Sanctum (Czech Games Edition)

When I was in college, I completely failed my freshmen year. While my peers were making the most of their time, completing courses towards a degree, I was not. I was up until all hours of the night. I skipped classes. I dropped classes. I failed classes. I’d like to say I had the “normal” college experience and did all this because I was too busy partying and drinking. The reality was I was playing video games, primarily Diablo II. I enjoyed the thrill of beating the monsters, honing my skills, collecting the loot, and oddly enough the economy of trading with other players. I eventually transferred schools, received a degree, and became a functioning member of society. I’d like to say I never fell down that rabbit hole again, but then World of Warcraft happened, and then board games happened.

This backstory brings me to the game I am reviewing today called Sanctum. In Sanctum, you and your fellow players will embark on a journey to destroy the Demon Lord. Reminiscent of my favorite hack and slash games, there are skills, gear, and achievements. Though, you and your fellow players all have the same goal, you are also fighting to be in the best position to ultimately be the one best equipped to defeat the Demon Lord. Let’s learn how to play.

Setup

1. Place the Hordes Board with the three Demon Decks shuffled and face up in their respective spot.

2. Set up the Act Boards (where the adventure happens) based on player count. Note: you will only need two boards at a time.

3. Place the Achievements Board with the eleven shuffled achievements tiles face-down on it.

4. Place Divine Intervention tiles, dice, and all tokens (Hit Markers, Potions, Stamina, and Focus) within reach of everyone.

5. Have each player select a champion – Huntress, Outlaw, Slayer, or Dancer. Each player will then set up their board composed of a figure, rage tile, stamina tokens, focus tokens, a health counter, two dice in front of them, one dice on the angel icon, one white gem in their gem pool, and skill cards/tiles to make their character.

6. Players will then receive starting bonuses based on player count and turn order.

Game Play – On your turn, you must perform one of the three actions:

1. Move. This is the action you must perform on your first turn to get your figure on the Act Board. After your initial turn, you will advance (move your figure to first open space), reveal demons (per the icon on the space you moved to), take demons (add demons to your queue to fight later), and potentially reveal a treasure chest for loot.

2. Fight. Here you will take potions (if necessary), roll your dice, attack by matching the dice with the monster cards, block (if you don’t kill the enemies), gain levels and items (from dead enemies), and check achievements.

3. Rest. With this action, you restore all your stamina and focus previously used, equip item (that you have matching gems for), buy potions (one for each discarded item), and again check achievements.

The game will progress to Act V where one player must defeat all their enemies. They may then breach the wall and call on others to answer the call. Players can choose to keep fighting their enemies for a time, but eventually all must answer the call. Act VI is the culmination of the final battle with the Demon Lord. The game will continue until the Demon Lord is defeated or everyone is dead.

Review

While no board game will replicate the experience of a game like Diablo II, this one tries its best to. There are your four heroes, who resemble your typical classes of warriors, hunters, and rogues, but they have a dancer hero (not traditional), and they give us an equal amount of men and women classes. The formula of stamina and mana pool is tried and true and present here, as is the tried and true leveling up by killing lesser monsters and collecting loot they drop. At the end, you must face a giant demon who is not named Diablo, but is every bit modeled after him.

There are several aspects I liked about this game, including the art and the components, which are both top notch. The game didn’t need to give us miniatures for the characters, as standees would have sufficed, but it was cool that they did and felt a little more tactile. With that said, if you give me hero minis, a slightly bigger final boss mini would have been cool too! The box is a bit on the large size, but I’m hoping that means expansions (more on that later). Another aspect I liked was the replay value. Monsters will be different. Turn order will be different. Equipment will be different. Dice results will be different. There isn’t unlimited replay value, but it will be different enough each time you play it. Like Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice.”

With regards to what I didn’t like, I would say that movement is a bit uninspired. Move one space if you’re in the front of the line or move to the front of the line. Branching paths could have been cool or skipping ahead for a treasure chest or create a mini-event on some spots that you could race ahead to and gamble on winning or losing the fight. The winner determination is also anticlimactic. If multiple people defeat the final boss, then highest health wins? That’s kind of a yawn and I want achievements to mean more in that case and not just used to help fight the final enemy.

I have played this game several times now and won one time. I have also tried several different classes and each brings their own flavor to the game and puzzle to solve. This isn’t your typical dungeon crawler, but it is a fun one. I hope that this game has some popularity to it after the initial buzz, because it could benefit from some expansions. Perhaps, we could add a different final boss or an even more epic boss after the current one. There are also easier expansions to accomplish, like additional characters to swap out, different minions, and different gear. Overall, a fun experience and one I’d recommend if you’re a Diablo fan like myself.

Spy Club (Foxtrot Games)

When I think of famous characters in children's literature, I think of such names as Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Encyclopedia Brown, The Boxcar Children, and The Baby-Sitters Club just to name a few. What do all these names have in common? They are all detectives. Yes, when you think about it, mystery series are a staple of children's literature (and adult literature too)! Drawing on this popular genre, Foxtrot Games developed the game Spy Club. Spy Club is a cooperative game for 2-4 players, ages 10+.  It takes approximately 45 minutes to play and retails for $45. In this game, you and your fellow detectives will work together to unlock the five clues necessary to solve the case. Let's learn how to play!

Setup
1. Situate the Board and Supply - Assemble the puzzle pieces to form the Central Board. Determine the difficulty level you want (standard or advanced), and flip the Central Board to that side. Place the Escape Marker on the bottom space of the escape track of the Central Board. Place all 18 Idea Tokens (light bulbs) within reach of all players.
2. Create the Movement Deck - Take the 25 Movement Cards and divide them into 3 stacks (daytime, sunset, and nighttime). Shuffle each stack and remove one card from each stack. Form a single deck in the proper order of daytime, sunset, and nighttime and place this deck in its spot on the Central Board.
3. Create the Clue Deck - Shuffle the 54 Clue Cards, making sure to cut and flip the cards to create a thorough shuffle. Place this deck in the card tray, and place the tray next to the Central Board. Then, deal out a number of clue cards to the right of the tray, based on the number of players. These are now known as incoming clues. Place a Placard over each incoming clue according to the table in the rule book.
4. Prepare the Player Areas - Give each player two puzzle pieces to form their Player Board. Randomly determine a starting player (I usually go with the youngest!), and deal one card from the top of the clue deck over each empty slot on the players' boards, starting with the first player. This forms a player's hand. Each player places one Focus Token (magnifying glass) on their Player Board below their rightmost card. Each player also receives one Idea Token.
5. Position the Suspect - Place the Suspect Pawn over the rightmost card of the starting player.
6. Select and Name Characters - Have each player select one of the eight Character Cards. Take a blank sticker, writing the name you created for your character on it, and affix it to the lower part of the Character Card.
7. Case 1 Only - Reveal cards 3 and 4 from the Campaign Deck and set them aside. You will flip them when the instructions on the card tell you to do so.

