138) The Speicherstadt

In this game you're collecting cards that will give you points and money during and at the end of the game. Each round six cards are flipped up for bidding. The start player places one of their meeples on a row above one of the cards and play continues clockwise until all meeples have been placed. Then each row is resolved from left to right. The player who played first in a row (closed to the card) can buy the card at a cost equal to the number of other meeples in the row. They can also opt to not buy the card and take their meeple back to their supply.

Angling for the best position

Some cards I collected

End game

This is a fun game where you're always wishing you had more money. It had a good balance of cards and had fun tension in players always wanting to buy more then they can afford. I really enjoyed the process of buying cards based on how many people and when people bid on different rows. This game is on the lighter side and fairly easy to teach. It plays relatively quickly and we all had a good time playing this one.

137) Russian Railroads

There is so much going on during this game. Trying to even scratch the surface of the rules would be daunting, but more generally, you're placing your workers on a central board, which allows you to manipulate your own board. There are multiple tracks to focus on and you're going to want to try and do everything, but it would be wise to focus on a few to start.

Ready to start

Worker placement

Personal player board

End of a 4-player game

I do love everything this game has to offer. Games that make you want to do everything at once are great. They often force tough decisions and its rare that you're completely blocked from everything you want to do. This game is also complex enough where I feel like after my first play I've barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. I look forward to playing again and if you enjoy heavier euro games then this is one for you.

136) Saint Petersburg

In this game you're slowly building up your cards, which provide increasing amounts of points and money each round, thus allowing you to purchase more and more stuff. There's four different turns in each round which correspond to the different colored cards (green, blue, orange, rainbow). Each turn new cards of the appropriate color are turned face up, players have a chance to buy cards, and then (with the exception of the rainbow turn) each player is paid money and points depending on the cards of that color he/she owns.

Part way through the game 

Close-up of my team 

End of a 3-player game 

This game is really easy to learn and I really enjoyed playing when I first got it. Unfortunately, now I think there is only one strategy towards victory and whomever does that strategy best (or gets lucky on card flips) is going to win. Conversely, if one person doesn't do that strategy then more often then not the person directly after will easily win. I almost never pull this game out for play because of this. If you're sitting down with a group of people who have never played, then the first few games will be fun, but once someone figures out the winning strategy this game quickly loses its charm.

135) Lagoon: Land of the Druids

An interesting tile building game where each tile with one of your workers on it grants you special abilities or actions. Each turn consists of you refreshing (flipping up) three of your workers. You then use workers to build new tiles, move to an adjacent tile, activate the ability on a tile you're on, or destroy a tile that you have a worker on. Using a worker causes them to flip face down and become inactive until the next turn. The goal of the game is to collect resources and destroyed tiles, which count for points at the end of the game. The trick is only certain resources or tiles are worth points based on which tile resource is most prevalent on the board at the end of the game.

Ready to start 

Mid-game tiles 

End game board

The potential for this game to be really awesome is there. The difficult part is figuring out how to make your pieces do what you want. Everyone playing felt very limited by the amount they could do. So often my pieces were in the wrong spot and there was just no way to move them to where I wanted. Each turn felt like an insurmountable struggle to get anything done. Part of that is learning how to play, but the more interesting part should be trying to solve the puzzles that each new combination of tiles presents. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it feels like once you figure that out this game will be really fun.

134) Valley of the Kings

This is a set collection game combined with the deck building mechanic. It plays very similar to dominion where each turn you have five cards in hand. Each card can be played for money or its special ability. You can buy cards from the bottom row of the pyramid (seen in picture two). The twist is that on each turn you can take a card from your hand and remove it from the game. This card will then be scored when the game ends. Some cards are worth a set amount of points, but most cards belong to a set of like colored cards and you get a lot more points for each additional card in the set that you collect.

Setting up the game 

Available cards for purchase 

My hand 

End game score

This game felt a lot like a deck management game rather then a deck builder, which was a unique twist. The built in ability to remove a card from your deck every turn made for some interesting choices, especially in the first few turns when money is fairly tight. It did feel like some cards were overly powerful and could break the game, but after only one play its very difficult to know this for certain. The one annoying thing is that you're constantly shuffling your cards. My deck size remained around 10 cards the entire game and I was able to draw my entire deck most turns so I was constantly shuffling. Apart from that it was very fun and I would happily play this again.

133) Rumis

This is a neat tetris style game. Initially a map is chosen and placed on a neat spinning center board. Then players take turns placing one of their pieces. The first three pieces placed must all be touching and each subsequent play a player must have the played piece touch one of their other pieces on the board. Additionally, no piece may go higher then the fifth row. Once all the pieces have been played you look down on the board and count up how many of each color is represented. The high score wins.

Ready to start 

Just getting going 

To branch out low or build high?

End game score

A great little game that we all enjoyed enough to play a second time. About half way through the first game a light bulb went off and I said "oh, this is an area control game". Then one of the other players said roughly 'so it is...now I see how to play.' I guess I shoulda kept my mouth shut until the end of the game. Despite the games simplicity there is a quite a bit of strategy. Trying to figure out the area control aspect is difficult. There is also a balance of trying to build to the top level and assure points as opposed to grabbing lower locations in the hope that everyone else runs out of time to cover your pieces. If you can find a copy of this I would recommend giving it a try.

132) Praetor

An interesting game, which upon first glance appears to be amazing and everything I want in a game. In this game you're using your workers (dice) to gather resources and money by placing them on buildings. Additionally, you can purchase new buildings and build wall segments, again using your workers and the resources you've collected. Many of these actions result in points and whomever manages to get the most points by the end of the game wins.

Just starting our 3-player game 

Building and activating buildings 

Individual player board

End game buildings

After playing, no one was sure exactly how they felt about the game. We loved the mechanics and what your actually trying to accomplish in the game. We really had questions about how balanced the game is. Since printing there have been some official rule changes due to broken or overpowered buildings, but this only adds to my questions of how easy it is to break this game. Without playing a few more times I'm not sure how to address this potentially huge issue. But what I can say is the thing I disliked the most about the game is that it reward players for being last to the extent that a strategy could be to do poorly for the first half of the game...ugh. The thing I liked the most about the game is that you never roll the dice. The dice are actually used to show the age/experience of your workers and eventually the end up retiring, which is a great mechanic. That said, the jury is still out on this game so approach at your own risk.