Board Game Reviews - Honest Tabletop Game Reviews at Zatu
Reviews
Pokopia review
If you’ve ever wanted to create your own Pokémon region, now's your chance. Here's my thoughts on Pokopia, the cosy building sim with pocket monster twist.
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Beaks board game review
Have you ever been at the beach and wondered “What's it like stealing food from the innocent”? Beaks might just be the game for you.
Dungeons & Lasers - The Goblin King review
Once a mercenary with nothing but hunger in his gut, he carved his crown from the bones of fallen kings. This is... the Goblin King!
Wonderland’s War second opinion
Wonderland’s War is a fun and frantic delve into a war-ravaged version of Lewis Carroll’s beloved realm of Wonderland!
LEGO Star Wars 75384 The Crimson Firehawk review
The Young Jedi are an absolutely brilliant way of getting our own young Padawans involved with Star Wars. A children's show totally focused on positive values that include teamwork, focus and friendship. It has been great for us and it is awesome to see that Lego created sets based on this cast. I recently reviewed the Tenoo Jedi Temple set and I’m thrilled to also be able to discuss this set that my children have also enjoyed. Crimson Firehawk If you talk to my generation then when it comes to an iconic Star Wars ship we are all instantly going to the Millenium Falcon, it’s obvious, but in 2026 there are a lot more iconic ships beyond this one and the Crimson Firehawk is the showstopping piece in this Lego set as well as being the name of ship that rolls of the tongue for my younglings. The set is rated as 4+ with 136 Lego pieces included. This ship is large but this is due to it being constructed from some seriously large preformed lego shapes instead of many more small pieces. It’s cool because what a model that the children get to play with. I’m so impressed that it has a full Cargo hold on it to hold all the cast of this lego set as well as other accessories. This is the most challenging element of the Lego build but very achievable for children and they love the final product here. What’s even greater is this amazing ship also has the pilot, Nash Durango, included in the set. Another highly detailed lego mini figure that better enables the children to recreate their favourite Young Jedi adventures that they have watched, or come up with their own new adventures. I’ve been so impressed with the detail in this set. Nubs (Young Jedi) My children were so excited to see this mini, Nubs. The last of the Young Jedi they required to complete the gang and they were thrilled. It’s another highly detailed Lego Jedi mini with another lightsaber to boot. Plenty of adventure for this young Jedi. Talking of the other accessories, Nub’s speeder and the final character in this set, RJ-83. Another character droid from the universe of Star Wars to support Nubs and Nash in their ongoing adventures. The speeder is an awesome accessory to further enhance this play and creativity for your younglings. A BBQ? I could not get my head around these components. There is a BBQ set contained within as well as some other Lego accessories. It must be linked to a particular episode perhaps but it provides some useful items to enhance the play. There is also a small market place set up which again provides further accessories for the play, completing the set here. Given the set is for 4+, one very cool feature that parents will appreciate with this one is that there isn’t a single sticker in sight. My children have been very frustrated by stickers in the past, so to see everything already printed is a useful bonus. Final Thoughts The Crimson Firehawk set is an excellent addition to the Star Wars Lego series. A really accessible set for young children that offers a challenging build followed up with endless play opportunities. It is a great starting point for a young Lego builder.
Cozy Stickerville review
Cozy Stickerville; it’s cosy, it has stickers and will have you creating the quaint village of your dreams. Grab some friends, grab a cuppa and let’s sticker...
Yummy Yummy Monster Tummy review
Yummy Yummy Monster Tummy is a family-friendly, cooperative card game of color matching and monster feeding for 2-4 players.
Lord of the Rings RPG Starter Set review
Free League’s Lord of the Rings RPG takes the familiar core 5e mechanics of “the world’s greatest roleplaying game” and adds a few unique wrinkles.
Railroad Tiles review
After the success of Railroad Ink, the series swaps dice for cardboard tiles in this drafting game from Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
Starfinder Pirates of Skydock Review
Skydock is a competitive board game set on an ancient orbital platform above Verces, where players race as rival adventurers to claim a new starship.
