Just did this. It was a gift. It is really good quality and practical as well as fun to do

I love playing this game solo. It’s a beautifully distilled version of pandemic which is super quick to set up and play. The tension is real and the puzzle is engaging. My favorite way to play is using all 4 characters and 6 of the new crisis cards. This way works fine solo or with up to four players. The components are really nice and don’t feel like a budget game despite its incredibly cheap price tag. I’d recommend anyone have this in their collection.

Apparently this is a classic, and it's easy to see why. It's such an engrossing game. It's very interactive because you are often trading resources with other players to try to get the ones you need to expand your empire. You know it's a good game when you find yourself awake late at night analysing the game in your head and working out your strategy for the next one!

Everdell is one of our family's top games so we were always going to buy this expansion. It adds new Critters and Constructions from the watery Pearlbrook, and a lovely new resource- Pearls. Pearls are really hard to come by but you need to get them in order to pay for Adornments and to help achieve Wonders which are new end-game points which replace the Basic Events from the base game. There are also new locations to visit- River Destinations- that are different from the basic and forest location on the main board and you need certain types of cards in your city before you can visit them with your Frog ambassador (a new worker that is the only one allowed to visit Pearlbrook). All in all, we do enjoy this expansion, however if you want to win this game, you can't ignore the Wonders and just build your city. The Wonders are worth too much to forget about and depending on whether you welcome something else to think about, you may or may not enjoy the expansion.

If network building is your thing and you’re looking for a step up from Powergrid then this is it. This is a medium - heavy game combining a lot of great mechanics. I totally recommend getting the Iron Clays which go beautifully with this game.

6 Takes is an awesome wee card game. It plays well at two but better at higher player counts. There is the option for a variation of play which makes this game perfect for all abilities.

This is a great little game. Easy to learn and quick to play, but it really gets you thinking. It's really surprising how different people will make their estates, even with the same cards and the same objectives. With lots of different ways to earn points you have to weigh up your options to try to figure out the optimal strategy. One game is never enough, you always want to try again to see if you can improve.

This is such a cute game - but don't be fooled by the innocent looking panda, he's not always your friend. He'll wander around your garden eating your bamboo shoots with abandon.

We found the rulebook quite daunting to start with (it was one of the first "Euro" type games we had played), but after watching the How to Play video, we realised it easier than it seemed. There are quite a few moving parts but it all falls into place once you start playing. You place coloured tiles and irrigate them to grow bamboo. The gardener makes the bamboo grow and the panda eats it (which allows you to collect it). The aim is fulfill objective cards to give you points - either tile patterns, bamboo growth, or collected pieces. Kids love to play this because of the cute theme.

This is a cut down version of the full Power Grid game (no map board). I've never played the full game (which looks a little intimidating), but this is great game in itself. The set up is pretty intense and requires a very careful following of the rule book. There are also some fiddly rules that you have to remember during the game - taking cards out and adding others in at certain times. You can find simplified "cheat sheets" to print off online, which help. It's worth it to get things just right because you get the best experience that way. We've found games tend to be very close as the mechanics serve to make sure no one gains too big an advantage early on. The actual game play is simple enough, so as long as you have one player who has an involved knowledge of the rules the rest of the players can be blissfully unaware of the magic behind the curtain.

I love the 3 dimensional aspect of this game. Your trees grow from seeds into saplings, then get bigger and bigger before they finally get transferred into points. I always feel like you are chopping them down to get points, which feels a bit contrary to the nature theme - but I think thematically they are just dying naturally, therefore completing their lifecycle. Trees cast shadows on other trees, blocking them from the sunshine and stopping them from earning light points (you use light points to purchase and upgrade your trees). It's possible and common for you to even block your own trees. The sun rotates around the board three times, changing the angle of the light as it goes and hence which trees get the sunshine. It takes quite a bit of strategy to plan where to plant your trees and when to grow and 'harvest' them to give you optimal points. There is actually no element of randomness in the game at all, but you do need to try to anticipate what your opponents will do. It's so cool watching your forest grow and evolve during the game.

The idea behind this game of running power companies, was right up my alley.

After reading about Power Grid vs. Power Grid the Card Game, I'm glad we choose the card game version. I know others might disagree, but in my opinion this has just the right essence - buying available resources (at auction), and hopefully powering up your plants and making $$$ money. The card game play time is more reasonable - not as time intense as the full on Power Grid.

I like to buy the "Green" Energy power plants. But you can't always get what you want. Sometimes we find the price rising a lot during the auction process. When do you let go of the power plant you really want, or how much are you willing to pay for it?

I think this is one of my all-time favourite games.
It is so easy for a virus to spread, but one thing about the game is that even playing a standard game, there quite a reasonable possibility that you wont stop the pandemic - which seems realistic, but I'm never happy losing! On the flip side, I really do enjoy getting on top of the Pandemic, and feel highly satisfied when we nail it.
You have to work really well together and go through the options trying to come up with the best move you can make at the time. I don't think it suits players that just want to do their own thing, or maybe it is just me - I like to have input, and have a good plan.

We first played this on a camping trip, and this was perfect as the kids could all participate as well as the adults. Even the preschoolers joined in easily as it requires a team effort. We started off being lenient on the card replacement rule - beginners seem to forget to pickup a replacement card.
I started off playing easy with the kids, but it didn't take long before they got the hang of it, and they started being just as good, in fact even better than the adults.
Have since played with kids, adults, and grandparents all combined - a great all-round fun family game.

This lockdown we've learned how important it is to have a good supply of roll-and-write games at hand. They are really good to play over a video call, especially if you can make a contactless drop off of the appropriate game components to you game mates. Cartographers is such a cool game. I love how the challenge cards create variety in the game. You get points for two different challenges every "season" but you also need to keep future challenges in mind to make sure you set yourself up for points in those rounds. The different selection of challenges and their order really makes each game feel completely different.

You'll love this game if you've ever enjoyed playing with your kids' train set! Each player has their own board and white board marker (included) and constructs their own network of roads and tracks based on what is pictured on the four rolled dice. The main object is to connect as many of the exits as possible and you also get points for the longest continuous road and track, and points deducted for dead ends. The rules are super simple to learn - though for my first couple of games I forgot that each exit is specific to either road or track, so that's something to keep in mind when you start playing. Once you've got the base game down pat you can mix things up a bit by trying one or both of the included expansions (lava and meteors in the red edition). We haven't tried these yet, but I can't wait to give them a go.