When I first saw the name ‘Subastral’, I immediately thought “Cool, definitely a space game”. I was wrong. Subastral in this context refers to exactly what it describes – below the stars. The focus is our own blue marble, our own speck of beauty on the canvas of cosmic insignificance: planet Earth.
I recently reviewed Wingspan, a game about collecting birds and playing with tons of little plastic eggs. Its designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, was rocketed from “who’s that?” to a name that everyone in board games knows. So what’s for her follow-up to the birdy game? More birds? More delightful eggs? Nope. We’re still playing with animals that fly, but this time it’s butterflies.
They say good things come in small packages, and they don’t get much smaller than Zuuli, which is about the size of a pack of playing cards. Zuuli is a card game from Unfringed, where players are building and upgrading enclosures at their wildlife parks, while rescuing the animals who’ll live there
Holy alliteration Batman, it’s a Pilfering Pandas preview! It’s the third game from the husband and wife publishing duo, Wren Games, and it’s on Kickstarter as I type these very words.
Ever fancied yourself as the owner of a vineyard? You’re in luck. La Viña is a card game from Devir Games, where players compete to get the best grape yield from an abandoned vineyard, and turn it into wine. The player who does best, inherits the vineyard!
My little dude got to choose a game for tonight, and he picked Minecraft: Builders and Biomes by @RavensburgerUK . It's a much better game than most of the terrible kid-magnet franchise cash-ins, and I enjoy the tactical choices. Plus, giant wooden cubes! 😃
3I was cleaning up my games and had a little shelf re-organisation at the same time. It's nice to look up from work and see the things I'm most interested in playing.
4Learning how to play Lunar Base by @LunarBaseGame this evening. It's so simple to learn, but really competitive. Base-building needs careful decisions, and there's some great direct interaction going on.
3This is so good! The SDR folk have worked SO hard on this game and campaign, changed expectations for game manufacturing, and PROVEN sustainable is possible. It's not just window dressing either, there's a great game. Please go and take a look.
We spoke too soon!
You know that professionally translated German edition, and the fancy pants box insert?
Yeah we unlocked them too 😏💚 https://twitter.com/SDRgames_studio/status/1440741140639084549
Do you wish you were on another planet sometimes? Try Mars! I've been playing Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, from @tired_wings @_tnl_ @FryxGames & @StrongholdGames . The original game's little sibling is a fantastic game - better than the original? https://punchboard.co.uk/terraforming-mars-ares-expedition-review/
