Dale Yu: Review of Harvest Valley

Harvest Valley

  • Designer: Bruno Faidutti
  • Publisher: Grail Games
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 min
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Harvest Valley is a farming game in which players are trying to build up their farms as their neighbors encroach on their land. There are also wild boars and crows intent on eating crops! Whose farm will be the most successful?  A card game that feels like a tile-laying game. On your turn, either place a card from the display into a grid, or build one of your farmhouses. But not everyone wants your farm to have the biggest harvest! On your turn, place a crop card or a farmhouse card on the shared grid. Once the grid is full, the game ends and the player with the highest score, wins.

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Dale Yu: Review of Clickety Clack

Clickety Clack

  • Designer: Ralf zur Linde
  • Publisher: NSV
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 25 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/48Z2lFL
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Clickety Clack, you score points by making dice combinations that allow you to keep moving down scoring tracks. It sounds easy enough – take a die from the pool, “click it” onto a second die, and write down the total in a row of your choice on your player board. The farther you go, the harder it will be to write more numbers — and you’re not even guaranteed to score a track!  

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Movie Tricks

Movie Tricks

  • Designers: Vegard Eliassen Stillerud, Eilif Svensson, Ã…smund Svensson 
  • Publisher: Chilifox Games
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 20-30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Movie Tricks is a unique trick-taking game:

  • Play cards to determine turn order.
  • In turn order, grab cards from the market.
  • All played cards form the market for the next round.

At the end of the game, score points in different categories, like Best Movie, CGI, Props, Roles, and Soundtrack. If you do not win, you may at least brag about the coolest title!

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Yum Yum Trouble Gum

Yum Yum Trouble Gum

  • Designer: Axel Streubel
  • Publisher: Loosey Goosey
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20+
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

The troublelicious heist game with just one loser!  YUM YUM Trouble Gum is a card shedding game. When it is your turn, you draw a new card and/or play a card that fits. As soon as everyone and everything is in place, a heist can go down. At that point, be sure to have the right cards left in your hand or, better yet, none at all. Either way, let someone else take the fall!

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Mark’s Bundle of 2025 Essen Game Thoughts

A collage of board games featuring colorful components and game boards. The images include various game layouts, dice, cards, and player pieces, showcasing distinct designs and mechanics.



Five days. Forty-six plays. Four prototypes plus thirty games that were new to me.

Unless otherwise noted, these are FIRST impressions… I only had the opportunity to play many of these games a single time with a physical copy.

If you’re interested in my Essen (well, post-Essen) impressions from 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, you can find them at the following links. (I’m not sure why I didn’t do one of these in 2021.)

For those of you who haven’t read a lot of my reviews, they may give you a better insight into my board game tastes and what I’m likely to enjoy. (Which, of course, may or may not line up with your choices. Your mileage may vary.) I’m also linking to OG articles about the games when they are available.

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Dale Yu: Review of Toy Battle 

Toy Battle

  • Designers: Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini 
  • Publisher: Repos
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/43EJ20K
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

On land, on sea, in clouds, and even in space, battles are breaking out between toys. Your troops need your tactical talent to lead them to victory. Your mission? Be the first to reach the enemy headquarters or control more territories than your opponent.

On your turn in Toy Battle, you either draw two toy troops or place a troop on the board and apply its effect. When you place a troop, you can place it on an empty base, a base that you control, a base that the enemy controls with a lower-valued troop than the one you’re placing, or the enemy’s headquarters; however, in all cases you must place on a location that has a continuous path to your own headquarters through bases that you occupy, that is, that have your troop on top. If you occupy bases that form a continuous path around a region, you claim the medals within this region. (You don’t lose these medals if the enemy later occupies one of these bases.)

The game ends as soon as you occupy your opponent’s headquarters or win the required number of medals based on the current game board. If a player cannot draw or place a troop, the game ends, and whoever has the most medals wins.

 

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