Game Play - The game is played over a series of player turns, until an end game condition is met. On a player's turn, they will perform the following three steps:
1. Use Actions - There are four actions you can take. You may perform up to three, including the same one multiple times.
a. Investigate - Flip any of your Clue Cards (one at a time) in any order. You decide after each flip, whether you want to keep flipping or not.
b. Shift Focus - Move your Focus Token to one of your other Clue Cards. Gain one Idea Token for each Clue Card that is the same aspect (color) of your new Focus Card.
c. Confirm - Move one Clue Card from your hand to the center row. (Note: Doing this will require you to spend Focus Tokens. )
d. Scout - Draw one Clue Card from the incoming clues. (Note: Doing this will require you to spend Idea Tokens.)
*Teamwork Bonus - You may also do bonus activities such as trading cards or taking Idea Tokens from other players.
2. Refill - Fill any empty slots in your hand. Then, fill any empty slots for the incoming clues.
3. Move the Suspect - Reveal the top card of the Movement Deck, and place it face-up on the movement discard track to the right of the previous card.
a. Advance the Escape Marker - If the revealed card has an escape icon, move the escape marker one space. If the marker reaches the "Escaped" space, the case ends immediately!
b. Move the Suspect Pawn - Determine what number on the previous card is connected to the suspect icon and move the Suspect Pawn that number of spaces. An event is then triggered depending on the color of card that the Suspect Pawn ends their movement on.

You will solve aspects of the case by having five cards of the same color in the center row. Of these five cards, the solution card is identified by the symbol in the center of the most recent Movement Card. The game will end in one of five ways with only one resulting in a win. The end game possibilities are : 1 Succeed by solving all five aspects of the case. 2. The Escape Marker reaches the "Escaped" space. 3. You do not have enough ideas to remove from the game when required to do so. 4. You do not have a movement card to draw at the end of player's turn. 5. You do not have enough incoming clues to fill all players' hands.

Note: There are campaign rules where you will be required to solve five cases to win. This adds a newer wrinkle in difficulty and creates a fun way to unlock new rules, change the way you play, add story that will carry forward from one case to the next, and create a wealth of replay value!

Review
Foxtrot Games isn't a publisher that cranks out 20 games a year. Instead, they take their time focusing on one to two games a year, and making those games excellent. This started with Relic Expedition, moved on to Lanterns, World's Fair 1893, Sundae Split, The Fox in the Forest, and has ultimately led us to Spy Club, arguably their best game to date. Each game is thoughtfully and meticulously crafted in terms of art and game play, making the games visually appealing on your table and welcoming for players of all experience levels. I don't just dole out this praise lightly either, as I own the majority of their catalog, it is well-deserved. However, let's focus primarily on Spy Club.

Spy Club on the surface is a box of colorful double-sided cards that you are trying to match into a five of a kind set in order to solve an aspect of a case. It sounds simple enough, but you are having to manage resources to make these matches happen and also going against a timer in the form of a deck of cards that is going to frustrate you to no end your first couple of plays until you and your group get used to the various actions and bonus actions you can take to match the cards and solve the case. If you master the art of a single game, you can play five separate games to make up a game, and this is where the game really shines.

The campaign mode of Spy Club elevates this game to an 11 out 10 ranking. Yes, you read that correctly. Starting with Case 2, you will unlock new content based on which aspect of Case 1 that you recorded. This will then instruct you which card (from two giant decks of cards) to reveal, read, and alter the way you play the game. I won't go into details how, but it added new challenges to an already great game. What I like best about the campaign mode is that it is not a legacy style format, meaning that nothing you do during the campaign will destroy any cards or components. Instead, it is called a "mosaic" game, meaning that rules and elements of each case will change each time you play. There are 40 different modules and each you only use 4 each game. That means, at a minimum, it will take you 10 games to discover all the modules. In reality, it will take you more as sometimes you will face the same module more than once. That's a lot of replay and value for $45!

This is my #1 family game of the year and a game that I believe belongs on everyone's shelves. There are a lot of cooperative games out there, but they generally fall into one of two camps - 1. Very childlike with no real depth or 2. Doom, gloom, and the end of the world. Spy Club breaks the mold by creating a light and captivating theme. Once you have finished a game, you are then encouraged to make a story out of the five aspects of the case to further immerse yourself in the experience. This help foster imagination in your younger players and gives you a satisfying end to a job well done. I can think of no family game currently that offers the depth and replay that this game does for this price. And while I have not been through every module in this game, I look forward to experiencing them all and hope that there will be an expansion down the line that adds even more modules for us to unlock. Can't recommend this game enough!

Villainous (Wonder Forge)

Wonder Forge is a game company known for making great, branded family games. From Richard Scarry to Dr. Seuss to different Disney IP's such as Frozen and The Lion Guard, there is a great variety of games that your children will love! Recently, Wonder Forge released another Disney branded game called Villainous, and with this game, they made a giant splash in the family-friendly strategy level gaming world. Villainous is a game for 2-6 players, ages 10+. It takes just under an hour to play and retails for $40. In the game, you take on the role of an iconic Disney villain (Captain Hook, Jafar, Maleficent Prince John, Queen of Hearts, or Ursula) and attempt to rewrite those "Happily Ever After" endings to something more your liking. For example, Captain Hook would finally get his revenge on the boy who gave him the hook - Peter Pan! Let's learn how to play.

Setup
1. Have each player choose a Villain. Then give them their corresponding Board, Pawn, Villain Deck, Fate Deck, and Villain Guide. This is now your Realm.
2. Open your Board, and place your Pawn on the left-most location of the four locations.
3. Check to see if the right-most location has a lock-symbol in the corner, and if it does, place a Lock Token on it.
4. Shuffle your Villain Deck, and place it to the left of your board. Then, draw four cards, keeping them secret from the other Villains.
5. Shuffle your Fate Deck, and place it to the right of your board.
6. Fill the Cauldron with Power Tokens.
7. Finally, pick a starting player and distribute Power Tokens. Player One receives 0. Player Two receives 1. Players Three and Four each receive 2. Players Five and Six each receive 3.

