Top 5 games for 2025 were:

1. ​Tranquility - 33 sessions
2. Railroad Ink - 31 sessions.
3. Super Mega Lucky Box - 30 sessions.
4. Can't Stop - 25 sessions.
5. Splendor - 23 sessions.

For a 2nd year, Tranquility got the most sessions - although it is down from the heady heights of 50 from last year!
Railroad Ink gets 2nd as it did last year. With 33 sessions, it too is down, albeit slightly from last year - as is all the top 5.
New into the top 5 at 3rd place this year is Super Mega Lucky Box, a quick playing bingo inspired card game.

Now it's time for the much anticipated, highly regarded 3 Spellcasters & Dwarf Game Awards. The awards everyone talks about.... or not!

Game of the year: Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-taking Game
A few years ago, I gave The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, another trick-taking card game the game of the year award.
Mechanically, Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game shares a lot with that game, so it felt like a bit of cop out to also award it game of the year. However the theme in Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game is so much stronger than The Crew and I'm a sucker for Lord of the Rings themed games.
I really enjoyed this one and look forward playing The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game this year which has only recently been released.

Surprise of the Year: Prey Another Day
This simple card game employs an elegant mechanic whereupon a card's gameplay usefulness is diametrically opposed to it's scoring point value.
It's also very much a game of playing the other players than playing the game.

Honourable mention: Lacuna
Usually I'm a bit weary of 2-player games where opponents go directly head-to-head but Lacuna presents this in such a pleasant way with an engaging core mechanic and excellent yet almost minimalistic components that it can't help but be charming.

Other honourable mention: Fighting Fantasy Adventures
Another licensed cooperative fantasy game! This time one that harks back to the 80's and the classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
Fighting Fantasy Adventures swaps out the 400 chapters of a gamebooks for card-driven gameplay with 2 decks of cards instead. Whilst perhaps a touch finicky, Fighting Fantasy Adventures does a great job of emulating the feel of its source material.

OK, now on to what's really important - The 'industry defining' 'prestigious' 3 Spellcasters and a Dwarf annual gaming awards.

Game of the year: Daybreak
Sometimes a game comes along that immediately announces its quality and in this instance it's Daybreak, a game about saving the environment. From the packaging and components, to mechanics and theme and even small details like putting QR codes on cards to provide extra info, Daybreak is something noteworthy.
More than that; it's presentation highlights some of the stark obstacles we will all face in the future.

Disappointment of the year: Horrified: Greek Monsters
The excellent formula that powers the original Horrified just doesn't quite work in this iteration. I've played 4 different versions of Horrified and this is easily thematically the weakest.
I never felt I was battling against the monsters of Greek mythology. It felt like what it seems to be; a reskin with slightly different monster mechanics.

Surprise of the year: Sky Team
I'm always a bit wary of 2-player only games, they often seem to resort to direct competition with your opponent.
I'm happy to say that with regards to Sky Team, I'm wrong. 
Sky Team is cooperative dice-placement game where the 2 players take the asymmetrical roles of pilot and co-pilot. 
It has fantastic presentation with mechanics that fit it's theme.

Honourable mention: Things in Rings
Things in Rings is a wacky kind of party game about deductive logic and trying to discover the hidden phrases on 3 cards.
It's a brilliant lightweight game, however, for me it's a semantic nightmare that drives me crazy and is unlike anything else I've played. it means I have to get a copy.

Anyway - enough of that, I know the real reason you're here; for the influential, industry defining 3 Spellcaster & A Dwarf annual game awards! 

Game of the year: Heat: Pedal to the Metal
It wasn't a hard choice, when thinking about game of the year, this always immediately came to mind.
This 50's/60's themed F1 game manages to provide players with some tricky decisions and risks to take using an elegant implementation of hand management mechanics.
I'm a big fan of a certain other F1 game that's been around in some form or other for years and it seems blasphemous to think it but Heat: Pedal to the Metal is as good as Formula De/Formula D! There, I've said it!

Disappointment of the year: Sushi Go!: Spin Some for Dim Sum
It's not that this game is bad per se, it's just that it does not deliver any particularly new gameplay or as good a experience as its previous 2 iterations. Hard to believe, but it's just a bit meh considering the pedigree it originates from.
It doesn't help that it's central premise (Or gimmick if you're less kind!) also makes the game a bit fiddly to setup, teardown and sometimes play.

Surprise of the year: Bandido
There's a heavy dose of luck that can apply to Bandido and I'm not sure if ultimately it's a good game or not. Even so, Bandido distils a cooperative gameplay experience into a single deck of strangely oblong cards in a package so small it easily fits in a pocket. With rules so simple and intuitive that anyone can immediately grasp play.
I play games with people who have varying levels experience in table top gaming and this has been a big hit with a couple of them, which is why we've played it so much in 2023.

Honourable mention: Joraku Deluxe
Set in Feudal Japan, Joraku is typically what you'd expect it to be; a game amount warring factions vying for influence and control. However, all of this is achieved with abstract, almost minimalist trick taking rules and delivered in a fantastic looking package.

Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• ​Game board: The board features a map of the world illustrated in lovely detail. Jungles can see seen in Africa, Ayers rock in Australia, the Coliseum in Rome, there's also dolphins and boats in the seas etc.
  The map is also littered with dots in various colours connected by a network of dashed lines.
  Green dots represent 'named destinations', that is places that the players may wish to visit.
  Blue and yellow dots represent hubs which connect to green dots, they also serve other functions which will be displayed below.

