Emerald Echoes

• Designer: Rita Orlov, Chelsea Stark, Lauren Bello
• Publisher: PostCurious
• Players: 1+
• Age: 14+
• Time: 4 or more hours
• Allplay link: https://www.allplay.com/board-games/emerald-echoes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Emerald Echoes is a narrative puzzle adventure featuring beautifully-illustrated puzzles and tactile artifacts. Through the eyes of a historical researcher, players uncover the story of a legendary alchemist and her companions. Told over four chapters, Emerald Echoes is a standalone sequel to The Emerald Flame.

The Emerald Flame concludes with a dramatic fissure between an alchemist, Marketa, and her close friend and confidante, Hannah. Hannah then furiously sends Marketa out of Prague, and many years go by with no contact between the two. Over time, Hannah comes to regret her actions, and now seeks to mend the rift in their relationship. Marketa, however, proves difficult to find, and the path to reconciliation is paved with unexpected challenges. This is where our story begins… 

But it’s not the whole story. The other part is happening in the margins—through the messages between two researchers. Brought together by their shared interest in these recently unearthed historical documents, the two begin to correspond. Navigate the artifacts with their communication by your side and uncover what happened to Hannah and Marketa. 

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Oasis: New Life on a Distant World

• Designers: George Feledichuk, David “Duvey” Rudow, Leo Taylor 
• Publisher: The Op Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 45-60 mins
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4wKaSou
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Cultivate a vibrant biome where the circle of life fuels the ecosystem’s survival!  In Oasis: New Life on a Distant World, you embody the forces of nature on this primal planet, shaping the planet’s biodiversity by guiding the life cycles of its many bizarre species. Your goal is to cultivate a balanced, vibrant biome where the circle of life fuels the ecosystem’s survival Timing is key, however, as the annual floods will wash away plants and animals below the floodline at the end of each round. You must manage your hand of cards and maximize your actions to outplay your opponents and build the most dynamic and highest-scoring biome.

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Splendor Duel and the Counterfeiters expansion 

• Designers: Marc Andre, Bruno Cathala 
• Publisher: Space Cowboys
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4aSuCOg ,  https://amzn.to/4fAEBdF
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Confront your rival guild in a race for victory. Take Gem and Pearl tokens from the common board, then purchase cards, gather bonuses, royal favors, and prestige. Discover new twists and strategic opportunities derived from Splendor, the original best-selling game. Acquire cards with impressive powers, take advantage of special Privileges, and fight over scarce access to Pearls.

Splendor Duel is a two-player only standalone game based on Splendor that retains some of the main gameplay mechanisms of that design, while being a bit more complex, dynamic, interactive, rich, tense, and mean. The game features a main board shared by both opponents, card powers, and three victory conditions.

The Counterfeiters expansion add 8 new Royal cards and a daring new twist: the Counterfeiters — 4 paste gem tokens and 15 cards that bring deeper asymmetry and reshape all strategies. This tiny expansion fits seamlessly into the base game box — because once you’ve played it, there’s no going back. Are you ready to play by your own rules?

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 Panorama

• Designer: Jules Messaud, Melody Leblond
• Publisher: Scorpion Masque
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

What a lovely sunny day. Relax and enjoy the view from your hot air balloon! In this leisurely tile placement game for 2-4 players, each player will try to create the most beautiful Panorama before the sun sets.

Put your panorama together one tile at a time, and choose them wisely: At the end of the game, you’ll score points based on the number of animals and flowers in each type of terrain (yes, even animals love flowers)! But watch out… The further you move to select a tile, the more you leave behind for the hot air balloons of your opponents to pick up!

Games stay fresh and replayable through the common objectives, such as the longest river or the sky with the fewest clouds.

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Shape It

• Designer: Thomas Dagenais-Lesperance
• Publisher: Randolph
• Players: 2-7
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Shape It is a cooperative game in which players move shapes to try to guess a word. What word is your group trying to illustrate? That’s the game: You don’t know for sure… But it has to be on one of the 5 cards on the table. When it comes time to guess, will you all see the same word in the shapes you’ve placed? Good luck!

If your whole group sees the same Word in the shapes you’ve placed, you win the round and collect a Word card. If you don’t all see the same thing, you lose a Life.

→ If you collect 5 cards, you win!

→ If you lose your 3 Lives… you’ve lost the game.

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Six Sojourns

• Designer: Ryan Laukat
• Publisher: Red Raven Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30-60 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3RgKO59
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Six Sojourns is a reimagining of Eight-Minute Empire. It’s a short area control game full of tough choices, creative strategy and tactics, and high player interaction.

Your goal in Six Sojourns is to grow your family and broaden their influence. Players take turns selecting a card from five on display. Each card has actions that let players build houses, gain ships, move, and gain new family members. The cards also have special abilities and sets of icons that represent your family’s expertise in various trades: cooking, carpentry, sewing, shoe-making, art, blacksmithing, and jewelry. Each game, you only select nine cards, and you’ll be faced with meaty choices each turn as you focus on trades, abilities, or the map.

When all players have 9 cards, the game ends. Players count victory points and the player with the most points wins.  Each sojourn adds new cards and rules to the game. You can customize your experience by playing the six journeys as a campaign or play through each sojourn in order!

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