Disclosure: I was sent a free copy of this game, which retails for $19.99.

Here’s how a game of JABUKA can go.

You start by grabbing letters from the pile to form a word: had. Three points. Not many, but they’re all yours. Whoops. Spoke too soon. Jessica grabbed an s, flipped the d to a p, the h to a y, and rearranged it all into pays. And stealing words certainly pays as Jessica now has all three of your points, plus one to grow on. That is until Ayesha snags another p, and turns the whole thing sappy. That’s when you draw on your brief skater phase, as well as a spare s, and your wildcard piece for an l, and make slappys.

The group stares at you. “Slappys?” Jessica asks, dripping with condescension. You explain it’s a skateboard maneuver, and that while proper nouns aren’t allowed, slang is very much in play. Donny, in typical disbelief, whips out a phone and googles his way to an Urban Dictionary entry for slappys: “The act of hauling ass on your skateboard and slapping it into a curb at an angle that gets you on top of it and grinding.”

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The Lazax Empire has fallen. Their loyal Winnarian stewards cower on the surface of a devastated Mecatol Rex, the former seat of galactic command. Following the Twilight Wars, the galaxy’s greatest factions emerge to fill the power vacuum and blah, blah, blah... space stuff.

All kidding aside, the background story is pretty good, but it is nothing compared to the narrative that is about to unfold around your table. Twilight Imperium, 4th Edition bills itself as An Epic Board Game of Conquest, Politics, and Trade. And epic is right. A single play can easily stretch to five, six, eight hours or more. But if you get invested in the taut, strategic puzzle before you, the game can be some of the most fun you’ll ever have lost an entire day to.

[caption id="attachment_13750" align="alignnone" width="730"] Please excuse/enjoy the in-progress paint jobs on the pieces photographed.[/caption]

Objectively complex

There’s so much to discuss in this game that it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s skip to the end. How do you win this sucker? By making it to the far side of the victory point track before anyone else. But unlike games where you build up an engine that lets you sprint…

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On the fields of fantastic realms. In the outer reaches of space. WWII and Feudal Japan. On tabletops and flat screens, gamers have fought a lot of wars. But as Galakta Games’ This War of Mine and its video game predecessor remind us, Not everyone in war is a soldier. Some don’t fight for glory. They fight just to survive.

The game puts you in the shoes of some of these non-soldiers, as you pass the time holed up in a collapsing squat, waiting for a ceasefire. Until then, you’ll spend your days crafting makeshift appliances, setting rat traps so there’s protein in your pantry, and combating the cold by burning wood that could have been a bed, or books that could have taken your mind off the misery. When night falls, you’ll send scavengers out to scrape up a meager handful of the supplies you need to survive the next day. If it’s not yet clear, This War of Mine is a bleak affair that earns every second of its 18-years-and-up maturity rating.

Based on a video game of the same name, play passes a bit like The Sims, where the characters you control have constant and shifting needs…

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