17.07.14 Spyrium is set in the Victorian Era in the British Empire, but apparently in a parallel universe. The mysterious mineral spyrium, which has remained undiscovered in our reality, made a big impact in that universe. This spyrium turned out to possess such unique properties as an energy source that James Watt and his obsolete steam engine were booed right off the industrial stage. Spyrium therefore lead to a revolution within the industrial revolution: that sounds like something we all want to have!
Each round a grid of cards is laid out. Some cards depict buildings or patents that can be purchased by the players an used for the remainder of the game, others can be used to perform one-time actions. A round consists of two phases: placing workers in the grid, or removing workers to carry out an action. Each player decides individually when he switches from phase I to phase II; this is noted on the central board. In phase I the workers are placed in the space between two cards in the grid. When a player has decided to switch to phase II, he may take back the workers he placed and carry out the action depicted on one of the adjacent cards. In addition to the costs associated with the card itself, he also has to pay an amount of money related to the number of other workers adjacent to that same card. Instead of performing an action, a player may alternatively take back his worker in exchange for money. He then receives as much money as there are other workers adjacent to the same card, but he is not allowed to carry out an action. Additionally, players may use phase II to activate buildings they purchased previously. These buildings enable actions like exchanging spyrium for victory points or money, or taking spyrium, money or additional workers from the supply. This way, players collect spyrium and convert it to victory points in several steps. For six subsequent rounds. Despite the fact that there is an A, B and C deck of cards, there is no real growth or development in the game. The six rounds are almost identical, there is no build-up, excitement or tension. Players sometimes annoy each other by purchasing or using a card that someone else also intended to purchase or use, but that is as far as it goes where player interaction is concerned. Spyrium is bland and too monotonous, not only from round to round, but also from game to game. Barbara van Vugt
Spyrium, William Attia, Ystari/Asmodee, 2013 - 2 to 5 players, 13 years and up, 30-90 minutesxxtop

03.02.14 In the standard game Seasons 2 to 4 magicians are battling for the honorary title of Archmagician of Argos. This expansion set includes some additional material to strengthen them for the tournament. There are 40 new cards that elaborate on the 100 cards from the standard game. These 140 cards taken together provide a perfect mix of old and new, resulting in a refreshing new gaming experience. Of these new cards, the Raven der Schmarotzer is especially noteworthy: the player who enchants this card may place the raven token on an opponent’s card. From that moment on, he is allowed to use its functionality as if it were his own. Additionally, 12 tokens with special abilities are included. Each player receives three random tokens and is allowed to keep one of them, and use these abilities during the game. There are also cards that influence the gameplay for everybody, for example: enchanting a card always costs one additional energy, or: the richest player loses one crystal upon change-of–season, or: the drafting procedure is altered. One of these cards is selected randomly at the beginning of the game, and its effect lasts throughout the entire game. Last but not least, a starting player token is included! This should already have been part of the standard game: especially with four players with Analysis Paralysis, it is easy to forget who was the starting player. But that problem has now been solved. This is exactly what an expansion should be like: it is novel enough to be worthwhile, but not so over-the-top that it becomes an entirely different game. Also the new material is in proportion: the box is modest, and its contents can easily be stored in the box of the standard game if desired. The rules are also assembled with similar care and attention as the rules of the standard game; all the new cards are explained in detail. And, to top it off: it now finally becomes clear what the hole in the player board was intended for! Barbara van Vugt
Seasons - Enchanted Kingdom, Régis Bonnessée, Asmodee/Libellud, 2013 - 2 to 4 players of 14 years and up, 60 minutesxxtop

