – some are stuck! Use the gems to complete Treasure Cards for points! Special Steal Cards add another fun twist – take an opponent’s card!

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Quick Report from Gen Con 2026

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Dale Yu

Well, another summer is nearly over, and that means it’s time for the “Best Four Days of Gaming”… well, in my case, maybe the “best 10 hours of gaming”?!

As has been my standard practice, I try to fit as much gaming goodness as I can in a single day of the country’s largest boardgaming convention. (Ed. note – if the weather is bad Saturday, my outdoor plans may be canceled and I might end up getting another day at Gen Con…)

I awoke stupidly early (0515) to get ready for my drive to construction-ridden Indianapolis.  The trip is only 110 miles per my GPS from my house, and the first 107 miles were fairly uneventful, though slow as at least twenty of those miles are single lane due to construction on I-74.

Things changed for the worst when getting into the city itself with those final three miles taking nearly 45 minutes.  Every year I make a note of when I start my trip to Gen Con, and I keep getting up earlier and earlier – and end up arriving later and later.  This year, the gridlock was simply horrendous.

In years past, some of the major intersections had police presence to help control the flow of traffic- but none of Indy’s finest were to be found this year.  Lots of intersections stuck with people trying to sneak through the light.  Furthermore, there is A LOT of construction going on without very little signage – so as lanes mysteriously closed without warning, bottlenecks surely formed.  It also didn’t help that there is major construction on two streets directly abutting the convention center.

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Dale Yu: Review of Super Dice Battle

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Super Dice Battle

  • Designer: Wade Piche
  • Publisher: Ephyrean Games
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 5-30 min
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4w2PLgM
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Choose your fighter and play your combo cards to KO your opponent before they KO you. Super Dice Battle uses a custom set of dice to mimic a video game controllers D-Pad and Buttons to create your combos. Utilize the Super Die for more powerful attacks and unleash your most powerful combos to become the Super Dice Champion! 

 

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