• Tokens: Several types of token are used in Expeditions: Around the World
  Player tokens: There are 4 tokens in each of the game's 6 player colours.
  Ticket tokens: There are 40 of these ticket styled tokens.
• Arrows: There are 45 arrows in each of 3 colours, used to direct each of the 3 titular expeditions.

The art for Expeditions: Around the World with its real world references is vibrant and colour and an overall excellent quality.
I imagine it would have a strong table presence.

The game's iconography is kept to an absolute minimum, being limited to 3 colours and dotted lines. Players will have no problem understanding this game.

How's it play?
Setup

• game board: Put out the game board. Shuffle the destinations cards into a face-down deck and deal 6 face-up. If any destination cards are too close to the starting location as per rules, put them to the bottom of the deck and draw replacements.
  These cards constitute common destinations for all players.
• ​Players: Each player should take the tokens in their player colour and 3 ticket tokens
  Next, deal 9-12 destination cards to each player (dependant on player count). 
• First player: Determine a starting player.
• Preparation: Beginning with the first player, each player should one-at-a-time reveal 4 of their destination cards and place one of their tokens at each of the locations relevant to the revealed destination cards.
  Players should keep the remainder of their destination cards secret from their opponents.
  Thus, there will common destinations, while every player will also have hidden and open destinations.

On to play
The objective for players in Expeditions: Around the World is to visit as many of the locations on their destination cards as possible as well as visiting the locations on the common destinations. This is done by directing the 3 different expeditions throughout the map by advancing them along the connections on the game map. It should be noted that the map 'wraps-around', that is, if a expedition goes off the right side of the board, it continues on the left side.
Play follows a traditional turn order with the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.
The active player must perform the following actions:

• Advance expedition: The active player must​ advance one of the 3 expeditions. This is done by placing 1 arrow of any expedition on to the board. The active player may advance any of the 3 expeditions, provided there are still arrows of that colour available.
  • Starting arrow: All 3 expeditions start at the same location in north Europe. Thus the first arrow of all 3 always starts there and heads outwards.
  • Place arrow: Following on from leaving the starting location, all subsequent arrows must start from the point of the last arrow of that colour that was played, continuing to create a path for the expedition, albeit with the following rules.
    No backtracking: 2 arrows of the same colour cannot share the same connection.
    Shared lines: However, arrows of all 3 colours can share space on the same line.
    Loop: If, after an arrow is placed, it creates a loop. Immediately place another arrow of that colour anywhere along the route of the expedition (Following the usual placement rules.). That is now the path of that expedition.
  • Resolve location: The newly placed arrow will obviously point at a new location and this must be resolved, how depends on it's colour.
    • Blue: If any expedition reaches a blue location, the active player may immediately place another arrow with the usual placement rules.
    • Green: This colour means the location is a destination and one of the following may occur.
      Common destination: If this destination is one of the 6 common destination cards, then the active player may claim that card. A new card is drawn from the deck to replace it.
      Token: If a expedition has reached a token. The player who owns that token takes it back, places it on the relevant open destination card and essentially claims that location. This can be done out of turn order.
      Hidden destination: If a expedition reaches a destination that matches a destination card a player has hidden in their hand, that player can reveal the card to claim the location. Again, this can be done out of turn order.
      However, that must immediately claim the location before another arrow is placed. It cannot be claimed at a later point in the game (Unless a different expedition also reaches that location.).
    • Red: If a expedition reaches a red location, the active player immediately gain a ticket.
      Speaking of which....
• Tickets: Each player starts the game with 2 tickets and can acquire more. They have various uses and up to 2 can be used during a turn. They can be both be used at the same time or separately, as well as before or after placing an arrow.
  Tickets have the following uses.
  Extra advance: A ticket may be spent to place an additional arrow, this can be for the same expedition as being advanced during the turn or a different one.
  Remove arrow: The active player may spend a ticket to remove the latest arrow placed on any expedition.
  Swap destination card: The active player may use a ticket to swap out one of their hidden destination cards. This is done by drawing 2 cards from the destination deck, keeping 1 and discarding the other along with a card from their hand to the bottom of the deck.
• Next player: Once the active player has finished their turn, player progresses to the player on their left.

Endgame
The game end is triggered when either all arrows have been placed on the board or any player scores all their personal destination card. Play continues until all players have had equal turns, then goes to scoring.

Players score a victory point (VP) for each card they have claimed, either from the common objectives or their personal destination cards.
However, in true route-builder fashion, players lose 1VP for each unclaimed personal destination card in their hand.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Expeditions: Around the World is fairly strong thematically with the players actually creating and moving the expeditions along during the game. However, with no player having overall control of any of the expeditions, they've got to be among the most random expeditions ever!

All destinations in Expeditions: Around the World fall into 4 types: Shared or common destinations, open destinations which players had to declare, hidden destinations which players possess and whatever destinations remain in the deck.
Players will need to navigate all this imperfect knowledge to win the game.
Ideally, they'll want to 'steer' expeditions towards destinations that they can score. The problem though, is that they may also be steering them towards destinations that can be scored by opponents. With common or open destinations it's obvious when this is the happening but unsurprisingly, hidden destinations can be surprising.
Common objectives in particular add an extra layer to this and they can be tricky to acquire. Moving close to one might just allow an opponent to swoop in and claim it on their turn. Judicious use of tickets and blue spots is probably called for here!
That's pretty much it for strategy: I suppose there's possibly a higher level of play about watching opponents and trying to guess the destinations they are aiming for and directing expeditions accordingly.

