Snowcrest

• Designer: Philip duBarry
• Publisher: Grail Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 15-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Deep in the remote mountains of a snowy land, holy ones seek to rediscover powerful knowledge that has been lost for centuries. Not only are the ancient scrolls hidden, but they are said to be protected by magical beasts. Through offerings, meditation, and cultural development, they believe the knowledge may be revealed, then peace and prosperity will be restored throughout the land.

In Snowcrest, you lead your village and its monastery towards enlightenment. Control a unique faction of priests, farmers, and laborers. Build structures, tend the barley fields, harvest juniper from the forest, present offerings, become lost in meditation, and uncover the secrets of a bygone age. Overcome the monstrous guardians of this knowledge and bring peace and prosperity to the snowfields. At the end of the game, players tally up points to determine the winner.

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Choconnect

• Designer: Sandro Blasich
• Publisher: Snovid
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In the game Choconnect you are chocolatiers, immersing yourselves in a tantalizing world of confectionery mastery. Your task: skillfully arrange an assortment of chocolates to become the ultimate chocolatier and triumph in the sweetest challenge.

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Warp & Weft

• Designer: Cami Munoz Villar
• Publisher: Fractal Juegos
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

The art of weaving has been essential to the development of almost every culture in the world. The colors, embroideries and patterns have hundreds of folkloric meanings that make many of the hand-woven garments unique.  In Warp & Weft you will play four rounds, trying to weave different colored threads on your Loom to form attractive patterns.

In each round, you’ll collect four threads, in a simultaneous draft, that you’ll need to make your design. You will then weave them onto your Loom board and commit to a specific pattern that will grant you a certain amount of victory points depending on how many times that pattern is present on your Loom.

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No Thanks (2024)

• Designer: Thosten Gimmler
• Publisher: Amigo
• Players: 3-7
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3C3iVFR 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

No Thanks! is a card game designed to be as simple as it is engaging.

The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options:

• play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card
• pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card

However, the choices aren’t so easy as players compete to have the lowest score at the end of the game. The deck of cards is numbered from 3 to 35, with each card counting for a number of points equal to its face value. Runs of two or more cards only count as the lowest value in the run – but nine cards are removed from the deck before starting, so be careful looking for connectors. Each chip is worth -1 point, but they can be even more valuable by allowing you to avoid drawing that unwanted card.

The first versions of the game supported up to five players, but the German 2011 edition supports up to seven (simply by increasing the number of chips). The German 2024 edition which is reviewed here includes additional cards to allow for play with variant rules.

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