Lab Notes

• Designer: Darrell Louder
• Publisher:Greater Than Games
• Players:2-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 40 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Flat River Group (distributor)

Class is now in session for Lab Notes! This roll-and-write game features the brain teaser challenge of putting together chemical bonds. Each round, a player rolls all the elemental dice for Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, or a useful but dangerous Bunsen Burner. The rolling player chooses their element first, leaving the rest of the table to scratch their heads to fit the remainder within their lab notes.

Elements now in hand, the players choose where to keep their elements. They can notate in the research field or trash them for some added benefits, later. Combine elements based on the real rules of chemistry! Double and triple bonds are worth more, but you can only bond with elements near each other and as they’re written.

Don’t worry if you’re not sure about what bonds work where. There are handy-dandy notecards outlining real, actual chemicals you can make! Manage to make the chemical on the card? You get a bonus! Lab fires burn a slot within your lab notes, but maybe that will work out for you, who knows!

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Compounded – The Peer reviewed edition

• Designer: Darrell Louder
• Publisher: Greater Than Games
• Players: 2-5
• Age:14+
• Time: 45-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Flat River Games (distributor)
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3UcgVlH

Compounded is a game about building chemical compounds through careful management of elements, a fair bit of social play and trading, and just a bit of luck. In Compounded, players take on the roles of lab managers, hastily competing to complete the most compounds before they are completed by others – or destroyed in an explosion. Some compounds are flammable and will grow more and more volatile over time; take too long to gather the necessary elements for those compounds and a lot of hard work will soon be scattered across the lab.

Although Compounded does involve a fair share of press-your-luck tension and certainly some strategic planning, the most successful scientists will often be those who strike a good trade with their fellow lab mates. Players are able to freely trade elements, laboratory tools, and even favors – if there is truly honor among chemists!

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 MLEM: Space Agency

• Designer: Reiner Knizia
• Artist: Joanna Rzepecka
• Graphic Designers: Joanna Rzepecka and Bartłomiej Kordowski
• Publisher: Rebel Studio
• Players: 2-5
• Playing Time 30-60 minutes
• Played three times, with three players each, on Board Game Arena

Do you like cats? Do you like space? Do you like Can’t Stop? Well, Reiner Knizia has put them all together in his new game, MLEM: Space Agency.

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room – what the heck is MLEM? I had no idea and had to Google it. Apparently, and sources differ on this, it’s the action or sound an animal makes when it sticks out its tongue. Yeah, really. Apparently it’s something that’s often associated with cats and since the game is about cats, well, there ya go.

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Button Shy Games has made a name for itself by publishing minimalistic games, featuring a deck of 18 cards that fit within a plastic wallet-size holder. They now have a considerable number of these games (you can even subscribe to releases) available for purchase or as print-and-play files. They were kind enough to send a few games my way and my favorite of the bunch was a solitaire-like game called Numbsters. Players attempt to winnow down a numbered deck of 18 cards to exactly two cards. The game gives off a strong solitaire-like vibe and can be without a table, holding the cards in one hand. The print-and-play version of the game is on sale at the moment for $1 while a Kickstarter is underway for a reprint of the physical version. 

Numbsters
Designer:  Milan Zivkovic
Publisher: Button Shy Games
Players: 1
Ages: 8+
Time: 10 min
(review copy provided by publisher)