The Concept

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, would have been a sight to see. We can only imagine now what they would have looked like. I like to picture lush, green rain forests on top of all the roofs, and vines stretching between the buildings. I picture birds of different varieties, a multitude of colorful insects and flowers, waterfalls and mosses dotting all the great pillars and walls. I imagine it would have been the sort of place one could lose themself in, and that would be perfectly okay.

When Geek Attitude Games introduced Babylon, designed by Olivier Grégoire, and Board Game Geek’s summary was “Build a three-dimensional version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” I knew I had to play this game. When images were released of beautifully flowered tiles stacked on pillars, with fountains, bridges, statues, and stairs, my mouth watered. This game sounded cool and looked cool. I didn’t even have to walk by a table to see the table presence this would have.

[caption id="attachment_310489" align="aligncenter" width="881"] Though, seeing this would definitely make me want to play.[/caption]

The game, as it was summarized, has you building your own 3D Hanging Gardens. To do that, you’ll be selecting flower…

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I have the great fortune of serving as a member of the tabletop media. As a result, about 95% of the games I cover are review copies forwarded by publishers. That helps keep personal spend at a minimum, which is vital for a person who reviews about 125 games a year.

However, I occasionally break my own rules when a game tickles my fancy. Llama Dice, the design duo composed of Israel Cendrero and Sheila Santos, is the main reason for me to break some of my own rules because they are the duo that gave us The Red Cathedral and The White Castle, two of my favorite games of the last five years.

When I learned that Llama Dice had a game hitting at SPIEL this year, I happily stood in line to pay 25 euros to grab a copy. That game is Flatiron (2024, Ludonova), a 1-2 player city-building game based on the duo’s personal travel to New York City touring some of the great architectural wonders there. The duo’s appreciation for these trips is detailed in the acknowledgements of Flatiron’s rulebook.

Soon after I returned to the US, I got Flatiron to the table for three plays: two solo, and one with my wife. Flatiron is far from the duo’s best work, but…

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If you’re a eurogame designer, odds are, somewhere in your game there are going to be contracts of some kind. It’s the Mount Rushmore of resource management mechanisms. You gotta have something to do with all those bits and bobs you’re collecting. The exemplars: there are games with bespoke contracts that you acquire for yourself and only you can do (La Granja, Yokohama, Imperial Steam), there are games with contracts that everyone is fighting to complete first (Nucleum / Barrage style), and probably a zillion other ones that I’m forgetting.

But then, there is the fraught category of the positional contract. This style of contract is, funnily enough, more genealogically related to hidden role games than it is the classical euro point-converter.

Hidden figures

It goes like this: there’s a condition that the game state needs to be in, and when it is in that state, you can get points and/or win. In a hidden role game, your team needs to be winning or losing, or the game needs to be in a precarious position for your exciting reveal to clinch a win. You need to conduct the player orchestra to get the necessary conditions for your win. That’s why people keep coming back to games like this, and why games like Clans are still…

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Tower Up (2024, Monolith Board Games) is one of the only games this year where I struggled to pick any holes in its design.

None of the five unique players who joined me for my three review plays (at two, two, and four players) could throw any stones at the game, either. Tower Up is maybe the cleanest design of a tabletop game I have played this year.

Everything is Fantastic

Tower Up is a 2-4 player city building game. It was fantastic as a four-player game, and it was fantastic as a two-player game, thanks to the novel approach to the game’s map size…on the back of the 3-4 player side of the board, half of a normal-sized map is used for the two-player variant, and it offers just as much tension on both sides as players build a city.

The rules overhead is super light, but offers so much depth for a game that didn’t look like it would have that much.

Players have two choices on their turn: draw a card from a three-card market to draft building pieces, or start a new building on the map. When taking a card, players just take all the pieces shown on their card into their personal supply up…

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From Wikipedia: “In the early 6th century Judah rebelled against Babylon and was destroyed (586 BCE). The royal court and the priests, prophets and scribes were taken into captivity in Babylon. There the exiles blamed their fate on disobedience to God and looked forward to a future when a penitent and purified people would be allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.”

