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Cosmos Empire: Review Information: Mechanics:  Dice Rolling, Engine Building, Set Collection Player Age: 11+ Player Count:  2 - 8 Players Time to Play: 15 - 45   Minutes  Game Designer: Martin Brandel Publisher : Bigger World Games Year Published: 2022 Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher. Introduction: Cosmos Empire is a dice resource generation game. Think Machi Koro, Valeria Card Kingdoms or space base. Cosmos Empire's twist on this growing genre is firstly the game is closer to filler weight and it gives a player more immediate agency in dice adjustment. Game Anatomy: Cards: The game is mainly compiled of cards. Each card will have the cost to purchase on the top left. The card type at the bottom of the card, this will either be bio, spirit or tech, each type has cards that create synergies from that type. On the bottom right is the dice result that will trigger the production generation followed by the amount of re...

Race for the Galaxy: Review  Information: Mechanics:  Engine-Building, Simultaneous Play Player Age:  12+ Player Count:  2 - 4  Players Time to Play:  30  Minutes  Game Designer:   Thomas Lehmann Game Artist:  Martin Hoffmann, Claus Stephan Publisher : Rio Grande Games Year Published:  2007 BGG Weight:  2.99 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher. Introduction: Race for the Galaxy is an engine-building game where players are trying to use high-scoring cards, or to create an engine that produces and consumes resources to score victory points. The unique hook for this game is that five possible phases can occur each round. However, only the phases that the players secretly select at the start of a round will determine which phases every player will partake in. For example if two players select the develop phase, this phase will only occur once and both of those players will gain a b...

Apiary: Rapid Review Information: Mechanics:  Worker Placement, Point Salad, Tile Placement Player Age:  14+  Player Count:  1 - 5  Players  Time to Play:  60 - 90   Minutes  Game Designer:   Connie Vogelmann Game Artist:  Kwanchai Moriya Publisher : Stonemaier Games Year Published:  2023 BGG Weight:  3.00 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher. Rundown: In Apiary, players are building their hive with farms (engine-building), carvings (end-game scoring), recruits (ongoing benefits), and development tiles (one-off benefits). This is achieved through placing worker bees on locations. The longer a bee worker is used the stronger they become but after their last action at strength four, they must hibernate.  On a turn, a player will either play a worker to activate the location or retrieve all their placed workers. As you place a worker, no location is ever considered blocke...

Crafting the Cosmos: Review Information: Mechanics:  Rondel, Mancala, Point Salad, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers Player Age:  14+ Player Count:  2 - 4 Players Game Designer:  David Gordon (I), TAM Game Artist:  Greg May, Dann May BGG Weight:  3.00 Publisher:  Office Dog Time to Play:  60 - 90 Minutes  Year Published:  2025 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution Introduction: Crafting the Cosmos is a game where players design and fill their own cosmos. This is achieved by using a clever mancala mechanism on the central board where actions aren't granted by the position of the first or last mancala action. Instead, the benefits/resources are determined by the entire state of the main board after the movements have been made. Game Anatomy: Main Board: During this game, players share a main board that will work as a shared state of mancala. On this board, there w...