26.05.13 It’s like a plague! In these times of recession and construction stops one after the other game is published that has a theme concerning city building or civilization development. Card City, Milton Keynes, The City, Innovation and OddVille are a few of these examples in this category. Apparently the Frank Lloyd Wright’s among us keep cherishing their dreams, no matter what the economic times are. Again players have to build all kinds of buildings and fumble them nice and artfully next to each other in order to attract large numbers of inhabitants.
In his turn, a player may buy a city tile; the tile itself must be bought but it also depends on its position in the display what has to be paid for it. On the tile is all sorts of information: it may permanently increase the money status, or even just generate money when it is adjacent to a specific building. The popularity of the small town is shown on the player list, starting at ‘1’ at the beginning of the game. This is the increase in citizens each turn. The popularity can be increased by other tiles, but other tiles ensure a decrease, or when they are adjacent to another building. At the end of his turn, a player checks his income; when it is positive he receives income, when negative he  has to pay. The position of the marker indicating the popularity of the city is transferred onto the central population board, in fact the score board. When this marker passes a red line on this board, the income and popularity of that player decreases by 1; when the popularity becomes negative, players will want to buy building tiles to avoid the negative effects.
Buildings have their own specifications, but may have an effect on other buildings. And adjacent buildings may have an effect on the newly laid tile.
Furthermore, there are tiles that, once placed, indicate the advance of a marker when a  certain new tile is placed. And finally, other players can have placed buildings that may influence the newly placed tile, or the player of the already placed tile has to make an adjustment. This makes things eventually, when a lot of buildings have been built, quite difficult to oversee all possible effects and it is quite inevitable that things get forgotten.
At the start of the game per player a socalled target marker is placed in a display; it shows conditions such as the player with the most money or with the most green buildings, earning that player extra citizens and as citizens are points, players will want to aim for these targets. Also, at the start of the game, each player has received two personal target markers of which he could keep one. This way it is never quite clear what their  position on the score board is.
The building tiles are divided in a A, B and C pile. In this last pile among the last six tiles a ‘game end’ tile is shuffled. After this the round is completed ànd each player has a final turn. Target markers may score, a tie does not.
‘Suburbia’ again is a typical game players want to play with not more than three; the waiting time between turns simply is too large. One would not want to play it with players who want to optimize each turn. But having said this, each player still is busy trying to choose the best building tile, calculating its effects even when this does not go to the extreme; the game therefore is ideally suited for two players and actually not more than that. The fact that even then buildings can be forgotten indicates the immediate lack of oversight.
The game has similar gameplay with the card game ‘The City’ as in that game the buildings strengthen other already placed buildings too. It has yet another similarity: it was played quite a lot at start, but it soon got burnt out because of similar game patterns. It is the same fate that ‘Suburbia’ awaits …
Suburbia, Ted Alspach, Asmodee, 2012 - 2 to 4 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutesxxtop

23.02.13 A new cave has been discovered! Two to five teams of speleologists are anxious to get inside and explore the underground wonders. At the base camp they can get the necessary equipment, oxygen, consumables and ropes. If they wander too far from the camp, they risk to get stranded without food... The players have a backpack with eight slots for consumables, rope, camera, oxygen and a raft. All teams begin in the base camp, and they have five action points to spend each turn. Discovering a new tile costs one action point, just like moving the team one tile further or attaching a rope when there is a height difference between tiles. Diving with oxygen costs two action points, and squeezing yourself through a very narrow passage costs two to four action points. There is a lot going on inside the cave. All tiles with narrow passages are supplied with a token, and the same goes for underwater tiles and wonder tiles. The first player to reach the tile and fulfil the criteria gets the token: these score points at the end of the game. For example, to get a wonder token a player has to make a picture of the wondrous cave. Of course this is only possible if he has packed his camera! The underwater tile can be merely traversed with a raft, or explored more thoroughly by diving with oxygen. Only in the latter case the player receives the token on the tile: you are hardly likely to discover anything interesting from a raft... Whenever a player starts his turn outside the base camp, he immediately has to discard a consumable. Considering that you also want to carry a raft, a camera, oxygen and some rope, you will understand that it is difficult to survive for too long in the cave! Fortunately, the backpack can be refilled at base camp, at the expense of two action points. Not only food, but also oxygen and ropes are used along the way, so it is essential to restock every now and then. If you want to go a bit further away from the base camp, you can pack a small camp in your backpack. It uses two valuable slots, but the camp itself has a storage capacity of four slots. The camp can be built up somewhere in the cave, and can even be repacked to put it somewhere else later on. Because, once all the surrounding tiles have been discovered and all tokens have been claimed, there is not much left to do except to pack up and look somewhere else. Going too far is not wise: it takes you a lot of turns and food to get there, and then you still have to get back before you can restock! It is smarter to put up your own camp within a narrow circle of five action points from the base camp, so that you can always get back within one turn for new supplies. Luckily there is ample opportunity for discovery around the camp: the four player camp has six tunnel exits, so you don't necessarily have to go far to find something new. When the last tile has been placed, all players have three more turns to return to the camp. There, the victory points are scored for tokens, majorities of tokens, and for the depth a player has reached. Teams that couldn't reach the camp in time do not participate in the scoring! But no worries: it is really not too difficult to find your way back to the camp in three turns. The Cave is a successful exploration game. There are enough different elements to keep the game interesting and exciting, but not so many that you are overwhelmed with options, and that it takes a long time to even set up the game - those problems are clearly visible in the similar game Lost Valley. The Cave is a quick game, except for those few occasions where you really want to calculate the exact number of turns and compare it to the available resources: can I just dive into this underwater tile, or will that cause me to run out of food and perish? Barbara van Vugt
The Cave, Adam Kaluza, Rebel Publishing, 2012 - 2 to 5 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutesxxtop

20.01.13 Building a doge ship, how hard can it be? Just follow the IKEA manual with the included allen key and before you know it, a beautiful Døgi is floating in your pond!
Two to five players are going to work with the puzzle pieces, but these will have to be bought first. Money is running out quickly, so in between some money has to be made and this means strolling with the gondola, at least, that’s what we think, as nowheren it is mentioned what these gondolas do except generate income. Inconveniences such as high water have to be controlled by the purchase of locks, and then we did not yet mention the doge who comes to visit the works from time to time to see how things progress. But when we are talking the talk and hand him over our credentials, we get points for it. And that’s what it is all about in the end.
Players cannot just start to work but must carefully plan their actions on the central planning board. It is there that they can choose to buy a galley part, gondola or lock, or build it. The actions are somewhat limited by the throw of some coloured dice where all actions on and left of the die position are free, where actions chosen right from it must be paid for, one money per position. Players have six action discs that they one by one following player order can place at will.
When a galley part is bought, it is placed in front of the player; the player can use a subsequent building action to build it and put the part at the yard according to a schedule determined by the number of participating players. Building is started at the lower left, after that the center part is built or already a piece of the left upper deck, and finally the stern with construction.
The galley parts score points indicated by modifications using a colour code on a round card, so players do not have full control over their score althought the round card can be substituted with a special action. What comes up then still is the question.
Playing the game with only two players does not do right to the game; it’s better be played by four, but then the big downside is the -specified- time: 90 minutes, which in practise even is exceeded. This really really is the death blow for a game that has a nice mechanism, has nice sketchy illustrations, but whose judgement should read: too long for what it offers. ‘The Doge Ship’ has a nice appearance, but simply is not seaworthy. Can we return it to IKEA?
The Doge Ship, Marco Canetta & Stefania Niccolini, giochix.it, 2012 - 2 to 5 players, 13 years and up, 90 minutesxxtop

07.04.12 This time it is all happening in the harbour of this Cuban city. A ship is waiting to be loaded with four kinds of goods, while there are five kinds in play; sugar cane, citrus fruit, tobacco, rum, and cigars. Demand is unpredictable, and determined by the throw of the five dice in the corresponding colours of the goods. Surrounding the harbour different 9 Cuban tiles are randomly placed, each showing a different Cuban personality. Around these tiles 12 different building tiles are randomly placed, a coloured symbol linking each building to a character. A player’s turn consist of moving a car around the harbour, stopping in front of a Cuban’s house. One step is free, for more steps pesos must be paid. At the Cuban’s house, you may use his or her function, and then a corresponding may be used, by placing a paying piece on the tile. The Cubans typically give goods or money, while the buildings can for instance be used to transform tobacco into cigars, or deliver goods to the ship in between. Real deliveries can only be made when the car returns to the harbour. Deliveries are made in a 'Puerto Rico' style, so player after player, and kind after kind. Each delivered good gives 2 to 4 victory points, and when the demand is fulfilled a new ship 'arrives', with a new demand of goods. After seven shipments the victory points are counted, and the player with the most wins.
The experienced player will recognize a lot of ingredients from its predecessors 'Cuba' and 'Havana'; the goods, the Cuban characters and the lovely design of the game all give the game the same atmosphere. 'Santiago de Cuba' plays totally different, however, and gives us a nice, easy family game that is playable in about half an hour. With a bit of concentration during the car’s tour around the harbour it will be possible to score several victory points during a delivery . A small point of critic concerns the player screens which are too small and flimsy. But all-together 'Santiago de Cuba' is well worth a visit! Edwin van de Sluis
Santiago de Cuba, Michael Rieneck, Pegasus Spiele/Eggertspiele, 2011 - 2 to 4 players, 10 years and up, 40-60 minutesxxtop