Decades later, this future they looked forward to came to pass.

The game Ezra and Nehemiah chronicles the challenges that the noted priest and scribe, Ezra, and cup-bearer to king Artaxerxes of Persia, Nehemiah, faced as they worked to restore the city of Jerusalem to its former glory and bring the word of the gospel to the people therein. In the game, players will be using their hand of cards and the workers at their disposal to clear away the rubble of the destroyed city, rebuild the walls and the temple, and teach the Torah to the people.

It is worth noting here that, while Ezra and Nehemiah is inspired by biblical events and takes place in the setting of the story, it is not a religious game. It is a meaty, thinky eurogame with a lot of moving parts and interconnected systems. The aim of the game is to earn the most points by…

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When it comes to roll-and-writes, my gold standard is still The Guild of Merchant Explorers (yes, I know it’s not technically a roll-and-write). I think this is primarily because I like maps, and if I’m going to puzzle solitaire style with folks, I like having a little map dotted with features and accomplishments at the end.

I also love public transit, and subway maps are just about the coolest looking map you can get this side of your municipality. Next Station: Tokyo, does a great job being what it intends to be — a subway coloring book that you can relax with.

This is my first review of a game as a solo player. I did not play this game with other players, and because the only thing that really changes is more people in the room with you, I think that’s fine in this case. For review purposes, I actually just played the game four-handed, because I wanted to try the puzzle from several angles.

But, if you’re familiar with the flip-and-write variant of the roll-and-write, you’ll be right at home here. There are four subway lines, each represented by a different colored pencil. When you’ve got that pencil, you’re working on that line (for example, purple)…

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Over the years with Everdell, I’ve gone through phases. I’ve run through the expansions, ranking every Everdell experience along the way. I’ve played with my kids regardless of age, introducing even the youngest through My Lil’ Everdell. I’ve played with friends—I’ve even played Everdell digitally. I’ve explored strategies for my favorite tabletop world and I’ve followed that world to new edges of the map with the release of Farshore.

Most recently, I’ve settled into two-player outings with my elder daughter. She has an enthusiasm for Everdell that rivals mine and I cherish the chance to play together. I was immediately intrigued, then, when I found the announcement for Everdell Duo. I think it’s safe to say most players most enjoy Everdell as a duel. Sprawling table presence and ballooning downtime tend to keep the smaller, tighter experience appealing. The upcoming campaign is obviously hoping to scratch a developed itch and maybe rake in the folks on the fringes of the Meadow.

With the rise of two-player versions, it seems everyone is out to streamline and redefine stellar gaming experiences. What changes have James and Clarissa Wilson brought to this newest iteration of my favorite game? Are they refreshing? Worthwhile? I surprised myself a little with my answers.

Remarkably familiar

Everdell Duo will strike all…

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Dorfromantik: the Duel attempts to capture the charm of its namesake Dorfromantik: the Board Game and transform it from an idyllic cooperative venture into a fierce, head-to-head competition. As you’ll soon see: while the game succeeds on most fronts, there are a few aspects of it that I find bothersome. How bothersome? Read on to find out.

How Is This Game Played?

In Dorfromantik: the Duel (Duel), you and your opponent are competing to see which one of you can score the most points. Each player is provided a set of Terrain tiles, a set of Task tiles, and a set of Task markers in their color, and (save for the player color on the back of the tiles) their sets match their opponent’s sets exactly. This is important because one player—who I will refer to as the ‘caller’ (for lack of a better term)—will flip either a Task tile (if either of the two players ever have fewer than three Tasks) or a Terrain tile, and this is the tile that both players must play into their personal tableau. We’ll call the other player the ‘follower’.