Game Play - On your turn, you will do the following three actions:
1. Move your Villain - Move to a different location on your Board that does not have a Lock Token on it.
2. Perform Actions - Each location on your board has different actions that can be performed. You may perform any visible actions in any order you wish. (Note: All actions are optional) The various actions are:
a. Gain Power - Take Power Tokens from the Cauldron equal to the number on the symbol
b. Play a Card - Play one Card from your hand, paying the cost in Power Tokens.
c. Activate - Choose an Item or Ally in your Realm, and pay the Activation cost to perform it's ability.
d. Fate - Choose an opponent and reveal two Cards from the top of their Fate Deck. Play one and discard the other face-up.
e. Move an Item or Ally - Move one Item or one Ally to an adjacent, non-locked location.
f. Move a Hero - Move one Hero to an adjacent, non-locked location.
g. Vanquish - Defeat one Hero at any location, using Allies at that same location. Once vanquished, both the Hero and Allies are discarded to their appropriate decks.
h. Discard Cards - Discard any number of cards in your hand, you do not wish to keep.
3. Draw Cards - After performing all the Actions you can, draw back up to four Villain Cards in your hand.

Play will pass to the next person and continue going until a Villain completes their Objective on their turn. Evil has won!

Review
Where do I start with the review portion of this post, except WOW! A lot of thought and love went into this game. Let's start with the components. It would have been easy to do cardboard standees or trendy to do miniatures, but they made gorgeous chunky pawns in shapes representative of your evil. Those pieces alone give the game a good table presence. The box is a wicked green and black that lets you know that this isn't your ordinary Disney game of good winning. On a slightly negative note, I will ask Wonder Forge to start shrink-wrapping their games and stop using those horrible stickers that leave a residue upon removal.

The art in this game is custom artwork of famous characters, items, and scenes from your favorite Disney film. Every card you draw will take you back to your childhood and watching these iconic films...or in my case last Saturday with the wife and kid. :)

With all the eye candy this game offers, where it really shines is in the game play. Though each character essentially plays the same, there are different objectives to complete in order to win. Each player has two decks of cards that are unique from any other player's deck. This adds a little bit of asymmetry to the game and makes you learn not only the character you are playing, but the other characters as well. How you move around in your realm and play your Villain cards will only get you so far in this game. You also need to be able to control your Fate and steer the Fate of others as well.

The theme comes through very well in this game. Yes, what it boils down to is your gathering power to play certain cards to win the game, but it feels like so much more. It feels like you are actually trying to rewrite the script to the movie. I think that is what I like best about this game. It would have been so easy (and lazy) to make this a game about "misunderstood" villains who aren't actually evil. No, this game you are evil and you are trying to succeed in your plot.

It may feel weird to play that role, but it is actually a blast if you let yourself relax and have fun with it. With the ability to play six players, and there being an equal number of male and female characters, this is a game that is great for anyone and everyone. I would go so far as to say that this is in my Top 2 family games of the year and belongs on every family game shelf! I will play this game anytime and anywhere, and I hope that there is a future expansion which unlocks some more villains like Cruella de Vil, Scar, Gaston, Shere Khan, etc.

Kings, Queens, and Giants (Blue Orange Games)

One of my biggest passions is tabletop games, more casually known as "board games." I hesitate to use the term "board games," because when you say that people think Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, etc. And while these were fine games for their time, there are thousands of better games out there now. All you have to do is walk into a Target, and you'll see "modern classics" like 7 Wonders, Ticket to Ride, Catan, and Carcassonne. Even these modern classics have been improved upon, and now there is so much selection, I guarantee that there is a game out there for you. Lately, I've been trying to get my son to play better games. Yes, I know that sounds snobby, but you can only Pop the Pig so many times. I've tried a couple of different games with him, and the one that has been the biggest hit is Kingdomino. Kingdomino is a game for 2-4 players, ages 8+. It takes 15 minutes to play and retails for $20. In this game, you are a royal trying to expand your kingdom into  new lands. The object of the game is to have the highest scoring 5 x 5 grid.

Setup
1. Give each player a starting square tile, a 3-D castle and a king (pawn) of matching color. (Note: If playing with two players, you get two pawns.)
2. Shuffle the 48 dominoes, putting them back in the box so that the numbered sides are facing you.
3. Draw the first four dominoes, arranging them in numerical order, and then flip them face-up.
4. Initial player order is determined by randomly drawing the kings from a player's hand. In turn order, each player will place their king on a domino.
5. Four more dominoes are then drawn and again arranged in numerical order and flipped face-up.

Game Play - Players will always take two actions.
1. Add the previously selected domino to their kingdom. (Note: When placing a domino, you must stay within a 5 x 5 grid, and at least one of the two terrains on the domino must match one of the two terrains of another domino already in your kingdom.)
2. Select a new domino from the new line of four. After all dominoes are selected, you draw four new dominoes, arrange in numerical order, and flip face-up.

The game ends when the dominoes run out. Take each territory, count the number of connecting terrain squares and multiply that number by the total number of crowns in that territory. The highest score is the winner.

Review
Playing through this game was an absolute delight. I wasn't sure what to expect, but despite this game being a bit light, it still has a fair bit of strategy as well. What I like best about the game is the art. Each domino is bold and vibrant in color with unique little pictures on each one. This creates a unique-looking kingdom each time you play and just creates a wonderful image to behold when you are done. The quality of the components is also very high with them using very thick cardboard, so you know the game will gold up to multiple plays. I'm not surprised this game won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) in 2017. It's is quick, fun, beautiful, and even my 5 year old son can play it and win!

With that said, no modern game would be complete without an expansion and a stand-alone expansion. Let's start with the expansion called Kingdomino: Age of Giants. With this expansion, you are now able to play Kingdomino with five people. However, it comes with a catch! There are now twelve tiles that picture Giants and Giant Footsteps. If you take a tile with a Giant on it, you are given a large wooden giant to place into your kingdom and cover one of your crowns. If you take a tile with Giant Footsteps, you remove a wooden giant from your kingdom and give it to someone else to place in their kingdom. This adds a level of interaction that a lot of people (my wife) don't like, as it means you win by sabotaging someone and not on your own merits. I didn't mind it so much, as the game plays quickly, but if this were a longer game I would agree with her.

