Thoughts from The Yellow Meeple:- The Estates

Game: The Estates

Publisher: Simply Complex (Capstone Games)

Designer: Klaus Zoch

Year: 2018

Capstone Games describe their 'Simply Complex' line as 'board games with a beautiful 3D table presence, relatively low rules overhead, and deep gameplay, accomplished in under one hour of play.' On first appearances, The Estates seems to tick both of these boxes, with great chunky pieces that definitely create a table presence as you stack them to create a skyline. The rulebook is also very light on information (almost too light at times), but it does get you playing quickly.

The Estates is a bidding game for 2-5 players. The players take on the role of investors seeking to make the most money by developing buildings in The Estates. By being the first to invest in the 6 competing building companies and being clever with your money to ensure their success, you have the chance to become the most affluent investor.

100% Wooden Construction:-The Estates

Game: The Estates

Publisher: Simply Complex (Capstone Games)

Designer: Klaus Zoch

Year: 2018




The Estates is a 2-5 player city building auction game in which you take control of a real-estate magnate seeking to make the most money out of a new property development. Being the unscrupulous lot that you are you don't much care for the actual building permits you were assigned and will happily bribe your way to larger plots and build on designated green space. Unfortunately the Cruel and ruthless town planners are having none of it, and of the 3 rows of buildings only 2 will remain, with the 3rd row being torn down in a way that is highly unprofitable for the owners of said buildings.




At the start of the game 3 rows of building blocks will be laid out, each with numbers from 1-6 and one of 6 colours (with individual markings for colourblind players). In addition a bag will be filled with roof tiles (also numbered from 1-6), 3 building permit markers will be placed out along with a mayors hat and a cancel token. On your turn you will choose any one of these pieces (buildings must be at the edge of the rows, roofs are taken randomly from the bag) to auction. Players will then take turns bidding for the item or passing. Once a price is decided upon the active player has a choice: sell the item to the high bidder for the named price, or pay that price themselves in order to build it.

The Game Shelf Previews:- Ragusa

Game: Ragusa

Publisher: Capstone Games & Braincrack Games

Designer: Fabio Lopiano

Year: 2019

One of our biggest surprise hits in gaming this year has been discovering Calimala - a first time design from Fabio Lopiano. We were super excited by the announcement of his second game, Ragusa, as well as the understanding that it was, again, a game that made euro games and worker placement interactive and engaging, even at higher player counts. Even better for us, it plays two players right out of the box, which is perhaps the only drawback we could find when we reviewed Calimala.

Ragusa is currently live on Kickstarter from publishers Braincrack Games and Capstone Games. Set in the city of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), the game gives players the task of building the city in the 15th century, constructing its great towers, boosting trade with the East, and finding their fortunes. Over the course of 12 rounds you'll build up houses, towers and city walls and compete to become a successful merchant and/or landowner.

Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple:- Coimbra

Game: Coimbra

Publisher: Eggertspiele

Designer: Flaminia Brasini and Virginio Gigli

Year: 2018

With critically acclaimed games like Lorenzo il Magnifico and Grand Austria Hotel, the partnership of Flaminia Brasini and Virginio Gigli as designers is enough to get many euro game fans interested in a game. Add to that some beautiful cover artwork from Chris Quilliams and plenty of advance hype as Eggertspiele's first board game release under Plan B Games and you have created a game that we have been hotly anticipating!

We first got a chance to play a couple of rounds of Coimbra at the UK Games Expo, after running to be the first at the demo table one morning. We were instantly taken with the great mix of complexity in the game with the simplicity of your turns, as well as the really colourful appearance and tactile components. We waited patiently when gamers at US conventions had access to early copies and now finally our time has some to see if the game holds up at two players and can stand out in the recent euro game crowd.

Rolling in Influence:- Coimbra

Game: Coimbra

Publisher: Eggertspiele

Designer: Flaminia Brasini and Virginio Gigli

Year: 2018

Coimbra is a 2-4 player dice drafting game in which you will compete for the most influence with 4 factions of the city, while sending your pilgrim out to explore Portugal and bring back treasures from afar. This will be done by drafting and placing dice which then dictate which order players can recruit cards, how much they pay for the cards and what rewards they will gain at the end of the round. With shrewd choices, and perhaps a little luck, you can be the most influential person in Coimbra.

A round of Coimbra starts with 12 new characters being added to the market. There are 48 characters in the game (discounting the 8 starting characters), so a game will take place over 4 rounds. The 12 characters are split over 3 rows of 4. At the start of a round, all the dice in use are rolled and are drafted. When a player selects a die they place it inside one of their markers and then choose which of the 4 areas to place it in (the 3 market rows and the row for bonus tiles). When buying a character the highest die picks first (with order of placement breaking ties), while the lowest dice gets first pick of bonus tiles. However the number on the die also dictates how much you pay (either in money or guards depending on the character), getting first choice is expensive! When you gain a character, you first you gain from 1-4 influence in it's faction (a tracker on the right of the board) and then either gain its instant effect, or gain an ongoing or end-game bonus to use later.

