July 2024
Welcome board game fans! This month we take a look at our favourite racing games, review the excellent co-operative strategy game Spirit Island and add the swashbuckling family favourite Port Royal (with the Just One More Contract expanstion) to our rental collection. We also bring our readers an exclusive chance to add Dobble/Spot it! to their shopping cart for just £5 during the month of June.
Happy board gaming!
Newly Added:
After much consultation, deliberation and some “hard work” to playtest, we are happy to add the following exciting new games to our collection. Here’s why we think you’ll love to play each of these titles:
The White Castle
The White Castle uses an original and clever dice drafting mechanic where players select dice to place on the board which to gain unique benefits. The game rules are easy to understand, players have one action per turn and the game lasts only nine turns. Despite it’s apparent simplicity on the surface The White Castle allows for some great decision-making as players learn to unleash powerful combos and chain reactions with each placement to gain advantage and score points in this engaging strategy game. (See our in-depth review later in this newsletter)
Architects of the West Kingdom
An excellent worker placement game, Architects of the West Kingdom sees players competing for the most victory points by constructing buildings and advancing work on the cathedral. To do this they place workers to gather the needed resources and hire trades people to assist their efforts. The game features an original “moral compass” track that affects each player based on how virtuous their actions are. A few shady trades on the black market may help you along but too many immoral dealings could prevent you from using certain spaces or land you in serious debt!
Space Base
Space Base is a quick-to-learn, quick-to-play dice game where players add cards (space ships) each with their own abilities to their base in an attempt to build an effective point-scoring engine. Each turn the player rolls two dice and must chose one or mroe ships in their base to activate and receive either income to grow their base or points to help secure a lead. However each activated ship also gives your opponents a potential benefit! The game is a great blend of dice-chucking fun and manages to blend the luck and chaos of dice rolls with some meaningful decisions and a number of strategic choices for the players. Will you build a base that minimises the luck factor and provides a slow stady income or try for an explosive big scoring end-game combo?
Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala
In a unique twist on the "worker placement" genre, Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala game begins with the meeples already in place on the board and players must move and remove them to take actions. Five Tribes is a higly interactive game with players starting each round by bidding coing (points) for turn order. Going first means you’re most likely to be able to carry out your intended strategy as each turn before yours can drastically change the board state. Players are constantly thinking of alternate tactics and contingency plans as their opponents unwittingly (or tactically) end up nullifying their original plans!
Review:
THE WHITE CASTLE
Isra C. , Shei S.
1-4 Players
120 minutes
The White Castle is a strategy game where players seek to score the most victory points by sending their workers to the eponymous castle. Gardeners twill tend the gardens, warriors will train in the proving grounds and courtiers will gather at the gates hoping to advance up the levels in the Castle. In order to be able to send a worker to the castle players must gather the resources required. Gardeners will demand food, Warriors will need steel and courtiers will need coins and pearls to be able to gain entry to and improve their influence within the castle.
The players gain resources by selecting and placing a dice from one of the three bridges onto a space on the board to gain the benefits of that space and possibly trigger chain reactions that let them receive further benefits. The game is easy to learn and teach and plays out in exactly nine turns for each player. Despite the simplicity of the rules and the short play time, The White Castle manages to pack some meaningful decision making and strategic play. Game set up is highly variable so there isn’t a predefined “optimal” path to victory and/or advantage for players who have played the game often. Each player also has a unique lantern ability which increases in power as the game progresses.
The clever dice drafting mechanic and potential for some exciting action combos make The White Castle a satisfying and thoroughly enjoyable medium-weight strategy game. It also has a challenging solo mode for when your group isn’t around.
We had several games of this one and enjoyed them all. The only two minor criticisms after half a dozen plays were fristly that the game tends to feel a bit short - you’re having so much fun that the game end seems to always come so quickly and we found ourselves wishing for just one more round, and secondly the game comes in a compact box which may make packing away a bit tricky.
The White Castle is fun, engaging and potentially going to be one of our long-term favourites. We gave it four gold meeples out of five and award The White Castle the My Board Game Library “Gotta Try It!” badge.
(The White Castle is available to rent from our library or purchase from our online shop.)
Report Back
UK GAMES EXPO 2024
Birmingham NEC and Hilton Hotel
31 May to 2nd June
At the start of the month we attended the 16th Annual UK Games Expo, and though it feels weird to be writing this only at the end of the month (many, many gaming hours later!) here is a brief update of some of the highlights from this year.
Attending the UK Games Expo (UKGE) 2024 is always a treat and this year’s edition of the UK’s largest hobby games convention proved exhilarating as ever. This year once again smashed attendance records with over 65,000 visitors (more than 39000 unique) flocking to Birmingham NEC over the three days of the expo.
The expo spanned three massive halls as well as the convention rooms of the nearby Hilton hotel. Exhibitors ranged from indie developers to major publishers, merchandise vendors and crafters and makers of all sorts showcasing and selling the latest board games, expansions, and accessories. The organisation as always was impeccable but the sheer number of people that went meant that some areas were crowded, especially on the Saturday. The large open play areas were brimming with gamers enjoying their favourites games or unboxing their latest discoveries. Various events, from tournaments and workshops to panels and awards ceremonies (not to mention some excellent live entertainment) ensured there was always something to do between browsing and playing.
One thing that UKGE really gets right is the strong sense of community the organisers and volunteers promote throughout the event. It’s not only about selling the games, the players are looked after and in particular, new and budding game designers are supported with seminars covering everything from graphic design to fund raising and the logistics of distribution. A large play-testing area where members of the public can try out rough-draft games and provide instant feedback to the game designers. It was heartening to see how many people participated in play testing this year.
We enjoyed a preview of a great family game Top Dog where players must dig for bones but take care not to go wrong or they could end up wearing the “Cone of Shame” !
Overall, UKGE 2024 was a well-organised exhibition with ample play areas and plenty of activities designed to foster enthusiasm for the hobby and support the players and designers who make it all happen.
UKGE also raised over £18000 for charities over the weekend, proving you can have fun and do good too.
My Board Game Library thanks the organisers and volunteers and congratulates them on another successful year.
You can bundle small-format games as part of your rental up to a total weight of 2Kg. Just drop us an email with the games you’d like to include and we’ll do the rest. Also look out for our pre-selected “Theme” bundles such as our “kids bundle” and “party game bundle” which you will be able to add to your playlist.
My Board Game Library merchandise will be available from our online shop in the summer! We hope to bring you fun board-game themed T-shirts, coffee mugs, dice trays and stationery to enhance your board game nights!
Our Rental Library makes it easy to try new games before deciding to add them to your collection. It’s also a great way to add variety to your board game group without having to invest the full cost of a game.
If you have any suggestions for or newsletter or features you’d like us to add to our web site please drop us a line at support@myboardgamelibrary.com
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“ I don’t have birthdays. I level up! ”
– Anon.
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