Mexica 
Steve
This game offers a heaping helping of take that style gameplay. Your objective is to create and claim districts of different sizes using action points. As you build districts of different sizes for points, you and your opponents will need to try to have the biggest/most temples in each one to score even more points. Bridges allow a nice strategic blocking element that I ended up using very heavily but of course I made some boneheaded moves and lost out on some points. I believe the end score was a little tight but not very close. The gameplay reminded me a lot of Medina but much more cut-throat. I would be up for playing again but don’t see this having much use in my collection at the moment.
Matt
Mexica is an area-control game where players create and claim districts across an uncharted island. Each turn you must make the best of 6 action points in order to lay rivers, build bridges, and mark the land with a temple in your God’s honor. I’ve been wanting to try it and am very glad I did; the options are simple but the interaction is high – it was fun to block and disrupt my opponents while trying to retain control of the key territories. The production value is high, but the price follows suit, unfortunately, and I won’t be quick to add it to my shelf without a steep discount.
Entropy
Kelly
You’re a space/time traveling dude or robot or whatever trying to piece together a lovely panorama of your home faster than your opponents can remember theirs. As you collect pieces of the puzzles, you might find other people’s so you’ve gotta find a way to get yours without necessarily giving theirs up. Entropy is a simultaneous action selection game and is really quite neat! Unfortunately, I think it’d be much better with more than just the three players we had, just to shake things up a bit and make you work a little harder.
Steve
Thanks to Rule and Make Games, they sent us a copy of Entropy for us to review. This is a pretty simple game that oozes a ton of sci-fi theme. Players have a hand of cards that are the same for each player except for one special power granted by their identity. Player secretly select then reveal simultaneously and perform actions. The goal is to collect all four cards that make a panorama of your “reality”. This felt a lot like Eggs and Empires which is an awesome thing in my book. The artwork is fantastic and the simple and quick gameplay makes this a hit with me. Look forward to playing with a full group of players.
Matt
We received a copy of Entropy from the Australian publisher Rule & Make and have managed to give it a few plays. Entropy is a simply action selection game where you’re trying to get your four specific cards from around the table into your tableau. So far I’ve only played with 3 players and while it’s not the best player count, it is functional. I’m looking forward to trying it with 4 or 5 to see how more cards to parse through and more player interaction may benefit the experience.
Shinobi WATT-AAH!
Matt
Another game that was of moderate interest, Shinobi WATAAH is a set collection and hand management game, with just a hint of deduction. There’s not much to the game and I found myself satisfied to set it back on the shelf after one play. Beautiful artwork, but not enough game play substance to bring me back.
Steve
This game joins an interesting combo of tableau building and deduction. Using cards the from your hand, players compete to create the most powerful clans before the round ends. As you play different cards you get to perform different actions. It is mostly actions that allow you to draw more cards or actions to hinder your opponents. After each round players can spend their shurikens to gain points and try to deduce the identity of the main “boss”. I have heard a lot of good things about this game but it fell firmly in the “meh” category for me.
Thunder & Lightning
Kelly
Thor and Loki battle against one another to capture Odin’s most prized possessions in this two-player battle card game. Matt and I have played this one multiple times over the past week and it is fantastic. I’m planning to review it so I’m not gonna go into a lot here, but I highly recommend it! Stay tuned!
Matt
Alongside Oh My Goods!, I’ve played Thunder and Lightning, the reskin of the popular KOSMOS game Hera & Zeus, a handful of times. This game has rocketed to the top of my favorite two-player games. Abstract games and two-player cards games are my favorite styles of game and this one fits well into the latter category. Both player’s decks are exactly the same, creating a tension and balance that it a lot of fun to sort through. This is easily one of my favorite games of the year so far.
T.I.M.E Stories: The Marcy Case
Steve
My wife and I wrapped up the Marcy Case this week. It took us 7 runs in the end. This is for sure not as good as asylum and it was more battle heavy than it was “puzzley”. The puzzles that it did offer however were pretty good. We are going to tackle “Under the Mask” next. This is a great game!
Sanssouci
Kelly
This was my first time playing this Karuba-like game. I enjoyed it and the challenge it presented very much. With that being said, we played it incorrectly so I will be needing to try it again to really decide my feelings on it. Overall, I don’t think that the mistake we made will affect the puzzle kind of nature of this game, but rather make it a little more thought-provoking and I look forward to giving it another shot.
World’s Fair 1893
Steve
If you don’t know yet, I have some really crazy luck when it comes to raffles for games. I was a lucky winner thanks to @everythingboardgames! We did a preview of this game before it hit kickstarter but I was not fortunate enough to play it. I was able to get my family to play the night it arrived and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was pretty easy to explain and the game went very smoothly. This feels like Lanterns in a way but a step or two up in decisions and strategy. Look forward to playing this some more.
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