I like a good challenge, but with the new cooperative expansion to Viticulture, Viticulture World (2022, Stonemaier Games), I was struggling to make it through the first world of the game.

I reached out to a friend who had purchased the game at retail, “Am I crazy, or is Viticulture World surprisingly hard to beat even in the tutorial mission?”

“Dude. So ******** hard,” was the text reply.

Viticulture World is that kind of game. I was getting beaten so badly in my solo plays that I rewatched the official rules video just to make sure I was playing the game correctly. Sadly, I was playing the game correctly, so that led to a different conversation:

Is Viticulture World too difficult?

Bring a Machete (Plus One For a Friend)

In Viticulture World, you are mostly playing the base game of Viticulture (with or without its expansions) with up to five friends, but on the same team.

By “team”, I mean that you are working with other players to each create a prosperous wine business. Everyone is super friendly, and with millions of bottles of wine sold each year, there’s plenty of money to go around. Why not spread the love?

Players take turns like they would in…

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Read our review of PARKS or watch our video review.

Buy PARKS: Nightfall on Amazon.

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Chronicles of Crime: Noir expands the app-driven 2018 hit with four new scenarios, new components, and a new theme. Dust off your fedora, throw on your trench coat, and don’t forget to take a jorum of skee as you jump into the role of a private detective in post-WWII Hollywood and Los Angeles.

This review assumes the reader is familiar with the Chronicles of Crime base game and only dives into what the Noir expansion introduces to its gameplay. If you’re unfamiliar with Chronicles of Crime, check out our preview to learn how the game works.

[caption id="attachment_20255" align="aligncenter" width="730"] Many components from Noir (shown with the hat icon) replace the components in the base game. However, you still need the Evidence Category cards, Evidence board, and Special Item cards from Chronicles of Crime. The app is also required to play.[/caption]

Chronicles of Crime: Noir Gameplay

In Chronicles of Crime: Noir, you’re playing a private detective so you don’t work for any police department (unlike in the base game). Unfortunately this means you don’t have the same access to field and medical specialists like you do in Chronicles of Crime. In some Noir scenarios, you might have allies…

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Ticket to Ride: Japan & Italy is the latest expansion for the Ticket to Ride base game and is the seventh released to date. This review assumes you are already familiar with the original Ticket to Ride rules and will only discuss the changes to its original gameplay. If you’re unfamiliar with Ticket to Ride, head on over to our Ticket to Ride love letter to learn more about how the game’s played.

What’s Included in Ticket to Ride: Japan & Italy

Ticket to Ride: Japan & Italy includes an enormous — eight panels compared to the original six — double-sided board: one side featuring the horizontal map of Japan, the other featuring a vertical map of Italy. In the expansion box, you’ll also find new Destination Ticket cards for both maps, Ferry cards for Italy, and Bullet Train miniatures and Progression markers for Japan.

Since this is an expansion, you need some components from one of the standalone Ticket to Ride games (Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: Europe, etc...) to play either map. These components include the Train Car cards, as well as trains — the number of which depends on the map you’re using — and matching score markers for each player.

[caption id="attachment_21916" align="aligncenter" width="730"]

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Overview

Imperial Settlers, designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek, is a card game of civilization and engine building. Each player selects one of several factions (Romans, Egyptians, Barbarians, Japanese, the Atlanteans, the Aztecs or beginning with this expansion, the Amazons) and uses that faction’s Faction deck in conjunction with a deck of Common cards to produce resources, acquire more cards, build locations, and to score points. The game is played over a total of five rounds and the person who has accumulated the most points at the end of the game wins.

In this multi-article series, I am going to discuss Imperial Settlers and all of its expansions. I’ll tell you how they work, how they change the game, and what I think about them. Since I’ve previously discussed how the game is played, I am just going to discuss what this expansion brings to the game and how it changes it. Of course, it goes without saying that this expansion opens up new possibilities…

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Let’s start with a review of how Starship Samurai is played just so we are all on the same page. If you know that already you can skip this section ( I promise it won’t hurt my feelings).

