Editors Note: I was supposed to post this on the Saturday of the fair, but due to some “technical issues” (i.e. I completely forgot), I didn’t get this uploaded until I got back home when the technical issues were resolved (i.e. I remembered). Keep your eyes posted for a bunch more quick recaps as we get the games played! DY

Expedition to Newdale
– I was slightly unsure of this: a Pfister game but capitalising on Oh My Goods which I felt had already run its course in terms of expansions. Very pleased to report that it’s an excellent game, with plenty of new parts to it while keeping the basic simple engine building with multi-use cards alive. A thinky enough game to deserve the Pfister and Lookout badges, not too long, and meaningful decisions. I bought a copy.

Tuki: the new gorgeous game from Next Move, so simple and lots of fun – you must stack the heavy ceramic components, which are long rectangular heavy pieces I n 4 different colours, in arrangements according to a card drawn but using combinations of other white pieces to achieve the desired shape. If you are slowest to build you lose a point and sit out the next turn. A definite highlight is sitting out and having a good laugh as others build. Lots of fun.

Blitzkrieg – advertises as WW2 in 20 mins, I really enjoyed this neat two player game although I found the price point at 30Euros to be too high. Pull chits from your bag, play them down in one of various theatres of war, and vie with your opponent for dominance. The bonus points on the spaces you play on give you extras which are paramount to winning (increasing hand size of chits for example). A decent game but too expensive to recommend.

Pharaon – A game that was under the radar for me, but an excellently themed, original point salad game with lovely artwork and some lovely design touches from the passing pyramid to the rotating board, this was very satisfying and played through in 1 hour 20 with 4. Very much recommend the game.

Circadians First Light is the new game from the author of the Western Kingdom series and the look and feel of the box, components and game are related to this successful series from Renegade. The gameplay is worker placement based and the theme is space- collecting goods on the planet surface, growing some goods in colonised areas, using spaceships to fly to different parts of the colonies and amassing victory points while having to keep a careful eye on essential stocks like water. Some nice ideas and a very smooth play makes it an interesting game which we all enjoyed.  The game was late arriving to the Spiel but got there eventually.

Century New World – very nice, feels more like the original game than the the second iteration did. With 4 game boards to play when combining cards from previous expansions, plus some new mechanisms while preserving the essentials of collecting cards using a system of upgraded resources, this was a lot of fun and refreshing. Definitely worth buying if you liked the original.