Once all of the Terrain tiles have been played, the game comes to an end and final scoring is performed to…

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From the rulebook: “As a prestigious city planner, you have been ordered by the queen herself to build a harmonious city. Take care to balance the human and natural realms by creating equal amounts of building (black) and park (green) tiles, and do not forget to incorporate the shape of a rectangle — the shape most important for fortification. Can you build a city worthy of the queen?”

In the strictest sense of the word, the name Tangram City is a bit of a misnomer. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a tangram is defined as “a Chinese geometric puzzle consisting of a square cut into seven pieces that can be arranged to make various other shapes.” In Tangram City, the shapes you’ll be working with are closer to tiny triangles that have been fused together to create polyomino-like shapes, some with their corners missing.

So, just understand, you won’t be creating tangrams in this game. Instead, as the name implies, you’re going to be using these shapes to create your city and score points.

A Round of Play

During setup, each player will receive their own City board as well as a complete set of 23 City tiles (green on one side and black on the other) and 6 Fountain tiles. They’ll also place a score marker onto…

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If you’ve had the chance to read any of my previous Mindclash Games coverage, you probably think I’m a fanboy…and, you are right.

Mindclash has put out a bevy of bangers, including Anachrony, Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, and the granddaddy of them all, Voidfall. I wanted to try the 2022 release Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles Episodes 1 & 2, so I reached out to the Mindclash team to grab a review copy and I spent about a month working through both episodes.

The format is wild. Perseverance is a four-game series that will wrap up with a third and fourth episode later this year, so I wanted to get in now to ensure I know what’s going on when the new games are delivered to backers. Players take on the roles of leaders stranded on a remote island in the present day that also happens to be inhabited by dinosaurs. By the end of Episode 4, I’m guessing Perseverance (the name of the game’s deserted location) will be a full-blown city where dinosaurs and humans are living side-by-side, working together to further a shared way of life.

The backstory is richer than that, so while I’ll talk about both episodes in the first box, I won’t talk about the things that Mindclash always does better…

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I’m always fascinated by the way board games can create a sense of place that extends far beyond their cardboard components.

I’m not talking about narrative-based games that tell a story around a setting or legacy games which build up an environment over a series of sessions. What interests me is how games can build a sense of place through their mechanics alone, without the aid of characterful illustrations or paragraphs of text. Games that feel organic in the fictional communities they create.

For all my love of Carcassonne, and for all that you’re building a landscape of places and people, it never feels populated. Dice City, Machi Koro, Alhambra, Tiny Towns, Quadropolis, Ginkopolis, Sprawopolis and more – they all tackle the subject of building communities, but they never actually feel lived in.

Suburbia does it with the narratives that emerge from tile adjacency impacting population and income. Little Town’s direct geography creates unplanned pockets of industry and production sprouting up amongst the game’s natural features. Santa Monica’s occasional stretches of emptiness or dilapidation create spaces for cliques to congregate. The job roles in Villagers open further avenues for…

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Hello and welcome to ‘Focused on Feld’. In my Focused on Feld series of reviews, I am working my way through Stefan Feld’s entire catalogue. Over the years, I have hunted down and collected every title he has ever put out. Needless to say, I’m a fan of his work. I’m such a fan, in fact, that when I noticed there were no active Stefan Feld fan groups on Facebook, I created one of my own.

Today we’re going to talk about 2011’s Strasbourg, his 14th game.

As mentioned in my review of Trajan, Stefan Feld really hit the ground running in 2011. Sandwiched in between the release of his masterpieces The Castles of Burgundy and Trajan was Strasbourg, an unassuming game about noble families in the French city of Strasbourg during the 15th century, squabbling for power and influence within the city’s guilds. It was the first, and so far (thankfully) the only game Feld has ever produced that requires a minimum of three people to play. Perhaps that’s the reason that Strasbourg never got the traction, or attention, of the games that bookended it.

Overview

In Strasbourg, each player begins the game with an identical set of shuffled cards, and they will use these cards to bid on the game’s various actions over…

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