The Old King's Crown review (solo mode)
There has been so much said already about The Old King’s Crown since it’s release that I’m not going to go into too much detail about the release in general. There are countless reviews, forum threads and opinions about the game to last a lifetime, or a play through of Twilight Imperium, whichever comes first. I would say opinions have been mostly positive, some gushingly so, with most praising the endeavour in itself from the writer and creator Pablo Clarke for the theme, concepts and artwork delivered after many years. The board and cards display fantastic artwork and the clan boards are clear and colourful depicting various tactics and traits that enable you to boost actions or basically slap your opponents. What to Expect And here’s the thing with this game - it isn’t for everyone, it will slap you in the face a bit. It’s not as brutal as Arcs can be which was just a bit too invidious for my tastes and it has been said that The Old Kings Crown is similar in that your carefully laid plans and placements can be usurped at the turn of a card and you will be powerless to respond - and this is most certainly true. You might succumb to these tactics at some point during the game, but you will get your chance. Your cards and abilities will pull the rug out from under your opponents in a later round - which is why I always recommend at least the 5 round game to just give you that chance. Four rounds just feels too short to be able to bring your plan to fruition and it is most satisfying to see your opponents floundering and unable to protect their court cards or defend a deadly attack that you saved just for that reason. This is a game that gets better with repeated plays - understanding more about the asymmetry of the Factions, the kingdom cards and your elite cards increases with more plays. Honestly, who knew what was going on the first time they played Root? Given all of that, if bluffing, bidding and general sneakery are essential in this game how can a solo version of the same game deliver anything like that? Solo Mode Enter the Simulacrum (Sim for short - I don’t like abbreviating it as its such a great word but it will make this easier to read I’m sure). The Sim is, in my opinion a work of genius. Evidently an enormous amount of effort has gone into the creation and testing of this solo mode - it was co-developed by Richard Wilkins (Ricky Royal - Renegade, Deckers, John Company) and it really shows. Managing the Sim is pretty straight forward after a few games, I do keep referring back to the one pager guide for clash rewards for the Sim and it is really important to manage it properly in terms of timing of card reveals to maintain the suspense, the manual for the main game and the solo mode are exemplar. Set-up and Gameplay In set up, the Sim takes two main decks, these indicate its primary intention (ambition) for regional clash focus, Highlands, Lowlands etc and indicates priority in placing heralds and winning opening bids for kingdom cards. The Sim doesn’t use the kingdom cards but is granted rewards for the symbol for each card held per round, and, it can steal your kingdom cards if the ambition card indicates and has a higher blind bid than you. Sometimes playing against an automa can feel a bit, well, passive.Like you are playing against the game and you have 10 turns and if you get past a certain point on the VP track then you win. This is anything but passive - the ambition cards sometimes lie, they sometimes steal your kingdom cards, even the faction cards once revealed belie their presentation - Sim faction cards are marked Gold, silver and bronze on their reverse to give an indication of their strength, and are used when placing them into clashes. So you might think a gold card will be strong, I’ll meet that strength accordingly only to find on being flipped it was a Ruse! The same can be said of silver cards that turn out to be far more powerful than you expected. This is what gives the Sim its competitiveness - it would be just too straightforward if all the cards said what they appeared like they were going to say, just like a real opponent trying to bluff you, this solo mode is bluffing great! At the same time as you are trying to deal with Sim fakery and sneakery, it also has fog cards and Scheme cards - the former indicate which regions some Sim advantage or player disadvantage will strike, you know this in advance so it will “help” shape your thinking when you place your faction cards but for the most part, gives the Sim an advantage. The Scheme cards, again are intended to give you an indication of the regional prioritisation when placing supporters and faction cards (gold, silver, bronze) in strength order of priority placement and clash order markers if required, but again a proportion are also false on reveal. All this is pre-clash. Then we turn the cards over. Then you realise whether you have been payed or you planned your ambush or retreat wisely. It sometimes makes you laugh out loud that you take care in placing your herald and your supporters to then flip over a deadly card and you didn’t use a faction ability when you should or you took the wrong kingdom card. It happens. Resolving clashes works in the same way as the full game, influence is gained or lost, the Sim generates rewards for winning clashes differently to you and in most cases takes influence and lore and then in Autumn takes more lore when Governing or Journeying or taking benefits from the Council - the sim is very strong straight out of the box. After a dozen or so games I have only beaten the Sim with two factions (Clans and Nobility) so as a challenge its brilliant, you won’t walk over the Sim and more than likely in initial games it will walk over you - by the end of round two, it will, on average have more influence than you and control a council and have already taken one of its higher power cards from its Seat of Power. Thankfully, at least until you get more familiar with your clan abilities or how the sim scores most of its points, you can modify the difficulty and create a customised opponent by using The Forge. These are a set of cards that either increase or decrease the strength of the Sim (make it hotter or cooler in TOKC parlance) to give you a chance to test yourself at different levels of heat - the cards are double sided and might decrease the amount of influence it takes at certain triggers or stop the Sim from taking a second fog card or trigger its kingdoms’ favour (this is really bad) or to increase its rewards from clashes - all this is designed to make your solo experience even more involved and more or less challenging. There are suggestions for Forge set ups in the manual and scoring reference guides for your game at different level of Heat from the Forge cards. I’ll repeat that - your solo experience. The fact that the designers and creators have given this part of the game so much credence and design thought is remarkable. When I first got into gaming the concept of playing solo mode was for me, honestly, less than an afterthought. Fast forward 15 years and there is now more emphasis on not only whether a game has a solo mode but whether it has a good solo mode. Final Thoughts Before I tried the solo mode in this game my benchmark was probably Dune Imperium Uprising - manage two rivals, flip cards, place agents, put cubes into combat, take victory points. The Old King’s Crown solo is levels above that. It is hands down, the best solo mode I’ve played in any game and shows what really can be done. I love the base game anyway, it isn’t for everyone and that’s fine, I don’t like racing games and I’m okay with that, my partner and fellow gamer isn’t particularly a fan of TOKC so I get to play it solo and here’s the thing, its not a compromise. Its not like, oh you don’t want to play I’ll have to play solo then. I want to play this solo. I want the challenge and I want a bunch of cards and the result of endless play tests, thoughts and imagination to occasionally slap me in the face, and not only will I sit there and take it, I will laugh and enjoy it. Would I buy this game purely on the basis of its solo mode? Now that I have played it, do you know what, I probably would. Its almost like getting two games in one - a brilliant, beautiful 1-4 player game and a brilliant solo mode, who wouldn’t want that, and with fully adaptable expansions on the horizon - it can only get better - its already a 10, so with a nod to a famous rock music movie parody, with the incoming expansions it could go all the way up to 11. Sign me up.
Castle Nightingale Review
Samurai Red Panda… Ninja Cats… Looming castle with relics worth stealing… this is Castle Nightingale and here is why you'll love it!
First 100 numbers shapes bingo review
First 100 numbers shapes bingo is a lovely, well-made shape matching game for toddlers from 2 years old and up!