The other feature added is Challenge Tiles. There are 17 tiles total, and each game you will pick two. These serve as end-game bonuses to aim for (complete 5x5 grid, castle in the middle of your grid, etc.) and add more replay value to the game as you'll have to adapt your strategy each game to meet these goals. I love this feature, and while that one is a little tougher for newer or younger gamers, they will get the hang of it after a few plays. I will always play with the challenge tiles, and only sometimes play with the giants!

Queendomino is a "standalone expansion" to Kingdomino. What this means is that it the game can be played by itself, or it can be combined with Kingdomino to either play with more players or allow four players to make a bigger 7 x 7 grid. This game is a step-up in difficulty from Kingdomino. Why? Because women are more complicated than men. Just kidding! In addition to building a normal kingdom, there is the introduction of knights, towers, a dragon, and a queen. There are also taxes to collect, which will aid in your construction of buildings. These buildings give you additional crowns and can score you end game points. At times, I like the extra difficulty, but sometimes nothing beats a classic. I do like that I can combine the game with Kingdomino or Age of Giants, and I am hoping that soon there will be a way to combine all three, but I wager if that is the case there will be a fourth game coming soon...perhaps Jackdomino? Time will tell!

Overall, I am a big fan and proponent of these games. You can play them with almost anyone, combine them, mix-and-match them, and it will give you a fun and rewarding experience every time. If you are looking for great family games, check out this product line and other great titles from Blue Orange Games!

Pioneer Days (Tasty Minstrel Games)

On July 24th, people in Utah celebrate Pioneer Day. This day commemorates the entry of Brigham Young  and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Due to the lack of inclusiveness for non-Mormons, a counterculture movement has created "Pie and Beer Day." With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to review Tasty Minstrel Games' latest release, appropriately entitled Pioneer Days! In Pioneer Days, you and up to three other settlers will guide your wagons along the famous Oregon Trail. Build a capable team, gather your resources and equipment, and see if you will survive the perils of this harsh trek. Pioneer Days plays 2-4 players, ages 14+. It takes approximately one hour to play and retails for $60.

Setup
1. Randomly assign the horseshoe (start player token) to a player.
2. Place the 36 Gold Tokens into the gold bag.
3. Place 1 set of dice (yellow, green, blue, red, and black) and 1 set of dice per player into the black bag.
4. Set the two game boards (main and score) side by side in the center of the table, placing each player's wagon (Scoring Marker) at the beginning of the score track.
5. Put the four Disaster Markers (yellow, green, blue, and red) at the beginning spaces on the disaster track of the main board.
6. Put the 20 Wagon Cards near the game boards.
7. There are 60 Townsfolk Cards (five sets of 12 cards). Pick two sets and shuffle them. Then, deal out six in the spaces under the main board.
8. Shuffle the 22 Town Cards and place nine in the spot indicated on the main board. Return the remaining 13 to the box. Then, flip two of the nine cards face-up in their spots on the main board.
9. Give two Player Boards to each player. From the two, they will pick one and return the other to the box. One side of each board has a standard pioneer. The other side has a unique pioneer. Take your starting resources listed on your Player Board.
10. Put the cattle, medicine, wood, damage, silver, and favor tokens near the game boards.
11. Mix the 27 Equipment Tiles face down and stack them on the General Store section of the main board. Turn one face up and an additional one for each player in the game.

Game Play - The game is played over four rounds (called Weeks) with each round being comprised of five turns (called Days). I guess they didn't have weekends in Pioneer Times! Each Day each player will select a die and use it. Each day proceeds as follows:
1. The starting player draws one die, plus one more die per player and rolls them.
2. Beginning with the starting player and going clockwise, each player will take a die and note the image on it. Check if you have a Townsfolk Card or Equipment Tile that triggers the die. (Note: You may pay three silver to change the die face.) You will then use the die to take silver, take an action, or recruit a townsfolk. Then, discard the die to the appropriate space on the board.
3. After everyone has taken a die, one die will remain. Advance the Disaster Marker on the main board of the matching color. If it is a black die, advance all the Disaster Markers. When a Disaster Marker reaches the end of its track, a disaster is triggered. (Note: Multiple disasters can be triggered.)
4. Pass the starting player token, and repeat the first three steps. After five days, the dice bag is empty and you perform the following end of the week actions (also known as visiting town). Resolve card effects. Score one victory point per cattle. Satisfy the needs of face-up town cards to earn favors.

After each week, refill the dice bag and reset the main board with two new Town Cards, new Equipment Tiles, and six new Townsfolk Cards. If it's the end of the fourth week, before visiting town, advance the Disaster Markers one more time and resolve any triggered disasters. Visit town, calculate your final score, and see who the winner is!

Review
This game has a lot of components in the box. From tokens to tiles to cards and lots of dice, you'll definitely get your money's worth in pieces if you buy this game. But does the game play itself warrant the price? For starters, the game feels like a Tasty Minstrel Games, and that is not a bad thing. If you have ever played Harbour or Harvest, then you will be familiar with double-sided characters. On one side, everyone has the same character and on the other side, everyone has a different one. This same side gives everyone the same footing when learning the game and the different sides gives that little bit of asymmetry that will give you different games and different strategies every time! The different sides are also highly thematic and will provide you with a gambler, a tracker, a prospector, and a trader just to name four. This is a big positive!

Another big positive is the Townsfolk Cards. As I stated earlier, there are five sets, and you only use two of those sets every game. This means that there are ten possible combinations you can play with and again creates more variety in the game. In one game, you might encounter a carpenter, a doctor, and a cowboy, but in a different game you might encounter a swindler, trader, or even a bride! Knowing the cards are different each game and knowing that they will appear in different orders each game, means no two games will ever be the same and you'll have to constantly adjust your strategy.

Playing through the game was fairly quick and pretty intuitive. Turns did not take long, and there was little downtime for players. The art was cartoony but fit in well with the game and the component quality was high. As for the theme, it fell a bit flat for me. I  have seen several people compare this to the old computer game Oregon Trail, which we all know and love. I did not feel that way with this game. Sure you are travelling the Oregon Trail, but I didn't feel the sense of travel or journey with this game. It felt more like solving a puzzle of optimizing my different cards, tiles, and dice I chose. With that said, it is still a solid game and an under-represented theme in the board game world. I look forward to exploring it more, trying new strategies, and hoping there are small expansions that give us more players and townsfolk.

This game was provided to me by Tasty Minstrel Games in exchange for an honest review.