The Game Shelf Reviews:- Once Upon A Castle

Game: Once Upon a Castle

Publisher: Blue Orange

Designer: Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc

Year: 2018

Each player will build their ideal castle. You’ll construct majestic towers and beautifully decorated walls that will attract the population and build a ‘comfortable’ tower to house your less friendly guests. Whoever knows how to best exploit the resources of the region, and enlists the help of some high calibre guests, will draw the most beautiful castle in the kingdom!

The last 12 months have certainly been the year of the roll and write game. At Essen this year, there were probably 15-20 roll and write games released and, realistically, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. It seems that there are at least three categories emerging; roll the dice and colour in squares or write numbers; roll the dice and do some Tetris; and roll the dice and the draw something that adds some theme to the game. Once Upon a Castle falls into the third category and really takes the bull by the horns – by dialing up the drawing aspect of the game, Once Upon a Castle really stands out! One side of your player sheet has the outline of a castle whilst the other side is basically a blank sheet of paper so that you can freestyle!

Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple:- Gizmos

Game: Gizmos

Publisher: CMON

Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Year: 2018

It was only two weeks ago that we featured a board game from Phil Walker-Harding. He is definitely a designer of the moment and Gizmos definitely has some buzz around it. On face value, Gizmos is reminiscent of Potion Explosion with a similar marble dispenser. When you open the box, there is first a craft project to overcome, which has you building the dispenser which then sits snugly into the well-designed insert.

The game itself doesn't share any similarity with Potion Explosion. Gizmos is a pure engine building game with the theme of building an engine...it's not really pretending to be anything else. The oversized marble dispenser, that reminds me of an arcade claw machine, is really the only nod to a fun theme, and to a certain extent it's a pretty unnecessary way to create a market of 6 randomised available resources and then a pool of random resources.

Engine building is certainly a favourite mechanic of mine, in games like Terraforming Mars or Alien Artifacts, so let's take a look at how Gizmos takes it back to basics.

Great accessories for your thingamabobs:- Gizmos

Game: Gizmos

Publisher: CMON

Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Year: 2018

Gizmos is a 2-4 player tableau building card game in which players will collect various energy spheres which they will then use to build gizmos. These gizmos each have a power which then allows for bigger and better turns. With clever planning your can outwit your fellow inventors and create the most wondrous collection of gizmos known to man!

Gizmos is set up with a large ball dispenser showing 6 marbles at any one time, a row of 3 markets of high, medium and low value cards and personal player boards including a storage ring to contain your marbles. Each turn players will perform 1 and only 1 action, however with clever use of your already built gizmos, this can cause chain reactions where other actions trigger too. The game ends when a player has either built four of the high value gizmos, or a grand total of all a player's built gizmos is met.

The Yellow Meeple's First Impressions:- 10th - 11th November 2018

The first Kickstarter project I ever backed was for a board game cafe. When we backed DICE Portsmouth, we lived in Southampton, just 25 minutes down the road. Unfortunately, it took the team a long time to find premises and now we live quite a bit further away. This weekend we made our first visit and tied it in with a trip to see some old friends. The cafe is one of the best we've ever visited and you can find out more on our UK board game cafe listing.

Their shelves are very well stocked, so we got the chance to play a bunch of new games, so here are the Yellow Meeple's first impressions!

The Game Shelf Previews:- Jabberwocky

Game: Jabberwocky

Publisher: Jellybean Games

Designer: Various

Year: 2019

Jabberwocky is a collection of small game which build on the model of The Lady and the Tiger, a game, also from Jellybean Games that we recently reviewed. The game contains a common set of components and with these components you can play various microgames, all from different designers.

The games in Jabberwocky are the result of design competition held during Summer 2018. Aspiring designers were given a basic set of components with which to design a new game. At the time of the game, there was no theme and so the resulting games are abstract in nature, but the winner and four other finalists made it into the box. The final game mimics the literary theme and eye-catching artwork that made The Lady and the Tiger stand out. Jabberwocky - themes on the Lewis Carroll nonsense poem is coming to Kickstarter in March 2019.

The Yellow Meeple's First Impressions:- 1st - 7th November 2018

Although we're struggling slightly to make gaming time at the moment, we have made the time to visit The Ludoquist board game cafe twice in the last two weeks. Last week Amy played D&D whilst I had a board game night and this week we went along to their 1st birthday celebration with the goal of playing a couple of new releases.

So here are the Yellow Meeple's first impressions!

Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple:- Founders of Gloomhaven

Game: Founders of Gloomhaven

Publisher: Cephalofair Games

Designer: Issac Childres

Year: 2018

Gloomhaven is a board game that took the world by storm. For an indie publisher like Cephalofair Games to come out of nowhere and produce two wildly successful Kickstarters, resulting in the #1 game on BoardGameGeek, is phenomenal!

The next game from Cephalofair Games certainly cashed in on the Gloomhaven name, but it was made very clear that this would be a very different kind of game. Although Founders of Gloomhaven is set in the same world, its a stark contrast to a fantasy dungeon crawl with it's city building, tile placement and heavy euro vibe! Although we didn't jump on the Kickstarter, I did get the chance to play a friend's Kickstarter copy and really loved it, so I was excited to introduce Amy to the game. After a few more plays a few opinions have changed, so let's take a closer look at Founders of Gloomhaven.

The Game Shelf Previews:- Welcome to DinoWorld

Game: Welcome to DinoWorld

Publisher: Alley Cat Games

Designer: James O'Connor, Nick Shaw, David Turczi

Year: 2019

Gen Can't is an event run each year where people who don't have the opportunity to attend Gen Con (a massive board game convention in the USA) can connect online, enter competitions and share photos and experiences. In recent years there has been  a game design competition associated with the event.

Welcome to DinoWorld, originally designed by James O'Conner, with art from Beth Sobel, won the roll and write game design competition in 2017. Alley Cat games have refreshed the game and are bringing it to Kickstarter during November 2018. It's definitely a slightly more meaty roll and write game with both basic and advance modes in the box. We love the theme and we're still riding the roll and write train, so we've taken a look the print and play in advance of the Kickstarter campaign.

All Roads lead to Gloom:- Founders of Gloomhaven

Game: Founders of Gloomhaven

Publisher: Cephalofair Games

Designer: Issac Childres

Year: 2018

Founders of Gloomhaven is a 1-4 player city building game in which you will create the infamous city of Gloomhaven. Being a multicultural metropolis Gloomhaven attracted all kinds of races right from the start. Each player will control one of these races, each with their own specialisms in producing resources, and seek to be the most influential race in Gloomhaven. This is achieved by using the unique scoring mechanism where points are given out to the people who own the resources required to build a new building, and further points being awarded further down the supply chain.

Turns in Founders of Gloomhaven use a action card system, each turn the active player will play 1 card from their hand giving them an action to perform. Typically the other players when have the choice to follow this action with a slightly less efficient version of the same action. Almost every card can instead be discarded for a basic action, which you'll sometimes need to do in order to most efficiently set up your turns. Eventually you will run low on cards, at which point you can refill your hand by starting a vote. Votes allow players to pick which new civic building should be added to Gloomhaven. It's these civic buildings that demand the advanced resources, and reward precious points to the players who supply them (and further down the chain the players who supplied them!). Once enough of these buildings are completed the game will end.

The Game Shelf Reviews: Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions

Game: Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions: Trading Card Game

Publisher: Playfusion Ltd

Designer: (Uncredited)

Year: 2018

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions is a trading card game from Playfusion, who produced Lightseekers. When we first saw Lightseekers, it was a game that integrated action figures with a video game using augmented reality, however it was the trading card game, that originally appeared to be an afterthought, which took off. We’ve seen huge Lightseekers tournaments at board game conventions in recent months and we were really excited to try the Warhammer themed sequel at the UK Games Expo.

Age of Sigmar Champions is your typical 2-player trading card game format, with booster packs, deck-building, card rarity and trading. It’s not the type of game we normally get involved in, but there are four starter decks for the four Grand Alliances; Order, Chaos, Destruction and Death; each with their own individual play style and strengths. Those starter decks alone provide a really solid starting point to play with, with each starter set coming with a paper playmat and one booster pack. With two players and two starter decks, there’s plenty to play with. Not only that, but your physical cards can also be integrated with the free-to-play app so that your physical collection is also available in the app. The app is a great way to practice and hone your in-game skills, but is also just a good digital card game a la Hearthstone.

Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple:- Gingerbread House

Game: Gingerbread House

Publisher: Lookout Games

Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Year: 2018

Phil Walker-Harding has become known for some amazing family games. Sushi Go still gets a lot of love, especially with my work colleagues who often request 'the Sushi game'. More recently Barenpark was a big hit and is widely regarded as a favourite 'polyomino' style tile laying game for many people. And most recently, Gizmos, from CMON games is getting a lot of buzz.

Gingerbread House caught my attention for two reasons. Firstly, it is from the pairing of Phil Walker-Harding and Lookout Spiele - the same pairing that brought us Barenpark, along with even the same artist, Klemens Franz. Secondly, I thought it might be a game I could classify as Christmas themed, and since my colleagues were very disappointed in the lack of festive games in my collection last year, I've been very conscious to build up a collection in that area!

We've had the chance to introduce Gingerbread House to a few different friends, including seasoned gamers and less regular players, so let's find out some more about the game.