• Designers: Daniele Tascini and David Turczi
• Publisher: Board&Dice
• Players: 1 – 4
• Age:14+
• Time: 60-120 min
• Played with review copy provided by Board&Dice as well as online

Tekhenu is the highly anticipated fall 2020 release from Board&Dice – a company has become known for its complex strategy games – such as Teotihuacan. Tekhenu is the next in that line, and just picking up the box, you can feel from its heft that it’s going to be a heavy game indeed!  In this game, players are set in Ancient Egypt and are working on building the temple of Amun-Re.  They will use dice from the board, which are surrounding a huge obelisk; it will be important to note the location of said dice as it will matter whether they are in the full sun or if they are in the shadow of the obelisk. Continue reading →

• Designer: GOOD PLAYER, Francesco Amanti, Francesco Barbini and Andrea Pardi
• Publisher: Giochi Uniti / Stratelibri
• Players: 3-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 45-60 mins
• Played with review copy provided by Asmodee NA (who distributes here for Giochi Uniti)

Bar Barians is one of the new fall releases from Giochi Uniti, one of the major players in the Italian boardgaming scene.   They are probably best known for Kingsburg – but many of their games have been hard to find here without a decent distribution plan.  That’s all different in 2020 as Asmodee North America has picked up the distribution rights.  Thus, Bar Barians finds its way to my doorstep and thus onto the gaming table.

In Bar Barians, players are adventurers who are relaxing in a bar between dungeon crawls – and they get caught up in a bar brawl.  Before you know it, it’s every man/woman/elf/mage/troll for itself.  The only way to win the game is to be the last adventurer standing!

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Today is the first Monday in October. That means it’s time for the U.S. Supreme Court to begin a new term, just as they have for centuries. It’s time for a handful of black-robed jurists to hear the most complex, significant, and thoroughly considered issues of the day, and then to render decisions that will impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

I’ve spent the last 10 years mulling over a strategy board game about the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and I’ve finally finished the design. You may have seen my Designer Diary on here about the process and inspirations a couple months ago. Today, I want to share one of my personal favorite parts of First Monday in October, which is that each case in the game has a unique global effect on the game state or gameplay depending on the prevailing side. This idea emerged gradually over the course of many months of countless playtests.

The kernel for the idea started when it seemed that the outcome of some cases should impact the likelihood of subsequent cases turning out a certain way. This is of course a core part of the judicial system, generally known by its Latin name — stare decisis, which, to oversimplify, is the principle that precedent should guide outcomes so that the law is predictable for litigants.

In the game, this started with the idea that a victory in an earlier case by the party linked with Federalist ideals should make it more likely that a similarly aligned party should prevail in a subsequent case, and the same goes for the opposing Antifederalist party. I wanted the global effects to represent a change in the state of the nation’s laws in the game, which would impact all players equally, regardless of who advocated for each party in any given case. In fact, the global effects happen even for cases where no player was involved because they’re tied to the intrinsic case parties, not the players. The players can and will of course influence this by pushing the judicial philosophies in one direction or another based on their preferences for various case effects.

• Designer: Renier Knizia
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 15-20 mins
• Played with new version on review copy from Gamewright, >5 with original version (voodoo prince) owned by friends

I just received a box of games from Gamewright, and I’ll admit that I am very impressed with their newest selection of games.  In the past, I had always thought of Gamewright as more of a family-oriented company (Slamwich, etc) – but this year’s selection of games looks to be turning a new corner.  Sure, the games are still perfectly suited for families, but two of the three games come from distinguished designers in the genre.  These games are the sort that I’d be happy to pull out when I have non-gamer guests over, but they also have the pedigree behind them to work for the usual gamenight. Continue reading →

Pendulum

• Designer: Travis Jones
• Publisher: Stonemaier Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age:12+
• Time: 60-90 mins
• Times played: 3, with review copy provided by Stonemaier Games

Pendulum is a bit of an odd duck when it comes to TGOO – namely, there aren’t that many real-time games around.  In this game, for the most part, players are all doing their own thing, collecting and spending resources, and trying to gain victory points.  There aren’t any turns per se – you are allowed to do things based on the status of three sandtimers, and whenever you’re allowed to do something, you can do it as you please.

The main game board is placed in the center of the table, and the three sandtimers (green, purple and black) are placed in their respective colored quadrants of the board.  The fourth quadrant has 4 province cards placed face up on it.  An achievement cards is placed on the appropriate spot near the center of the board. Make sure that everyone in the game can reach all parts of the main board.  The council board is put off to the side – it is less important for everyone to be able to reach this one.. 

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