The Road to Bethlehem: Journeys Through Time and Space

As I play more games and own more games, I am beginning to become more discerning. Time, space, and funds are all limited so you have to be more discerning when separating the wheat from the chaff. Recently, I was introduced to a new and interesting game called The Road to Bethlehem. As you can probably assume by the name, The Road to Bethlehem takes place in biblical times. You and your fellow participants are TAU Time Travelers who have journeyed back 2000 years into the past to the time when Christ was born. The game plays 3 to 8 people, ages 8+. It currently retails on Amazon for $89.

How to Play
First, you will need to gather everyone around the table and pick a Game Master. Think of this role as similar to a dungeon master in Dungeons and Dragons. Unlike the fantasy game though, you will have a full book of narratives to draw from and won't have to pull from your own creativity (or lack thereof in my case). Each journey or adventure will start with an encounter with the Archangel Raphael. Raphael will ask a signature question and then distribute equipment tokens. One player draws the first Encounter Card and the Game Master will read the narrative aloud, presenting the team with a number of choices on how they wish to proceed. A team decision must then be reached, and then a challenge of some sort is given to the players to perform. These challenges can include answering questions or completing some physical task using outside materials like paper and toothpicks. Once the challenge is completed or time expires, the challenge is scored. Based on the score, players attributes can increase or decrease. This will influence how the adventure goes and eventually ends. Will you meet the Holy Family at the time Christ was born or not? If you do meet them, under what circumstances will it be?

Review
If I am being honest, which I always try to be when I am writing a review, I have mixed feelings about this game. For starters, I always have reservations about religious games. Usually, the game play is inferior compared to other modern board games. This is one of the few exceptions. The stories in The Book of Adventures do a splendid job of leading the game master and adventurers on a multi-branching path. You will not always win and you will get frustrated at times in your failures, but this book is the heartbeat of the game.

The other big positive of this game is the component quality. The cardboard and cardstock in this game are of high quality. Other pieces feel/appear laser-cut to ensure that when you pick up pieces in this game, they will have a nice feel in your hands. Unfortunately, with this quality comes a pretty hefty price tag. At the moment, $89 is a steep price to pay for a game for most families, even one as unique as this. However, I have been told by the publisher that this game is what you would call a base game, meaning there will be additional expansions/scenarios. So what you are buying is a "system" to play with different books you can "plug in and play" to give you more replay value.  However, this price tag, I fear still might mean families won't spend that much for it, so I instead encourage you to recommend this game to your parish or school religious education program! The other note on the components is that the box doesn't come with everything you need. There are tasks you are asked to do that require random household items, like paper or toothpicks (in fairly large quantities). Most people will feel that for the price tag, everything should already be in the box. Playing through the game, my family and friends really enjoyed the experience it provided. Yes, there were some fiddly parts involved with the game play, but there was a nice tension when playing of, "Will we succeed? Will we meet the Holy Family?"

This game was provided to me for free by the creator in exchange for an honest review.

Wreck Raiders (KTBG)

As my son gets older, I am trying to play more and more games with him, partly because I want him to unplug from electronics (not that I try to expose him to too much of that) and see the exciting world that games can bring you and partly because I am selfish and want another person to play games with me. We've tried various classics from my childhood and while they serve their purpose of teaching basic gaming skills, they don't seem to hold his attention throughout a whole game. Thankfully, there are great gaming companies out there who focus their catalog specifically on children and I would argue that the best one is Kids Table Board Gaming (KTBG). Presently, they have released Foodfighters, Problem Picnic, and Haunt the House, and I am the proud owner of all three. However, I am not here to tell you about those three games. Instead, I am going to tell you about their latest game currently on Kickstarter. It is called Wreck Raiders, and it plays 2-4 players ages 10+. It takes about 45 minutes to play, and it can be yours for a pledge of 38 Canadian dollars on Kickstarter! In this game, you are the leader of a team of treasure hunters exploring a lagoon for shipwrecks. You will work on creating exhibits and aquariums for the museum, but also build up your own vault as well!

Setup
1. Place the board in the middle of the table.
2. Shuffle the four Treasure Piles face down in the respective groups, and place them near their respective spots on the board.
3. Put the three types of Baubles near the beach end of the board.
4. Shuffle the Exhibits deck and reveal a number equal to one plus the number of players.
5. Shuffle the three stacks of Aquarium tiles (bottoms, middles, and tops), and create a market with three face-up tiles of each stack.
6. Give each player a Player Mat, a colored Player Marker, and a certain number of Divers in their color based on player count.
7. Pick a random start player (which in my house is usually my son).
8. Take the box lid and flip it upside down to form the Dice Pool. You will use a certain number of dice based on player count. For the first turn of the game, the starting player will roll the dice into the Dice Pool (or in my case, my son will roll them every time they need rolling). Note: When you roll the dice, roll them with gusto! If any dice end up slightly in a bauble zone (square), place the dice squarely in there, so that it is obvious to all players and can't be nudged out when someone (again my son) bumps the box lid and moves the dice by mistake.

Game Play - On your turn, you can perform up to four steps in the following order:
1. Take a Die From the Pool - Choose one of the remaining dice. If none are remaining, roll them as described above. Note: If the die is in a Bauble Zone, claim the indicated Bauble.
2. Move a Diver and Collect Rewards - Choose one of your Divers and move it to a numbered spot matching the value of the Die you claimed from step one. You may move to the beach or a wreck. You then get the appropriate Baubles or Treasures depending where your Diver went.
3. Claim One or More Exhibits (if you want to) - If one or more of your three display lines matches one of the Exhibits, you may claim it by discarding the appropriate Treasures. Note: It is possible to get bonus points by adding decorations or having Treasures in the exact order.
4. Buy One Aquarium Piece (if you want to) - Once per turn, if you have the appropriate baubles, you can claim an Aquarium tile. Note: You must start with a bottom, can have multiple middles, and only have one top.

The game will trigger when a player has a number of Exhibits equal to the number of Divers they started with. Final scores are based on Exhibits, Vaults, and Aquariums with the highest score being the winner!

Review
Before I get into the review for this game, I'd like to say a little note about the company itself. Having played through all four games in KTBG's catalog, it has been fascinating to watch their company and their games mature. They have always aimed to publish games that kids and adults can play together, but with each subsequent game they release, they are introducing new mechanics, stretching our brains a little more, and helping us to grow as gamers. Now, onto the actual review.