Expeditions: Around the World is fairly light and as result is a straightforward, easy game to learn. Its theme is also easily understood. This makes it a good for non-gamers or younger gamers.

I'm not so sure what more dedicated gamers will make of it.
I found it a little unengaging and unsatisfying and for a route building game - a little frustrating. While it's not uncommon to have a route building game where no one entirely controls the routes, I definitely found it to be a frustrating experience here.
I feel there are other games that do route building better and this is one not for me.

Note: There are some component differences between the kickstarter edition of Flamecraft (Which is what are in the photos.) and the standard version. Basically, the kickstarter edition has higher quality tokens.

So thus, the overall component quality is good. Tokens are colourful, well presented and satisfyingly chunky, as as the metal coins. This version even comes with some tokens trays.
Having said that, I was not particularly fond of the 3d plastic player meeples. While they are chunky, bright and fairly good 3d sculpts, they're also unpainted plastic and essentially monochrome which somehow lends them a sort of drab quality. Ironically, the standard edition comes with screen printed meeples which in my opinion are much  more preferable.
The cards are the pretty normal high quality expected from modern games.

Without a doubt, Flamecraft features excellent artwork and art direction.
It utilises what is known nowadays as a 'cosy' art style. It's a breezy cartoonish style filled cheerful and colourful illustrations and gives the game a happy, positive vibe without being overly busy.
While the game does have a fairly big footprint, the upside is that it has a brilliant table presence.

There's quite a few icons in Flamecraft but many of them are self explanatory, a few might require players to initially reference the rulebook, it's nothing bad and won't prove an obstacle to players.

How's it play?
setup

• Game mat: Roll out the game mat and perform the following.
  • Shop cards: Put out the 6 starter shop cards on any 6 shop spaces on the mat.
  • Shop deck: Right - this one is a bit more involved.
    First sort the shop cards into their 7 types (6 goods and specials.), then shuffle each into its own face-down deck.
    Next draw 1 card from each goods deck, 4 cards from the specials deck, shuffle them together into the shop deck and put them on to their spot.
  • Starter dragons: Take the 6 starter dragons and place them on their corresponding starting shop cards.
  • Enchantment deck: Decide whether to use either the purple or gold cards and shuffle them into a face-down deck. Next, deal 5 face-up cards on to their allotted spaces to create the enchantment card 'market'.
  • Fancy deck: Shuffle the fancy dragon cards into a face-down deck.
  • Artisan deck: Select the number of artisan dragon cards required as per the player count and shuffle them into a face-down deck and place it on its allotted space on the game board. Then deal 5 cards face-up on to their spaces to create their market.
• Player setup: Give each player the dragon meeple and score tracker in their player colour - place the score tracker on the scoring track.
  Fancy dragons: Deal 2 fancy dragon cards face-down to each player who should select one and return the other to the bottom of the fancy dragon deck.
  First player: Determine the starting player. Depending on player count, players later in the turn order will receive some starting goods.

On to play
Flamecraft uses a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before play moves to the player on their left.
On their turn a player must visit one of the shops in the village and then they can choose whether to make use of the shop's facilities or enchant the shop.
A turn plays out as follows.

• Visit shop: The active player must visit a shop, furthermore, it must be a different shop to the one they currently have their meeple on.
  If any other players have meeples at the shop the active player visits, then the active player must pay each of them either any 1 good or 1 coin.
  Now that the active player is at a shop, they must choose from the following 2 actions; gather goods or enchant shop.
• Gather goods: This is basically - go shopping! The active player performs the following action and optional actions.
  • Gather goods: The active player must gather goods and acquires whatever is shown in the top left of the shop card which is usually a good but might be something else. Additionally, they also gain a good from each artisan dragon (Which is shown in the top left corner of each artisan dragon.) on the shop and from each enchantment that has been put on the shop - more on enchantments later.
    As well as goods, a player may acquire money or cards from gathering.
  • Place dragon: This optional action allows the active player to place a dragon on to a empty space on the shop card they are visiting.
    A dragon may be placed on to any of the 3 spaces provided they're empty and the dragon card's type matches the type required on the space. When a dragon card is placed, it will trigger the action alongside that requirement.
    Abilities on the dragon card just played are not triggered.
    Filling a shop: If placing a dragon fills the last available space on the shop card, the active player draws a new one from the shop card deck and at the end of their turn, reveals the new shop.
  • Fire up a dragon: The active player may optionally make use of the special ability of one of the dragons already on the shop card - not the one they just played.
  • Shop ability: Finally, the player may choose to use the shop card's own special ability.
• Enchant shop: The other main action a player can perform is to enchant a shop, this also allows them to perform a optional action.
  • Use enchantment: The active player must buy one of the available enchantment cards. The card will list its cost in goods, which can also generally be paid for with coins in place of goods.
    Gain rewards: When an enchantment is bought, it will confer a reward on the active player. This reward may also 'scale up' by paying more goods.
    Place enchantment: The active player must now place the enchantment card on to a shop card. No more than 3 enchantment cards can be placed on any shop card.
  • Fire up dragons: The active play may now choose to fire up all dragons on the shop card they just enchanted.
• End of turn: When the active player has completed their main action and optional ones, the end of turn occurs.
  • Reveal shop card: If the active player drew a new shop card in their turn, it is now revealed and placed on the mat.
  • Check limits: At the end of their turn, the active player can have no more than 7 of each good and must discard if they exceed that, coins do not count as a good and are not subject to a limit.
    A player can also have no more than 6 artisan dragon cards in hand, there is no limit to how many fancy dragon cards they may have.
  • Refill drafting markets: If there are less than 5 face-up artisan dragon or enchantment cards on the mat, they should be restocked from their respective decks.
  • Next player: Play now progresses to the player on the active player's left.

