Reviews – Page 13 – Meople's Magazine

The Staufer Dynasty

14 May, 2015 Kai Reviews

A huge Empire without a permanent capital is something that is hard to imagine today. But in medieval Europe, the Staufer emperors had their itinerant court, they would travel around their empire and rule from wherever they just happened to be. That way, everywhere in the empire could have the glory of hosting the emperor, and he would get first hand knowledge of what was going on everywhere. In The Staufer Dynasty, you are a member of the court of Henry VI, working hard to get members of your family into influential offices all over the empire.

Greenland

1 May, 2015 Kai Reviews

Greenland is a pretty hostile environment for human beings, and survival is at stake there every day. Not so much nowadays, but people have been living there since long before packaged food and electric heating. The game Greenland gives you some idea just how dangerous the place is: careful planning and good tactics will go a long way, but a bit of bad luck can still wipe out your people.

AquaSphere

10 April, 2015 Kai Reviews

Stefan Feld is back, and he’s taking us on a trip under the sea this time. Because it’s better down where it’s wetter. But you won’t have time to watch the singing and dancing crustaceans, there’s science to be done. You only have two people working for you, an Engineer and a Scientist, but together with their swarm of robots they will do science, collect crystals and catch invading octopodes.

Empire Engine

1 April, 2015 Kai Reviews

Micro games, very small games with few components and few rules, quick to explain and to play, are a minor trend at the moment. They don’t usually keep you entertained for the whole evening, but they are nice to play a round or three while you wait for pretty much anything. Even in a waiting room or on a train, because they’re very portable. Empire Engine is a micro game by Alderac where everything is about cogs and wheels. The whole planet the game is set on is made from cogs and wheels.

Alchemists

16 March, 2015 Kai Reviews

Combining boardgames with mobile apps into a game that people actually want to play is the current Philosophers’ Stone and Holy Grail rolled into one for game designers and publishers. The Philosophers’ Grail, maybe. Previous attempts have had lukewarm success at best. But Alchemists is the first in a new wave of games with companion app, and it might just have found the magic formula how do it right.

Pandemic: The Cure

6 March, 2015 Kai Reviews

With the amazing, ongoing success of cooperative game Pandemic, it’s no surprise that there are not only a number of expansions but also a few spin-off games with a similar theme and sharing the name. Pandemic: The Cure is one such game, it recreates the classic Pandemic as a dice game: lighter and faster but with all the original’s elements still there.

La Boca

19 February, 2015 Kai Reviews

The game La Boca takes its name from the neighborhood La Boca in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a uniquely colorful place. Just as uniquely, the game La Boca is a puzzle game with strong player interaction, and that makes it a lot of fun to play.

Cargotrain

12 February, 2015 Kai Reviews

Trains, pick-up-and-deliver mechanic, set collection. All that doesn’t sound new, the mechanics have been used and even combined before, and there are more than a few train games out there. But Cargotrain takes those simple ingredients and mixes them up into something tasty and fun.

Fields of Arle

4 February, 2015 Kai Reviews

Fields of Arle is Uwe Rosenberg’s love letter to the home of his ancestors, East Frisia and especially the village of Arle. It’s a worker placement game that is unusual in not allowing more than two players, but is equally unusual in the number of options you have and factors to consider. It’s a big game, a long game, and a game that brings many aspects of medieval Frisia to life.

Imperial Settlers

22 January, 2015 Kai Reviews

Egyptians, Romans, the Japanese empire, Barbarians – lets call those last ones huns, they seem to fit best with the illustrations. Four empires that were widely feared by their neighbors. Lets forget, for a moment, that they were not only separated by a few thousand kilometers but also also by a few hundred years. Physics is a funny thing, anything can happen if you just get lost enough. That’s how colonists from these four empires end up on a mysterious island, where they all start building an outpost of their culture. It’s only a matter of time before they run out of space and into each other. Welcome to Imperial Settlers.