Pros
1. The art and graphics in this game are phenomenal! Apolline Etienne (artist from other KTBG title Haunt the House) really knocked this one out of the park. The sea creatures are vibrant and life-like, and it's great to see the variety of creatures from puffer fish to narwhals (a personal favorite of my wife).
2. The game play is intuitive but it provides you a nice crunchy feeling in your brain, deciding which dice to take and where to place your worker. Do I place my worker next to my opponent's worker and give them a benefit too, or do I go somewhere else, so only I get the benefit?
3. There is also a nice tension of deciding what do with all the treasures and baubles you collect. Do I use my baubles to build my aquarium or for short term benefits like making a wild card or taking an extra treasure? And my treasures...oh boy, that almost feels press your luck. I get extra points for having the same colors and unique pieces on the colors, but if I grab a duplicate and can't use it to build an exhibit, then I lose some points. Lots to think about!

Neutral
1. About the only neutral I have is the game box being used as a dice pool as well. I love the idea in theory, because it is done like this in another game I love - Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot. However, there is potential for this to end poorly. If the box gets crushed, ripped, or something else, then a large portion of the game is effectively ruined as well.

Negative
1. This is a nitpitck, but the game is recommended for ages 10+, and while that's fair, I would argue not your average 10 year old. Most 10 year olds can grasp the basics and core of this game, but I can see where this game could be more geared towards a seasoned 10 year old gamer or an adult. In that regards, I would compare it to Takenoko in that it is approachable and easy to learn, but someone with more experience could crush you by optimizing their moves.

Bearing all this in mind, my family and I highly enjoyed this game. The game play is fun and engaging, the art keeps captivating you each time you play it, and the game always ends with you wishing you had just one more turn. These are the hallmarks of a great game. Highly recommended!

Legends of Andor (Thames and Kosmos)

I was first introduced to Role Playing Games (RPGs) when I was in college with the RPG books Vampire the Masquerade. It was only one night and the game group fizzled fairly quickly, but it was a fun experience of pretending to be someone else and uniting against a common enemy. I never tried an RPG again after that, not for lack of interest, but lack of finding a committed group and no desire to be a storyteller. Recently, I discovered the game Legends of Andor. It is technically classified as a cooperative adventure board game, but I have heard many people describe it as an RPG in a box. Therefore, I knew I had to buy it. The game plays 2-4 people, ages 10+. It takes between 60 and 90 minutes to play, and retails for $60. Normally, I'd tell you how to set up and play the game, but the manual has an introductory adventure that does that, so I'll leave that for you. Instead, I will tell you about the game in general.

The Base Game
The game takes place in a typical fantasy realm with your tried and trusty roles - a human warrior, an eleven archer, a sturdy dwarf, and a wizard from the north! There are also brutish monsters with new names - gors, skrals, trolls, and even a massive dragon. Within the box is a massive deck of cards that form five different adventures. These range from an introductory mission to familiarize yourself with the game to searching and mine and culminating in fighting a dragon. Each game you will set up the board, give people their player boards and dice, and follow the deck of cards to embark on your adventure. Unlike a traditional adventure story, where the main goal is to slash your way through your enemies as quickly as possible, this game requires a balance. You have a limited amount of time each day to perform actions and certain actions (like killing enemies) can speed up your game. Therefore, the game is like a puzzle that you must solve to prevail. You'll win some games and probably lose more than you win, but it has an epic feeling to it, and can be played with children and adults alike. What I like about it, is that it has a bit of a Tolkien-feel to it, and it gives you an experience of living out a story he could have written. Now, if this game was all that the Andor universe had to offer, I think it would be a fun place to visit with your family or friends and once you'd played the five adventures several times, move on. Thankfully, Andor has both sequels and expansions, which I will briefly touch on.

New Heroes
New Heroes is a "small box expansion" that retails for $20. Within this box are four new heroes - a guardian, a tracker, a protector of river lands, and a Taurean fighter. These four characters not only give you new ways to mix and match your adventurers from the base game, it also adds the ability to play with up to six players. There are also some twists on the game (fending off a drunken troll) and a way to increase difficulty if you find the game too easy (not a problem I have encountered). Even if you don't have six people you normally play with, this is a good buy to give you variety among adventures.

The Star Shield
The Star Shield is another "small box expansion" that retails for $20. Within this box is an adventure called The Era of the Star Shield. The story goes that all the records were lost from this time period, so there are a number of different events that could have happened including a dark temple, a siege tower, or a water monster. Therefore, this adventure is a giant deck of cards which will make up a different adventure every time you play it. You will be writing the history books of Andor and trying to save the castle from any of the aforementioned perils. This was a nice box to have and it is compatible with the New Heroes. It gives your base game and all the pieces in it a little more life and replay value.

Journey to the North
Journey to the North is a "big box expansion" and sequel to the base game that retails for $50. I classify it as both because you need the base game so you have access to heroes to play, but you also are embarking on a different journey with a different map and different monsters to face. With the exception of your faithful dwarf companion, you can use all the heroes from the base game. There was apparently a Battle for Cavern waged and Kram is the new prince of Cavern. (I'm still waiting for an official English translation of this adventure.) Never fear, he has been replaced with a Sea Warrior. The Sea Warrior is a welcome addition, because the majority of this map is made up of water. In the Journey to the North, you have a new way to travel (boat), but it comes with complications of its own. The wind will be your friend or your foe at various times, and if you want to beat the four new adventures in this game, you better properly harness it or you'll find yourself losing repeatedly. Unlike the base game, combat is a bigger deal. You will fight aboard the ship, upgrade your ship, position your people on the ship strategically, and live or die by the choices you make. This adds a fresh concept to the game and makes it a new challenge which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Other Expansions and Sequels
Recently, Thames and Kosmos released another "small box expansion," called Dark Heroes and a "stand-alone sequel" called The Last Hope, which is the finale to the Andor trilogy. Dark Heroes is going to add four more characters to play with, but I don't know what is in The Last Hope, but I am eager to find out. There are also several different single card mini-expansions you can find at the BoardGameGeek Store, which adds some more wrinkles to the game play.

Thoughts
I really love this game, and I can't wait for my son to get a little bit older so that I can play this with him. If you love adventure and high fantasy, this is the game for you and your family. The stories are great. The replay value is high. And the artwork is brilliant and well though out. Don't let the price tags intimidate you, as most of these boxes are generally on sale. However, don't also dive in head first, buying everything. Start with the base game, and make sure you love it enough to get everything.