Endgame
The game end is triggered when no more cards can be drawn either from the artisan dragon deck or enchantment deck.
1 final round is played and the game goes to scoring.

Players now reveal and score their 'night' fancy dragon cards.
Players also earn a VP for each coin they posses.
These are totalled with their scores on the scoring track.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Thematically, I'm not sure what to make of Flamecraft. It seems a little mismatched but conversely, it doesn't matter or feel 'off' because of it. Ultimately, the game's theme is its own thing and that thing is about going shopping and managing those shops!

Mechanically, Flamecraft is pretty straightforward, even though it appears to have a lot of moving parts, it's not as complicated as it first might appear.
For the most part, players will be gathering resources and when it comes down to it, choosing from 6 actions - those associated with the 6 goods and artisan dragons, other actions, optional or not don't really change.
Those 6 actions are the core of Flamecraft's gameplay and as well as some pretty standard choices that gain goods or cards, there's some more interesting options here, particularly one that allows the active player to gift goods to another player in return for VPs, something that's appropriately cosy for the game!
These 6 options form the crux of the Flamecraft's meaningful decisions.

Players need to use those decisions to optimise their actions, Flamecraft is all about optimisation. Players will find themselves gathering goods and coins which they will use to buy enchantment cards or fancy dragons which is the most reliable way to earn VPs - and they'll want to do it quicker than their opponents, creating a fast building engine is vital.
The thing is though, that essentially anybody can use any engine because all players players basically have access to all shops, albeit sometimes at a price. Luckily, day fancy dragons with their instant bonuses throws some asymmetrical elements into the mix.

While not really a light game, Flamecraft is fairly straightforward to learn and most players will pick it up quick enough. Although there was a rule that threw me off several times, which was; when an artisan dragon is played on to a shop card, it's special ability is not triggered and instead, the ability on the space it is placed on to is triggered! It felt counterintuitive to me!

Flamecraft is a fun game with an equally fun theme and I'm sure that a lot of people will enjoy it but it didn't quite click with me. I'm not entirely sure why but I felt like maybe the engine building and combo-moves were uninspiring.
This is another one of those games I'd happily play if it was someone else's choice but not one I'd pick myself.

Note: This game was played with 'The Serpents and the wolf' expansion which took the player count up to 6.

What's in a game?

• Game board: The game board depicts a gladiatorial scene as befits a game named Spartacus.
  ​The central area shows a bloody sand-filled arena overlaid with a hex grid while the outside shows a baying crowd.
  ​Finally, in each corner are 4 'wagering' spaces.
  The game board comes into play in the latter stage of a round.

• Tokens: Several different types of card token are used in the game.
  House tokens: There's several tokens for each house, including a influence tracker which have various uses.
  ​Gold: The standard round gold coloured token you might see in a lot of games.
  Status tokens: There are tokens for 'injured', 'favour' and champion.
  Host token: Finally, there is a token to represent whoever is the host for that round.

​The components here - board, tokens and cards - are all good quality which is to be expected from a modern game and feel sufficiently sturdy.
While the dice are plastic and not wooden, they are good plastic dice with rounded corners and indented pips.
The game comes with 'proper' miniatures instead of meeples or pawns to represent gladiators. While the miniatures are clearly good quality sculpts (You can see photos of some very nice paint jobs online.), unpainted they look a bit, well, grey, drab and featureless.  It's a bit of strange choice in my opinion.

Note: Apparently, there're 2 versions of the game available. One that features it's own original artwork. Which I presume it is a version that was produced after the license expired and one with art assets sourced from the TV series; this is the version we played and the version I'll be talking about here.

Spartacus features a mix of original artwork and photos from the TV shows. I've said this before but generally I'm not fond of licensed games that use photos sourced from the subject matter of the license, it can look cheap and lazy - especially if it comes from a publicity pack or something similar.
Fortunately, this didn't really feel the case here. The photos looked high quality; it doesn't hurt that the costume and sets all looked excellent. Furthermore, it always seemed appropriate for its subject.
The original artwork that also appears throughout the game looks fairly good, if a little unremarkable.
None of the art is overly busy or cluttered.

In terms of iconography, there's not too much in the game. Much of the game's components have text that explains there function in place of symbology. I can't imagine players having trouble with iconography here.

• Arena phase: Let the games begin! There are several sub-phases to this stage of the game.
  • Honour to the host: Whoever is the host increases their influence by 1! Pretty good benefit for being the host.
  • Hosting event: The host now chooses any house of any player, including their own house and invites them to participate in the games.
    Accept: When a player accepts the invitation, the put their figure on to the board along with a gladiator/slave of their choosing and with any equipment they want to use.
    Refusal: A player may refuse the invitation or indeed be unable to accept it, in either circumstance, they lose 1 influence for refusing the invite!
    2nd invitation: Once a house has accepted the 1st invitation, the host invites a 2nd house to participate. That player should put their own figure and fighter on to the board.
    The games are nearly ready to begin.
  • Tribute: The 2 players who have sent out combatants into the arena earn money for it. Additionally, if the gladiator/slave they selected has favour or champion tokens on it, the controlling player earns even more! The crowd knows who they like!
    More on how favor and champion tokens are aqcuired is below.
    
