An early prototype of Ryugu was kindly provided by 14Games. All artwork and rules are subject to change. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Ryugu The Fleeting Paradise, to give it its full name, is a clean, colourful new worker-placement game from 14Games, the studio that brought us Snow Planner (read my review of that here). Following the trend of Japanese Euro games doing things slightly…

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General Orders: Sengoku Jidai pits two competing daimyo against one another in a fight for control over crucial battlefields in 16th-century Japan. Deploy your commanders to seize powerful advantages, secure valuable supply lines, and capture well-defended forts — all while protecting your vulnerable HQ. This standalone game introduces new strategic waterways, ships, and devastating siege weaponry across two battle maps.

From award-winning design duo David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, this compact two-player game combines the dynamism of a wargame with the cut-throat decision-making of worker-placement games.

-Grant

A review copy of Snow Planner was kindly provided by Hiroki Ishi. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Snow Planner’s success is because it keeps things plain and simple, not despite it. Once you dip your toes in the pool of Japanese Eurogames, you start to notice these things. Components are simpler. Boards are smaller. There’s very little bling to speak of. It’s the way European games used to be…

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A copy of Salamandra was kindly provided by Hachette Boardgames UK. Thoughts & opinions are my own. Salamandra is a worker-placement game with a twist, and that twist is just the sort of thing that might make you take a second look if you’re feeling overrun with worker-placement games. The added change of workers being stuck in place once they’re on the board adds a new layer of planning…

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National Economy is a game from Japan. It is a worker placement card game. It is pretty compact. There are many elements which at first made me think - isn't this just like Agricola? As I played, I soon discovered it is more than that, and less than that at the same time. All in all, a different beast, despite several familiar concepts.  The game is played over 9 rounds. You start

Ringyo (Ringyō / 林業) is a game about forestry in Edo-period Japan. Well, kinda. It’s more accurate to say that it’s a game where you’re a Daimyo in Japan overseeing a province covered in trees and floodwaters. I can honestly say that I can’t point at another game and say “Ah, that’s just like Ringyo”, because there are a lot of things Ringyo does that feel fresh and different. It’s a heavier game…

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