Altiplano (Renegade Games)

A lot of people go to a lot of trouble to make their Top 10 favorite games. Some gamers do it once and will occasionally tweak it to replace a title. Other gamers release Top 10 lists for everything from theme, to game mechanic, to current year. I have never went to this much trouble, and probably never will, but if I was pressed into picking my favorite game of all time it would (currently) be Orléans. Orléans is a bag-building game designed by Reiner Stockhausen that takes place in medieval Europe. Recently, Mr. Stockhausen and Renegade Games released a "spiritual successor" to this game called Altiplano, which takes place in the Andes Mountains of South America. Altiplano is a game for 2-5 players, ages 12+. It takes between one and two hours to play and retails for $65. Today, I am going to tell you the basics of game play, what I think of the game, and how I think it compares to Orléans.

Setup
1. Take the seven Location Tiles (Village, Market, Road, Harbor, Farm, Mine, and Forest) and form a circle in the middle of the table.
2. Remove excess Goods, Carts, and Order Cards from the game depending on player count.
3. Place their respective Goods and/or Order Cards on their respective Location Tiles. This is the forms the main "game board." Place the Food and Coins in the middle of these seven Location Tiles so everyone can reach them.
4. Form the Extensions pile by removing Extensions that don't relate to the player count. Then, shuffle each pile by their back (A, B, C, and D)to form the pile. Reveal the top five Extensions from the pile, placing them next to the Extension Strip.
5. Each player receives 1 action board, 1 warehouse, 1 game figure, 1 marker, 1 container, 1 cart, and 1 cloth bag.
6. Lastly, each player is given one Role Tile (Woodcutter, Fisherman, Shepherd, Miner, Farmer, Trader, or Stonemason) and their starting Goods and Coins listed at the bottom of their Role Tile.
7. The youngest player is given the alpaca token to indicate they are the starting player.

Game Play - The game takes place over several rounds and is divided into four phases:
1. Draw tiles - All player simultaneously draw from their bag, and place them on the planning spaces of their action board. (Note: You have eight planning spaces, but can only place tiles on spaces for which you have performed road construction.
2. Planning - All players simultaneously take the tiles from their planning spaces and/or coins, and put them on different action spaces on their action board, role tile, or extensions.
3. Actions - In turn order, players perform one action and then play moves clockwise. Players continue performing one action each until all players have passed and can perform no more actions. (Note: When performing actions, your marker must be on the correct Location Tile. For example, you may only produce food on the Farm.)
4. New Round - Pass the first player marker. Fill in gaps on the Extension Strip or drop the lowest valued one if no Extensions were purchased.

The end game will trigger when all Goods Tiles and Order Cards are used up at a location, i.e., no more Wood and Cacao in the Forest. Complete the current round and perform one more round. Score any Extensions, Good Tiles, Boats, Houses, and Storage points for each completed row in their Warehouse. Highest score is the winner!

Review
When I first received this game, I thought I was basically getting a South American version of Orléans. If that had been the case, that would have been enough for me, because it would have given me a unique theme of a game mechanic (bag building) that I love. However, the bag building mechanic is really all these two games have in common. Let's look at the three major differences Altiplano has that Orléans does not.

1. Asymmetric starting powers - Each player begins the game with a different role. From that role, you are given a specialization that only you have access to and which dictates your strategy from early on. Sure, you can go against your specialization, but you will be fighting an uphill battle if you do.
2. Movement - Unlike Orléans where you place your tiles and activate their powers every time, location is key to Altiplanto. If you want to perform an action, you have to be able to be in the specific location for it, so you better plan your movement carefully.
3. Bag Contents - In Orléans, you place your tiles back in the bag at the end of every round. In Altiplano, you place your tiles in your container until you run out of tiles in your bag, then you refill your bag. This is nice, because it guarantees you will make use of your tiles and not just fill up the bag and hope they come out.

So has Altiplano replaced Orléans as my number one game of all time, and which game should you get if you have neither? Let's start with the easy question. Orléans is still my number one game of all time with the caveat that you need the Trade and Intrigue expansion to go with it. Now for the harder question...If you have neither game and are pretty experienced with games, I recommend buying Altiplano over Orléans for the following reasons:

1. It is a thinkier game, and one with a lot of strategy that you can really sink your teeth into.
2. It plays up to five players right out of the box, no expansions or upgrade kits required.
3. The theme and locale is more unique than another game based in Europe.
4. The art and color choices are more vibrant.

If I have these strong feelings for Altiplano and recommend it over Orléans, why won't I be getting rid of Orléans then?

1. I have the deluxe version with lots of wooden bits, and wood is better than cardboard. If Renegade had made a deluxe version of this game, this would be a different story.
2. Altiplano is a better game than the base game of Orléans, but when you add in the expansions and all the promo buildings, I would say Orléans is a better game. This might change if we see some mini-expansions or a big box expansion for Altiplano.
3. There is a lot of planning and thinking that goes into Altiplano, and Orléans plays a bit smoother and requires less deep thought. Maybe, I'm lazy, but sometimes I just want to play a game without burning my brain for 2 hours.

In conclusion, this was a fabulous game that I would highly recommend. It is a gamer's game, but it hits all the right buttons and will be a strong candidate for game of the year. If you can only pick one game between the two mentioned in this review, go for Altiplano. If you already own Orléans and all the expansions, you can buy a copy of Altiplano guilt-free, because it's not just a re-skin. It is its own unique game and having both games in your collection is perfectly acceptable!

This game was provided to me for free by Renegade Games in exchange for an honest review.

Villages of Valeria: Landmarks (Daily Magic Games)

One of my top ten, possibly top five games of all time is Valeria Card Kingdoms (VCK). It is a fun game of dice-chucking and monster-slaying with great artwork to boot! Following up on the success of this popular game, a prequel was released called Villages of Valeria (VOV). Within this tableau-building game, you will construct buildings, cultivate resources, and attract adventurers to make your village the next capital city of Valeria. On Kickstarter currently is the first expansion to VOV entitled Landmarks. Let's talk about the basic game and what the expansion brings to it.

Setup
1. Give each player a Player Aid Card and Castle Card. The Castle Card is the beginning of your Village.
2. Pick the Starting Player, giving them the Action Selection Card and Active Player Token.
3. Form the Bank from a predetermined number of Gold Coins based on player count. Then, give each player three Gold Coins.
4. Shuffle the two decks of Adventurers and Buildings, forming a separate pile for each. Then, deal each player six Building cards.
5. Deal five Building cards face-up in the center of the table and put the deck face-down next to them.
6. Deal five Adventurer cards face-up above the Building cards and put the deck face-down next to them.
7. Each player, in turn order, then plays one Building card from their hand as a Resource at no cost. This card is slid upside down under your Castle Card.