  • Wagering: Players may now place bets on the fight to come!
    There are 4 betting spaces on the game board, each with a different outcome and different odds as follows:
    Victory: There are 2 spaces for victory - one for each combatant. The odds here are 1:1.
    Injury: This pays out 2:1 if either combatant is injured.
    Decapitation: This also pays out 2:1 but only if one of the participants is decapitated!
  • Combat: Right, combat has its own whole sub-game and there are several concepts that need to be explained, so here we go!
    First, both players who are taking part in the battle should grab several dice of all 3 colours based on their combatants attributes. Remember that equipment may modify attributes.
    • Attributes: Each fighter participating in combat has 3 numerical attributes. They represent pools of dice, thus the number represents how many dice are associated with that attribute.
      These attributes are:
      RED for attack.
      BLACK for defence.
      BLUE for speed.
    • Round: A round consists of several stages.
      Initiative: At the start of each round, both players should roll their SPEED dice, that is, they should roll a number of blue dice equal to their speed rating and total them.
      I.e., a gladiator with 3 SPEED should roll 3 dice and add them up.
      Whichever player gets the highest roll can decide whether they go 1st or 2nd during the combat for that round, determining the turn order
      • Actions: Now that the order in which gladiators will act has been settled. It's time to act!
        The active gladiator can perform 2 actions, these are ATTACK and MOVE which can be performed in any order.
        Move: When this action is taken, a gladiator may move a number of hex spaces equal to their SPEED attribute, this is not a roll. So a fighter with 3 SPEED can move up to 3 hexes.
        Attack: If a combatant is adjacent to their opponent, they can attack!
        When an attack occurs, both players make an opposed roll.
        • Attacker: Whoever is attacking rolls their red ATTACK dice.
        • Defender: The attacker's opponent is the defender and rolls their black DEFENCE dice.
        • Results: Each player then creates a numerical line of dice with values going from high-to-low. So there will be 2 lines of dice.
          Dice are now paired off between players, with them first comparing their highest die each, then comparing the next pair and continuing down their lines and so on until all their dice have been compared.
        • Wounds: For each pair where the attacker has a higher value, a wound is inflicted. Each pair where the defender has a higher value or ties, there's no effect.
          Unopposed attack dice: If an attacker has more attack dice than a defender, then these extra dice will be unopposed dice, each unopposed die that has a 3 or higher will inflict a wound.
          Unopposed defence dice: These have no effect.
        • Resolving wounds: When the defender takes wounds, they must discard dice equal to the number of wounds suffered. This can be deducted from any of the 3 pools for their fighter in any way they see fit.
          1 die left: No pool of dice can be reduced to less than 1 unless all pools have been reduced to 1. This makes the chances of injury and decapitation more likely.
        • Defeat: When any of either combatant's pools are reduced to 0, the fight is over and they have lost. How badly they lost depends on how many of their pools were reduced to 0.
          1 pool: If 1 pool was reduced to 0, the loser yielded and did not suffered injury.
          2 pools: If 2 pools were reduced to 0, then the loser was injured. An injured fighter cannot be used again until they are healed.
          3 pools: Outlook is not so good! A fighter who has all 3 of their pools reduced to 0 is killed outright! They and all their equipment is discarded out of play.
        • Victory: The player who was victorious gains 1 influence, while  The combatant who was victorious gains a favor token, a combatant who gains enough favor tokens eventually gains a champion token. The controlling player also gains 1 influence for gaining a champion (Although if that champion is later lost, that influence point is also lost.
          Favour and champion tokens means that the combatant is popular with the crowds.
        • Wagers: Now bets pay out, depending on the outcome of the battle. These of course depend on the fight's outcome.
  • Life or death: In the final stage of the arena phase, the host decides the fate of the losing fighter - provided they were not decapitated.
    Players are free to try and sway (Or bribe!) the host here at this point, I means there's got to be some benefit for them and it's good to be the host! 
    Thumbs up and the loser survives.
    Thumbs down and well, you get the idea. However if the combatant had 1 or more favor tokens, the host loses 1 influence per favor token for sending them to their fate. Additionally, the host cannot kill off a champion, they are just too popular with the crowd!
• End of phase: Once the fate of the losing fighter has been decided. Play progresses to a new round, beginning with a new upkeep phase.

Endgame
If, at the end of any of the main phases (Intrigue, market & Arena), 1 player alone has 12 influence, then they win the game.
If 2 or more players have 12 influence at the end of any phase, then battles occur between their fighters to break the tie!

Overall
Thematically, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery is really strong. I mean - it has a game, blood and treachery! What more could you want - other than all the nudity?
Seriously though, while I have not watched the TV series it's based on, I've obviously  heard about it and the game seems the fit the bill quite well, it has the general vibe one would attribute to a game depicting a gladiatorial setting.
I'm sure fans of the TV show will find a lot to like here.

Mechanically, there's quite a lot going on here with 3 distinct phases that require 3 different approaches from players.
However, one element that is consistent throughout, it the ability to try and bribe other players or sway them, either with cold hard cash or promises of favours. Personally, I'll take the cash every time!
It makes the game at least in part about playing the player instead.

Players will find themselves potentially launching into schemes while trying to foil those of their opponents, entering into temporary alliances to gang up on more influential players and so on.
Even though there will be shenanigans here, a lot of what goes on with intrigue cards will be situational so it's hard to describe their impact.
Players may also find themselves at the mercy of luck with what intrigue cards they draw, especially if their hand size is small due to low influence. Sometimes patience is the key, as is knowing to play a particular card.

