Spiel 2023 preview

SPIEL23 is getting closer and closer. I don’t think I can describe the excitement we feel anymore, so let’s just jump into some upcoming games! 😄

🌳 Planta Nubo

Seeing the cover of this game, and Applejack being the last release from this publisher, I thought this was going to be a new lightweight nature-themed game. However, digging a bit deeper I came to realize it’s not that at all! 😮 It’s a quite heavy game with unique action selection, polyomino placement, activating card abilities, and many many things I cannot list here. Let’s just say it is shaping up to be a great release! 🥳

🖼️ The A.R.T. Project

With the help of Vincent Dutrait’s artwork, this game immediately stands out. It just looks gorgeous! 🤩 It’s a co-op game of resource management, where you fight against the White Hand, a criminal organization stealing great works of art. You are racing to secure these art pieces in time in different countries, depending on which board you choose. Looks fun, I am only a bit wary of the dice output randomness.

🐭 Rats of Wistar

New releases from Cranio are always on the watchlist, so this one caught my attention early on. 👍 You play as mice, exploring a farmhouse, extending your lair to fit more rats and mice in your home. There are some cool ideas here, with the biggest one being the action wheel for taking actions - you can place mice into the different sections, that will improve the strength of actions there. I am curious how this game will feel while playing.

🎎 Zhanguo: The First Empire

This is a reimplementation of Zhanguo, a game I didn’t know before, but I’ve got my eyes on this now! You are aiding the Emperor of China in the unification of the country. The game features clever hand-management as you can play cards in two ways: either to add to your tableau to customize your strategy and improve future actions, or to place in the court to do basic actions and trigger your personal bonus actions. Seems like there is a lot to consider each turn, as there is a lot going on! 🙃