Nemeton

• Designer: Johann Favazzo
• Publisher: Blam!
• Players: 2-4
• Ages: 12+
• Time: 75-90 minutes

Nemeton is a new game from Blam! – a game company from the Alps (as seen in the snow covered “A” in their company logo).  The company first hit my radar last year with Time Arena, a clever combat game which used sandtimers.  The new release, which was sent to me in nearly final Prototype form, is Nemeton.  It is the maiden design by Mr. Favazzo (well, at least as  far as BGG knows, it is his first design!)  In this game, players are druids, inhabitants of a Forest which has been cursed and is somehow dying.  The druids must try to rescue the forest and its animals.  Using all you powers, including those of the nemetons, will help you score the most victory points – which of course means you’ve done the best to save the forest.

Continue reading →

• Realm of Sand 
• Publisher: EmperorS4
• Designer: Ji Hua Wei
• Artist: Maisherly Chan
• Age:10+
• No. of Players 1-4
• 30-60 min

Realm of Sand is a new game from EmperorS4. It features Maisherly’s wonderful fantasy art on the cards.

Gameplay involves placing polyominoes called Rune Tiles on your player board to match patterns on the building cards. First players choose one of two tiles from the Circle of Rune Tiles to a hand of 3 tiles. The polyominoes consist of squares called Rune Pieces of 3 different colors/symbols. Players position the tiles on their player boards then placing matching single pieces on their board and return the tiles to the circle of runes. This part of the game may seem slightly fiddly but it is important as when you place new tiles if the overlap previously placed spots you replace the squares with the new one. This makes future planning a bit more interesting. The player boards have a lighter area that you must play with in. If you earn levels you may use one darker area space for each level you have

When you have a pattern of Rune Pieces that match a Building card you may claim it. Building cards consist of 3 levels. The first level cards require fewer pieces and reward you with Spirit disks. Spirit disks may be placed on your board instead of pieces and used to complete patterns. Spirit disks are limited during the game. Second level cards provide higher level Spirit disks and levels for extra spaces and third level cards provide high point values. Cards are also the game clock. Some cards have hour glasses which provide time units. When a player has reached 10 hour glasses the game end is signaled.

The player boards are double sided with one side being identical to the others and the other side each having different special powers that can be activated during the game.

Realm of Sand is a nice family weight game. If you enjoy polyomino games Realm of Sand will fit right in!  I like the way the game timer fits in with the rewards of the cards. You can potentially affect the game length. Being able to remove some of the Rune pieces allowed nice flexibility if another player takes the card you wanted. I’m interested in seeing how efficient you can be with tile placement to set oneself up for rapid scoring. Not much new to the mechanisms but they all fit together nicely and provide a nice lighter game or filler.

*Preview copy provided by EmperorS4

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:

Dan Blum (2 plays): This is a kind of game I tend to like, and I like this. Placing the tiles is interesting in a puzzle-y way and you also have to think about which discs you want to try to earn for later use – having several of a basic color is often better than having a mix, and you also want at least one higher color.

It’s hard to say after one play each of the basic and advanced games but I am not sure the advanced game is better. It gives everyone a different special power and also shrinks the initially available board space. The powers seem fine but I am not sure they add a lot, and the smaller board arguably forces you to think more about placement but has the potential to just be frustrating. However, I’d certainly try the advanced game again, and even if I end up not liking it as much as the basic game, the basic game is still well worth playing.

• Walking in Burano 
• Publisher: EmperS4
• Designer: Wei-Min Ling
• Artist: maisherly Chan
• Age: 10 +
• No. of Players 1-4
• 20-40 min

Walking in Burano is the 5th game in EmperorS4’s small box line. It’s a compact little drafting and placement game. Players build their colorful houses in Burano and try and attract tourists and inhabitants. This game has the cutest, smallest little start player cat.

There are 3 types of cards. Floor cards which consist of cards for the first, second and third floors. Tourist cards which give points for the house they are placed in front of and inhabitant cards which score for horizontal groupings of house floors. The cards feature art by Maisherly and each card has features such as flower pots, cats and curtains on them that will add to scores at the end of the game.

Each player will build their own tableau of 5 houses of 3 stories. You Draft from a common pool of shuffled floor cards consisting of columns of first, second and third floor cards. Interestingly, you can draft all 3 cards in a column, or the first and second floor or third and second floor and 1 coin or just the first or third floor card and 2 coins. You the pay 1 dollar to place a floor, and 2 dollars for any additional floor up to 3 floor cards total. Hand limit is 3 floor cards. You use up to 2 scaffold cards to support buildings when floors are built out of order.  Buildings are of a single color and colors are associated with symbols for those that have difficulty with colors. You cannot have 2 buildings of the same color next to each other. Each player is allowed up to 4 exceptions to the placing rules if for example you have to place a roof of the wrong color on a building. If the exception tiles aren’t used they will score points at the end of the game.

When you complete a house you can then draft either a tourist or an inhabitant and place them below the house just finished. The tourists give points at the end of the game for different things such as cats in your house or flower pots. Inhabitants score similar type of things in horizontally adjacent floors for the most part. There are lots of different ways to score.

The game ends after a player has built all 5 of their houses. The round is finished and then each neighborhood is scored. Highest score wins.

I’d say that Walking in Burano makes a great addition to the small box line. I like the challenge of racing to finish a building to grab the tourist or inhabitant you want since they are limited. It’s also interesting to manage the money aspect as well so you can’t just grab all the cards you want every round. The card art is really cute and the game plays well with different numbers of players.

*Preview copy provided by EmperorS4