The market phase is another opportunity to interact with opponents. Here, players will need to balance the desire to buy/trade for equipment or other items they want with also not giving their opponents what it is they want!
Additionally, Players will also want to keep an eye on their funds because of the upcoming auctions.
Speaking of which: Auctioning can be quite a risky affair as the market cards are only revealed one at a time! Players will need to think hard on the cards they bid for and how much they want them as opposed to what might appear later: Bid too much and a player can lose out on later market cards, on the other hand, the later cards might have less value to a particular play. This is compounded by the fact that all bids are blind bids.
Players will also need to be mindful of money to potentially bid for being host.

The host gains more than just 1 influence. They have opportunity to steer the course of the battle and potentially choose who goes into the arena and possibly whether a particular combatant lives or dies - which can be a useful, albeit sometimes costly move to make.

Finally, we come to the arena phase. This is essentially a lightweight skirmish battle with some interesting mechanics and choices. It's a little fiddly for what it is but the pay off is that players can be presented with some interesting, meaningful decisions - particularly when choosing which dice to lose when a fighter takes wounds.
This can be very contextual and dependant on the circumstances in the battle such as turn order etc, can lead to players making unexpected choices.

This is a game that potentially has a lot of player interaction, jostling, take-that mechanics and so forth along with a highly confrontational arena phase. If that's your thing, you'll find a lot to like here. The downside is that some players won't like it and that might well lead to a less fun experience for all.

The game does a lot to invoke it's setting and in this regard it's great but the cost of this is some really disparate mechanics.
While the intrigue and market phases are somewhat different, at least they're both card driven gameplay. The arena phase is just a completely different game and players will end up learning 2 games.
While the skirmish game adds spectacle (Which you want in a gladiatorial game.), it's a shame that card-driven mechanics weren't incorporated into it.
This leads me to another criticism - that is, these disparate mechanics make for a pretty long play time. The rules taciturnly acknowledge this by giving 3 different starting points to alter game length. We begun the game at 4 influence and this felt long enough.

Partially, this is also due to playing with 6 players - and that arena phase again. Only 2 players ever participate in the battle at a time which means others are more or less just spectators which is readily noticeable in our 6-player game, yes there's some bribing and stuff they can potentially do to influence the outcome and host's decisions but otherwise, it's just downtime.

I'm not sure what to make of Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery. I've never seen the TV series and without that connection I'm ultimately a bit ambivalent towards the game. With it's 'unconventional' gameplay choices I found it a bit too much for what it delivered and a bit overlong for my liking.
This is probably a game for a whole rainy afternoon.

For a licensed property, I feel that casual gamers who are fans of the show will be overwhelmed here.
​Anyone expecting a roll-and-move track running around the outside of the board with spaces for buying gladiator stables or something along those lines will be in for quite a surprise! This is a fairly involved affair with a lot of concepts that will be unfamiliar to more casual gamers.

However, if you a fan of the TV series and like that involved gameplay as well as a lot of horseplay between players, then I think you'll get a kick out of this or a slash of the sword or thrust of the spear (Sorry!). 

Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• ​Tiles​: Square tiles are used in Sagani and come in 4 colours, each one associated with an element, fire is red, earth is green, water is blue and air is white.
  While not double-sided per se, each side of a tile conveys some information.
  Front: The front will display 1-4 coloured 'arrows' pointing away from the card 1 or more of the 8 directions, the colours of these arrows will be in some combination of the game's 4 elemental colours. The front will also show a 'vessel' - which in thematic terms is meant to contain a spirit, it also displays a victory point (VP) value. This VP value is directly linked to the number of arrows; 1 arrow has 1VP, going all the way up to 4 arrows which has 10VPs.
  Back: The flip side of a tile will show a 'released spirit'. It will also show its colour and VP value. Thus players can ascertain how many arrows are on the other side but not their positioning or colours.

There's a fairly minimal use of art in the game, mainly being the 'vessels' on the front of the tiles and elemental spirits on the back. It's perfectly adequate and gives Sagani a clean and uncluttered look that lends the game a bright and colourful appearance on the table when played.

Iconography is also kept to a minimum here, consisting only of numbers and arrows. Players will not encounter any problems with iconography when playing Sagani.
I will add that the 'arrows' are displayed 'thematically', which means red arrows look like flame and so on. I'm not a particular fan of this as it made the arrows look less like arrows.

On to play
Setup

• Tiles: Shuffle all the tiles into 3 equal face-down stacks.
• Players: Give each player the 20 discs in their player colour to create their own personal supply.
  Additionally, each player should put their score token on the score tracking board.
• Starting tiles: Deal 5 tiles from one of the stacks into a face-up row to create a drafting area.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

​On to play
In Sagani, players will be drafting tiles into their personal playing area to create a display and also create objectives which will need to be completed. This is done by matching coloured arrows to their colour on other tiles.
For the most part, Sagani uses the typical turn order with the active player acting before play progresses to the person their left. However, once in a while actions will occur in order of scoring position on the score tracker.
In the active player's turn, the following actions are performed.

