Dale Yu: Preview of Death Strikers: Overkillers of Epochalypse

 

 

Death Strikers: Overkillers of Epochalypse

To win each battle, you gotta throw hands! Get the coolest cards, throw out your strongest hand, and watch them try to do something about it. Will you sap their stamina with a bunch of small hands or go for the throat with a big hand? The first player to take too much damage loses the round. Win enough rounds to win the war!

 

Players play hands of either runs or sets, targeting the opponent to their left. That player must play also play a run or set of a higher value, so a 3-3-3 must be beaten by a 4-4-4 or higher. And a 2-3-4-5 must be beaten by at least a 3-4-5-6 or higher. If not, that player takes those cards as three damage, and whatever they did play becomes an attack to the next player.

 

But beware, many cards have extra effects when attacking or blocking. When a player receives 10 cards as damage, they are knocked out and the round is over. The player with the least damage, and the player who dealt the killing blow each get a winner token. The most winner tokes after a set number of rounds wins the game!

 

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Dale Yu: Review of The Hobbit: There and Back Again

 

 

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

  • Designer: Reiner Knizia
  • Publisher: Office Dog
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30 min
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4axeQsb
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

The Hobbit: There & Back Again is a competitive adventure game in which players draft dice to make pathways, collect resources, and perform actions that help them to reach their chapter goal. In more detail, each of the players has their own adventure board book open to the same chapter of the game, and they play in turn order starting with the shortest player. That player rolls all of the dice, then selects one, then the next player selects one, and so on until all dice have been chosen, at which point the next player rolls all the dice once again.

 

With your chosen dice, you use a dry-erase pen to mark the current chapter of your book, drafting a path to evade trolls, battle goblins, solve riddles, and pen the best conclusion to each chapter. The game takes players through the eight most iconic challenges faced by Bilbo and the Dwarves in The Hobbit, such as overcoming trolls, goblins, wargs, and giant spiders; reclaiming the treasure of the dwarves; and defeating the dragon Smaug. In the end, you want to complete the most rewarding journey to The Lonely Mountain.

 

The Hobbit: There & Back Again includes a solo mode, as well as a way to increase the game’s difficulty, whether for some players to balance different skills levels or for everyone to increase the challenge.

 

 

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Nathan B – Review of Railway Boom

Railway Boom

Designer: Hisashi Hayashi

Developer: Simone Luciani
Publisher: Arclight Games
Ages: 14+
Time: 60-120 mins
Players: 2-4
Review by Nathan Beeler

Railway Boom cover art by Ian O’Toole

 

“So what’s good?”

That’s what I asked my friend, Justin, when I first entered the main playing room at Messen last November. He had recently come back from Spiel at Essen, where he helped collect and mule games back to Seattle for the local con. He’d also worked to reconstitute the games after travel packing, and had helped set up the library at the con. I knew he’d even managed to play a few already in the short time he’d been back. I was hoping some titles had stood out from that process for him.

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Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2026 (Part 11)

 

 

New-to-me games played recently include …

13 LEAVES (2025): Rank 7205, Rating 6.7

Shedder where the set you play must be <= the lowest played set so far or >= the highest played set so far. The twist is that as each player passes they take a card from the played sets so far, improving their hand but also making it easier for the still-in players to continue playing if cards are taken from the lowest or highest sets. Which makes for random (but fun) go outs. What to play and when to pass doesn’t seem overly intuitive so I’d explore it more if it hit the table again.

Rating: 7

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Dale Yu: Review of Llama Llama

 

 

Llama Llama

  • Designer: Kaya Miyano
  • Publisher: Allplay
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Llama Llama, players pass cards to craft hands around the different scoring conditions. These conditions were chosen by the players secretly at the start of the round—you’ll have to try and guess at what others are going for to score big!

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Miams

 

 

Miams 

  • Designer: Jules Messaud
  • Publisher: KYF edition
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Roll your dice to make the most beautiful fruit skewers, and fill your Hearts track before your opponents!  Combine powerful Yums cards to skew probabilities in your favor and create unique game situations!

 

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