Game Play - On your turn you will Replenish (taking all the Gold Coins on your Resource Cards and keeping them as yours) and take one of the following five actions:
1. Harvest - Draw three Building Cards into your hand, one at a time.
2. Develop - Discard one card from your hand to add one other card from your hand to your Village as a Resource.
3. Build - Pay the cost of one Building Card from your hand to add it your Village as a Building. Then, draw one card into your hand.
4. Recruit - Pay one Gold Coin to the Bank to add an Adventurer to your Village.
5. Tax - Take one Gold Coin from the Bank and draw one Building Card.

After performing your one Action, all other players (in clockwise order) may follow this action to gain a weaker version of your Action. For example, instead of drawing three cards in the Harvest, the follower draws one card. The game ends when one player's Village has a predetermined number of Adventurers and Buildings. All follow actions are completed and victory points are totaled. The person with the most points wins!

What Landmarks Adds - The expansions adds the following:
1. More Building and Adventurer cards - This part of the expansion is called "more of the same," and I mean this in a good way.
2. Architects - These cards are dealt before the game starts and provide a secret end-game goal, i.e., one point for each Holy symbol on your Buildings.
3. Landmarks - On the follow action, you may now Acquire a Landmark instead of following the main action. There are five types of Landmarks, with each requiring you discard a specific card(s). Landmarks aren't buildings that trigger the end of the game and provide a scoring bonus if you have a set of all five or if you have the most of each type of Landmark.

Review
Villages of Valeria is a tableau-building game that has elements of games like Puerto Rico or Eminent Domain with the follow mechanism. What I like best about this game is that you have to spend gold to build your Buildings. When spending this gold, you can spend them on your Resource cards or other players Resource cards that makes for an interesting decision you will build. Do I wait to build until I have the necessary Resources or do I give my opponent some gold and possibly speed up their engine? Another element I like from this game is the discard feature. When you discard cards from your hand, they don't just go into a pile to be shuffled if the deck runs out. Instead, you place them on top of the row of building cards where you choose, potentially blocking your opponent from getting cards they want. Every time I play this game, it is over before I want it to be, which makes me want to immediately play it again. This is the hallmark of a great game!

So why would I want an expansion to come along and possibly bloat a great game? Because, it actually doesn't over-complicate an already great game. The extra Building and Adventurer cards merely add more variety without introducing something new. That's a winner in my wife's book, who hates basically all expansions on principal. The Architects give you something to focus your strategy on before the game begins, which is a welcome addition when there are so many choices early on. Lastly, the Landmarks give you a follow action to perform when you can't or don't want to follow the main action. They also give you another way to score points in a game that is already tight on scoring.

This is a fairly seamless expansion to incorporate and one that I would include from the very beginning when teaching new players. If you already have the base game, this expansion is a no-brainer purchase. The only decision you'll have to make is if I want to spend $10 extra dollars on a bigger box with vibrant art on it. If you have never played the game before, there's a pledge level for you as well, whether you want a Standard or a Deluxe edition of the game...Seriously, get the Deluxe! Highly recommend this game and expansion!

CV Pocket (Passport Games Studios)

One of my wife's favorite games is CV. It has fun artwork, a life-building theme, short playing time, and a Yahtzee-like game play that is familiar. After CV, there came the game CVlizations, which took the same great artwork and gave us civilization building game. Well, now the third game in this "series" has been released, and it's called CV Pocket. CV Pocket is a game for 2 to 4 players, ages 10+. It takes approximately 20 minutes to play and retails for $20.

Setup
1. Give everyone a player aid card.
2. Take the deck of cards and remove cards depending on player count. For example, if you are only playing with two players, then remove all the cards marked for three and four players.
3. Shuffle the remaining deck and deal 15 cards into three columns of five cards to form the tableau.

Game Play
1. On each player's first turn, they must take a bottom card from any of the three columns. They then slide the cards down in that column.
2. On subsequent turns, you pick a card corresponding to the transportation symbol on the last card you took. For example, a bike means you must take from Row 1. (Note: A car lets you take from Row 2, and a plane lets you take from Row 3).
3. When there are only four total cards left in the tableau, refill to original setting of three columns of five.
4. You may pass at anytime, but the game will end when all players have passed in a row.
5. Scores are then calculated using the player aid card, and the highest score wins!

Review
At its heart, this game is a smaller, lighter, quicker version of CV. The biggest differences between the pocket version and the regular version is a lack of "press your luck." Instead of rolling dice three times and hoping for a symbol to show up, you have to plan your move based on which row you want to pull from and hope the card is still there when it gets back to your turn. In a two-player game, this is usually doable. With more players, you sometimes get the card and sometimes don't. Since cards shift downwards, I found it best sometimes to look at the cards in the row above, as they would probably shift down to the row I could pick. Therefore, I found the game play to be a bit more enjoyable and calculating than the original.

Perhaps, the most disappointing thing for me was the replay value. In the regular game, you felt like you saw the same cards every game, but this was slightly improved with the Gossip expansion. In CV Pocket, there are only 55 cards (some of which are duplicates) and to make matters worse, you trim the deck the same way every time based on player count. This starts to create a somewhat unsatisfying two-player experience the more you play it, so I have to give the preference nod to classic CV here.

The art and presentation in this game is the last thing I would like to talk about. If you loved the art in the original CV game, then you will love this art. It has its own style and sense of humor associated with it that I greatly appreciate. The only downside to the art in the pocket version of this game is that it's on a smaller scale. Due to the layout of the cards and having to have different symbols, numbers, etc. the art was shrunk down a bit, which was sad, but understandable. As for the presentation, I feel like the box was bigger than necessary, which I attribute to shelf presence and visibility. There is no way CV Pocket will fit in your pocket. I could have done without an insert, score pad, and pencil and would instead have liked a tuck-box or something slimmer to make this a truly portable game.

In conclusion, this was a quick, fun game with great art that I would play if asked, but not multiple games in a row. I much prefer the original CV game, and as it stands now, you can actually get the regular game for the same price as the pocket version on Amazon.

This game was provided to me by Passport Game Studios in exchange for an honest review.