• Draft tile: The active player must draft a tile from available selection, how this is done is based on how many tiles are available to draft.
  • 2-5 tiles: If there are 2-5 tiles in the drafting area, then the active player must draft one of those.
  • 1 tile: If there is only 1 tile left to draft, the active player has a choice.
    Draft the tile: The active player can draft the remaining tile.
    Blind draw: Alternatively, the active player can place the last tile into one of the intermezzo spaces above the score tracker and then must flip and take the topmost tile from the draw stack. This is why it's important to have an idea what's on the front of tiles.
• Place tile: The drafted tile must be placed into the active player's display. It can be rotated to any position but must be placed orthogonally adjacent to another already played tile (Unless obviously, it is the 1st tile placed.).
• Place discs: Next, the active player takes a number of discs equal to the arrows shown on the newly placed tile from their personal supply and places them on the centre of that tile, thus they will take 1-4 discs.
  Insufficient discs: If the active player does not have enough discs in their personal supply, then they must take a cacophony disc for each of their own discs that is missing. Each cacophony disc taken will cost the active player -2VPs! However, players retain any cacophony discs they get which can be reused later in the game.
• Match arrows: Now the active player should check all the 'uncovered' arrows on all their tiles.
  Any arrow(s) that is pointing directly at a tile which matches the arrow's colour (Regardless of distance.) can be 'resolved'. This is done by taking a disc from the centre of that tile and covering that particular arrow.
  After a tile is placed, it is possible to resolve multiple arrows across multiple tiles.
• Score tiles: If all the arrows on a particular tile have been covered. That tile has been completed.
  The active player should return the discs to their personal supply, this then frees the discs - including any cacophony discs to be used on other tiles later on in the game. Next, flip the tile and then score it on the score tracker. A flipped tile can still be used to resolve other arrows.
• End of turn: A couple of events may occur at the end of the active player's turn.
  • Intermezzo: If at the end of a player's turn all 4 intermezzo spaces are filled with tiles, then the game goes to a intermezzo round.
    Draft intermezzo tiles: Players may now draft one of the tiles on the intermezzo spaces. This is not done in the usual turn order. Instead the player with the lowest score goes first and so forth until the player with the highest score goes last. Any tiles taken are placed with the usual placement rules.
    Discard tiles: If none of the 4 available tiles on intermezzo spaces were taken, then all 4 are discarded out of the game. If at least 1 was taken, the others remain.
  • Refill drafting area: If there are no tiles in the drafting area at the end of a player's turn, draw 5 new tiles.
  • Next player: Play no progresses to the player on the left of the active player.

Endgame
Play progress until the scoring threshold is reached on the score tracker, this is dependant on player count.
Play then continues until all players have had equal turns.

Score are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Sagani's theme is pretty thin and almost negligible.
Elements and spirits? Tiles and arrows? It all feels a bit forced and if theme is important to you, then you may find Sagani a little unengaging. For me, it's not too much of an issue and didn't put me off the game.

Mechanically, Sagani almost feels like more of a puzzle than a tile-laying game. It's all about the optimal placement of those tiles and putting down a tile that will match up the most arrows. Players will find themselves placing tiles in such a way that they will hope to get the right coloured tile later in the game.
Sometimes it felt like an exercise in frustration, I found myself wanting to complete every tile and essentially solve the puzzle but in a game like this, that's never possible.

This brings me to an interesting element of the mechanics; namely having a limited number of discs to place on tiles.
​It means that playing tiles - particularly the higher value tiles that might not be completed for while is a twofold risk, not only may the tile not get completed but it also ties up the disks, potentially forcing players to take cacophony discs. The penalties for taking a couple isn't too great but it's something to avoid if you can.

This is balanced with how the higher value tiles genuinely offer more value.
E.g.
A 1VP tile requires 1 arrow to be resolved, earning 1VP 'per resolution'.
A 10vp tile requires 4 arrows to be resolved, earning 2.5VP 'per resolution'.
It means a 10VP tiles offer much better efficiency over any other tiles provided it can be completed.
It's a good implementation of an element of risk/reward that forces players to consider short and long term goals.

There's also a higher level of play that comes from watching other players and potentially drafting a tile they might need.

Sagani is also pretty straightforward and accessible to non-gamers, the basic concept of pointing an arrow at its particular colour is easily understood, the only wrinkle being the intermezzo rules which are a touch fiddly but nothing close to a game breaker.

However, while I feel that Sagani has solid gameplay, I also feel that the light rules that makes it accessible do mean it doesn't really stand out from the crowd for me. There are plenty of games that pretty much do what Sagani does just as well.
I'd happily play Sagani if someone else wanted to but personally, I can't think why I'd choose it over any of the other good drafting and tile laying games.

I do think that this would be a good introductory game to people unfamiliar with this style of game.

Thursday 29th - Aldershot
Deep Sea Adventure 
Isle of Skye

Tuesday 27th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Machi Koro 2
Stockpile - First Play!

Sunday 25th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers 
Can't Stop
Roll'n Bump 
Cloud City 
Railroad Ink 
Stella - Dixit Universe 
Azul

Thursday 22nd - Aldershot
Durian
Star Trek Chrono-Trek

Tuesday 20th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Dice City - First Play!

Sunday 18th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers 
Love Letter
Just One 
Space Base 
Via Magica 
Carcassonne 
Legends of Hellas 

Thursday 15th - Aldershot
Formula Dé Mini - First Play!
Durian
Trains 

Sunday 11th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers 
Can't Stop
Gizmos 
Just One 
Roll'n Bump 
Tranquillity The Ascent 
Line It - First Play!