03.01.12 A group of adventurers travels the country. They visit four keeps each consisting of three floors, and not just to be sociable: on each floor a valuable treasure is hidden, which is guarded by a monster. Our task is clear: beat the monster and claim the treasure! Unfortunately there is competition: the teams of our opponents have the same intention, and they show up at the same moment at the same keep; a very unfortunate coincidence... The player with the strongest team wins the treasure, the weakest team is torn apart by the monster and receives penalty points, and the teams in-between get nothing at all. Each player receives cards depicting wizards, dwarfs and warriors with different values. For each floor of the keep, a team must be assembled consisting of one wizard, one dwarf and one warrior. On the first floor, all players first place one card, then the second one, and then the third. This allows players to watch the other teams take shape, and react to this (He already has a pretty strong team, I think it's time to play my 5-wizard now!). On the second floor players start with one card, but the second and third card are played simultaneously. And on the third floor, the entire team is placed face-up in one go! After the third floor, all players have one remaining card. The player with the highest value card receives three gold, the second place receives two, and the third place one. And then the whole troop moves to the next keep! But they don't have to go over the entire procedure again using the same cards: the cards are passed on to the neighbour. After four keeps, all players have had the opportunity to play with each of the four hands. When all the keeps have been emptied, the players count their money: coins, and gold depicted on the treasure cards, minus the skull symbols on the monster cards. The richest player wins. This simple card game should be regarded as a 'filler' of approximately 30 minutes, and as such it is an okay game. However, the game is neither very exciting nor innovative; the 4x3 rounds are all very similar and after a while it becomes a bit tedious. Since there are more fun games available in this category, most likely Tschak! won't make a regular appearance on the table. Barbara van Vugt
Tschak!, Dominique Ehrhard, Game Works, 2011 - 2 to 4 players, 13 years and up, 30 minutesxxtop

05.12.10 'Schwarzer Freitag' is a stock exchange game, that's all there is to say about it, theme-wise. Players try to get as rich as possible by buying and selling shares -little suitcases- in five different colours. And it's not about the money, but about the silver that we buy with it. The silver price increases in the course of the game, so if you buy too late you pay too much, but if you buy too soon, you exhaust your financial resources and may not be able to participate in the rest of the game. When the silver price hits 100$, the game is over. The game is full of tiny little rules that are virtually impossible to remember without a player aid -not included: when selling shares the value drops, but when buying shares the value doesn't increase. The value increases when three shares of the same colour are on one of the lists, or when the last share of a colour is removed from the market. Shares from the list go into the bag, shares from the bag go to the market. If one black suitcase was drawn from the bag it goes back into the bag, but if more than one, they go to the general supply... Friedemann, did it really have to be this complicated?
The first couple of games 'Schwarzer Freitag' didn't work at all. The value of the shares kept dropping so the players couldn't cash and went bankrupt, and the silver price increased so slowly that the game didn't end. After extensively studying the rules, and with some help from the Internet, the problem was eventually solved. But this required more persistence than the average player can muster! The rules are badly structured, and no player aid or summary is provided. Even when played correctly, the game is nothing special. It works, but there are no innovative elements. The set-up including counting all the coloured briefcases is a lot of work, and you have to permanently be on your guard to take care not to forget one of the many tiny little rules. This makes 'Schwarzer Freitag' feel like hard work, rather than a fun game. In the category of stock exchange games there are better -and more fun- examples on the market (pun intended). Barbara van Vugt
Schwarzer Freitag / Black Friday, Friedemann Friese, Kosmos / Rio Grande Games, 2010 - 2 to 5 players, 12 years and up, 55 minutesxxtop

Five well-known authors have developed a unique game with Stonehenge as setting, and the five resulting games have been combined in one box. The authors have each chosen a different perspective, which has resulted in a game of bluff, a political game, a war game, a racing game and an auction game. The box contains a game board depicting a map of Stonehenge, with room for the five typical stone formations (trilites). Stonehenge is surrounded by a circle with numbered squares. We are also presented with plastic blocks and discs in six different colours, six druids, and a deck of cards. So far so good, but what can we do with all this material? Sceptics will probably say that these projects, where the theme or concept is more important than the game itself, are not likely to result in very good games. Stonehenge proves these sceptics absolutely right. Luckily, it's not all bad: the auction game by James Ernest is okay, although it's not very deep, and the racing game by Mike Selinker is also acceptable, although it's rather dim and way too long. The absolute low is the political game by Bruno Faidutti: sorting out the required material takes more time, and is actually a lot more fun, than the game itself. Generally all games lack depth. As for the rules, these are often unclear and incomplete, and the design and material is uninspiring. One box with five games: it sounds like a good deal, but in this case, none of the games justifies a purchase. Barbara van Vugt
Stonehenge, Richard Borg, James Ernest, Bruno Faidutti, Richard Garfield & Mike Selinker, Hutter Trade / Titanic Games, 2008 - 3 to 5 players, 10 years and up, 30-60 minutesxxtop