Starship Samurai is an area control game of sorts for 2-4 players. Each player takes on the role of a powerful intergalactic “clan” vying for greater control of the galaxy.  To do this you will need to gain the trust and loyalty of the smaller clans to expand your influence. So it is time to set off with your mechs and warships to expand your territory (because nothing makes friends faster than a big army). Starship Samurai is played over a series of rounds where each player attempts to gain the most force at various locations by the end of the round. Whoever (has the most force  in a territory at the round end wins that territory and its bonus. These bonuses typically increase a certain clan’s loyalty but can also give victory points (honor) or wealth. Clan loyalty works like a tug of war with each granting higher end of round bonuses depending on how loyal they are.

A Round and a Round We Go

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‘I don’t understand it, Holmes,’ I said, ‘who would bring more cakes to a bakery?’

I watched the great detective looking around the shop. Outside the policemen waited discontentedly but Holmes was adamant that he was not to be disturbed. He stabbed a finger into the icing of one of the introduced confections and sucked it, showing no apparent pleasure. Then he turned, that satisfied look in his eyes that told me he’d solved the case.

‘It’s elementary.’ He said.

Welcome to Meeple Mountain’s review of Masters of Elements, the first large box expansion for Lucky Duck Games’ Vikings Gone Wild. Make sure to read my review of the Vikings Gone Wild base game as well.

[caption id="attachment_9328" align="alignnone" width="730"] The cover art really stands out, selling the potential for excitement contained within.[/caption]

The Cakes Are Not A Lie

Masters of Elements follows two small box expansions (It’s a Kind of Magic and Guild Wars), a 5th player expansion, and the Ragnarok expansion which turns Vikings Gone Wild into a cooperative battle against the undead. It’s an impressive rate of growth for a game released in 2017, demonstrating the huge potential for this series (and possibly its…

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Have you ever walked past someone at the grocery store and noticed their cart was filled with cases and cases of oranges and wondered what their plan was for them all? How about that person at the checkout with six large watermelons on the conveyor belt? Why could they possibly need so many? Thankfully I finally have an explanation for these extreme fruit purchases that regularly puzzle me: ninja training.

In the Fruit Ninja app, you play as a ninja apprentice trying to improve your skills by slicing fruits with a katana. All fruit thrown your way (appearing on the screen) must be sliced. If you miss too many or slice a lit bomb disguised as a coconut, you will lose. Ninja apprentices score points for each sliced fruit, as well as extra points for fruit combos (many fruits sliced by a single cutting motion). Fruit Ninja: Combo Party transforms this addictive digital game into a board game, focusing on a single aspect of your ninja training: creating the highest scoring fruit combos.

[caption id="attachment_9138" align="alignnone" width="730"] As you can see I’m neither good at the app nor capable of slicing fruit and taking a screenshot at the same time.[/caption]

Fruit Ninja: Combo…

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Clank!: Sunken Treasures

Clank!: Sunken Treasures adds a new double-sided board, 35 new cards to mix in with the base deck, and a few new mechanics to the game. This new dungeon-dive takes place underwater, diving down into the depths of the sea to abscond with the sunken treasures before the sea monster devours us. This is represented well by the  new mechanics. Unless you’re an Olympic-level high-diver, when you dive into the deep, you’re going to make a splash. Let’s just say that our resident Clankers aren’t exactly medal material. Your characters’ splashes make extra noise, represented by the new “add a clank” symbol on the board.

The post Clank! Mummy’s Curse & Sunken Treasures Expansions Review: Under the Sand and Sea Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

In the first parts of this series, we discussed the Imperial Settlers base game, its two smaller expansions, and the first of its two large expansions, the Atlanteans. Join us now for this fourth part of our series as we discuss the second of Imperial Settlers’ two larger expansions - The Aztecs!

Overview

Imperial Settlers, designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek, is a card game of civilization and engine building. Each player selects one of several factions (Romans, Egyptians, Barbarians, Japanese, the Atlanteans, or beginning with this expansion, the Aztecs) and uses that faction’s Faction deck in conjunction with a deck of Common cards to produce resources, acquire more cards, build locations, and to score points. The game is played over a total of five rounds and the person who has accumulated the most points at the end of the game wins.

In this multi-article series, I am going to discuss Imperial Settlers and all of its expansions. I’ll tell you how they work, how they change the game, and what I think about them. In my previous articles, I talked a lot about the base game and the game’s first few expansions. In this article, I am going to focus on the second of the…

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