24.11.08 The famous Italian commercial families Strozzi, Medici and friends, who have already played a role in many games before, are on the outlook for incoming ships with merchandise. The ships have different properties: speed, goods, scrolls and promotion tiles. All players have three different flags in their colour that they can use to claim the incoming ships. If you use your pirate flag you will definitely get the ship; if you use a ware flag or a ‘+1’ flag you can still be outnumbered by the pirate flag of another player. The player that wins the ship puts his flag on it, and places it in one of the three ports (one where he doesn’t have a ship yet). Each port contains a scoring track for one ware; if this ware is also depicted on the ship that he claimed, the player moves his marker up on the track. If the ship depicts a scroll symbol, he also moves his marker on the scroll track. After all players have used their three flags to claim three ships, the round is over; in each port money is awarded for the three fastest ships, and for the three highest positions on the scoring tracks. Everybody takes back his three flags, and a new round begins with a new pile of ship cards. The markers remain on their positions! The game lasts three rounds, and after the third round, the richest player wins the game.
Sounds simple? Perhaps, but there are some very difficult choices to be made! You have only three flags, and you can place only one ship in each port, and you don’t know in advance what ships are still to come... After a couple of turns, the situation in the ports becomes more clear; in which ports are you still in the running for the fastest ship or the highest position on the scoring track, and in which ports is the situation hopeless for you? Do you settle for an average ship, or will you wait for the fastest ship with the right wares, with the risk that you go home empty-handed? Because the other players can also see which ships are interesting for you, and they can make sure that you won’t get it! Strozzi has exactly the right mix of tactics, lightness and interaction to result in a fun game with enough depth to be interesting. Barbara van Vugt
Strozzi, Reiner Knizia, Rio Grande Games / Abacusspiele, 2008 - 3 to 6 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutesxxtopxx

During the seventeenth centry the Dutch established an extensive trade network in ‘The East’: from Africa and the coast of India and Indonesia to as far as China from where the exotic goods such as pepper and silk were shipped that were converted into cash on the Amsterdam goods exchange. Through the in consequence acquired wealth this century in Holland is known as ‘The Golden Age’. In the board game of the same name three or four players are making money and with this try to get influence and points. The board shows a map of the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. In the various provinces players can take actions, mostly consisting of paying money to take a blind card from one of several categories such as culture or sailing. This sometimes earns instant money in  case of one card, but mostly a set of two or three will have to be collected that earn the desired money, albeit somewhat more than for one card. Slowly players prepare for their trip to ‘The East’: when turning in three different sailing cards - each sailing card can be bought from a blind deck as an action in two separate provinces - a player may place an influence marker in the colonies. With this influence marker a player again can make money, sufficient more money that can be used to bear the costs of the actions or to act as a maecenas for a painter. On the art cards that one famous painter is depicted: Rembrandt van Rijn. These cards, if fully financial covered, are worth points, some more than the other, of course.
Influence markers are worth points too: four per marker in a province, and five or six in the colonies. In two provinces players can buy markers as an action; three of them can be exchanged for an influence marker. On the guilds table all these actions can also be bought, but here the influence markers do not bring points and besides this a player risks of getting his influence marker thrown off the table by another player who pays more for his influence marker. Investing in the cultural domain card deck sometimes earns instant points, but this deck actually consists of wild cards: all categories have a card in this deck. Meanwhile at the edge of the board an incumbent walks around, here and there dispersing some loose money, but he is of no great importance and thus rightly can be considered as periphal.
If a player cannot or does not want to perform his action in a province, this action is auctioned. The gain can be used immediately for other actions as a player has as many actions as he has influence markers on the board, and he is free to choose the order of performing any of these. Investing in all categories is a necessity; without going broad a player will not be able to achieve the requested 33 points in order to claim victory.
‘The Golden Age’ is a relatively simple and easy game; but the rules make it unneccessary complicated (‘see below’, ‘however see 3.0’, sometimes reading as the rules for a wargame); also there are some rule obscurities. The author, trying to be helpful on the internet, sometimes even is contradictory to the printed rules, which works counterproductive.
It is all about the very wealthy maritime Dutch Republic, that only just freed itself from the Spanish occupation, and that at that time was the richest and most modern society in the world, compared to the jealous rivalry of neighbour England, being in a deplorable financial and organizational state, trying to gain some of the richness the Dutch ships brought from The East - but in the game it all only comes down to the unimaginative collecting of cards. Because there has not been made use of the depth of aforementioned setting, the game gets stuck on an abstract, almost technical level and therefore unfortunately does not live up to its expectations.
The sixty minutes on the box cover have not been met, but seventy-five minutes should be feasible. What remains to be said - again! - is that Michael Menzel again has delivered magnificent artwork; this illustrator lifts each game to a higher level. Can somebody give this man an artwork prize?
The Golden Age, Leo Colovini & Guiseppe Baù, Phalanx Games, 2008 - 3 or 4 players, 10 years and up, 60 minutes