Saturday evening 10th Board Game Arena
Bandido

Saturday day 10th The Sovereigns
Cascadia 
Fluxx
Love Letter 

Thursday 8th June - Aldershot
Village Rails - First Play!
Star Trek Chrono-Trek - First Play!
Mint Delivery - First Play!
Scout 
Durian

Tuesday 6th at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club
Scout
Dice Hospital 

Sunday 4th Board Game Arena
Lucky Numbers
Can't Stop 
Love Letter 
Sushi Go! 
Parks 
Just One 
Next Station: Tokyo - First Play!

Player board: Stylised after a notepad of sorts. Each player gets one of these in their player colour. These board are large enough for spaces to hold 2 stacks of cards which are marked as 'stock' and 'split stock'.
They are used to store stock cards that players acquire, stock cards stored here are always stored face-down.

Stock ticker tokens: These ring-shaped tokens are used to track the values of each company's stock.

Stockpile's components are all good quality, the tokens, boards, cards and meeples are what you'd expect from a modern game. They seem suitably sturdy.
Using small, laminated cards for cash is a little unusual but it works.

There's some nice use of colour on the main board which consists of some art that depicts it as a a office desk.
For the most part though, artwork in Stockpile consists of logos, either for the 6 different businesses or the game itself. It's fairly straightforward art but it's also colourful, uncluttered and gives the game a vibrant appearance.

A fairly low amount of Iconography is used in Stockpile. There some icons to represent the different companies and indicate changes in stock value but that's about it. It's all self-explanatory and doesn't present a barrier to players.

How's it play?
Setup

• Game board: Put the game board into the central area and place out the money to create a 'bank'.
  Stock prices: Place the stock ticker token for each companies on their starting spots.
  Turn marker: Place the turn marker on its starting spot on the round tracker, player count will determine which spot it goes on to.
• Cards: First sort the cards into their 3 types (Market cards, company cards & forecast cards.) then give each player 1 stock card from each of the 6 companies. Players should place this card on their player board on the stock portfolio side.
  Finally, shuffle each type of card into it's own face-down deck to create 3 decks
• Players: Give each player the player board and meeple in their colour.
  ​Money: Deal starting funds to each player.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

​On to play
In Stockpile, players will first be creating pile of stocks (Stockpiles if you will!), then they will be bidding on those piles. Furthermore, they will be doing this with limited knowledge of what will be happening to the stock prices and what lies in the piles of stock.
Stockpile is played over a number of phases each round.

• Information phase: Deal 1 company card and 1 forecast card to each player, which they should keep hidden. This means each player knows what will happen to the stock price of exactly 1 company during this round.
  Next deal 1 of each type face-up on their respective spaces on the game board, this represents open knowledge that particular company.
  Finally, with the remaining cards, create a face-down stack of each, these will be revealed later.
• Supply phase: During this phase, the stockpiles will be created, one each below a bidding tracks.
  Player count: The number of bidding tracks used is equal to the player count and thus the stockpiles created will be equal to the number of bidding tracks used.
  First card: Draw 1 card form the market deck for each bidding track being used in the game and place it face-up below its pertinent bidding track.
  This creates the start of each stockpile.
  Deal cards: Now deal 2 cards from the market deck to each player. These should be kept separate from any cards they already have on their player board. They should also be kept hidden from other players.
  Play cards: Now, going in turn order, each player should play both of the cards they were just dealt.
  They can be played in any order to separate stockpiles, or the same one.
  However, one card must be played face-up and the other must be played face-down. This means that stockpiles will end up having some sort of mix of face-up and face-down cards.
• Demand phase: During this phase is where most of the game's activity takes place, players will bid for the available stockpiles which were created in the previous phase using the bidding track.
  The following rules apply to bidding.
  Turn order: Bidding goes in turn order with the active player bidding before play progresses to the player on their left.
  Cash only: During bidding, player cannot bid more than the money they currently possess.
  Bids: The active player may place their bidding meeple on any empty space on any bidding track. A player can even choose to immediately bid on the maximum 25 spot if they wish to.
  any bidding track that has a meeple on the 25 space is considered locked and cannot be subject to any further bidding.
  Other bids: However, if another player has already placed a bid on a bidding track, any bid that follows must be a higher value, it cannot match or undercut the current bid.
  ​Outbidded player: When a player is outbidded, their meeple is returned to them, giving them the opportunity to bid again on their next turn.
  There can only ever be 1 meeple on each bidding track.
  Passing: If a player's meeple is still on a bidding track when it comes to their turn, then they skip bidding for this turn. They are not 'out' though and it's entirely possible that the meeple will be returned in a subsequent round.
  End of bidding: When each bidding track has 1 meeple on it, bidding has ended.
  Pay your dues: Players now pay their winning bid to the banks and collect their cards, this includes any face-down cards.
  Trading free cards, regardless of whether they were face-down or not, will have an effect after being collected which will require the collecting player to pay extra money to the bank.
• Action phase: As well as collecting stock cards and being stung my trading fee cards, players may also collect action cards. All action cards collected must be resolved and this is done in turn order.
  Action cards may either push up the value of a company's stock or push it down, the collecting player chooses which company or companies are affected. Once all actions have been resolved, the phase is over.
• Selling phase: During this phase, players may choose to sell shares they control from their player board to the bank. This can be either from the stock portfolio or split-stock portfolio, although stock in the split stock portfolio counts as 2 stocks, so can be sold for double the normal value. The money gained from selling is equal to the stock value of the company whose shares are being sold.
• Movement phase: After the opportunity to sell stocks in the previous phase, it's time to see how their prices will fluctuate.
  First, in turn order, players reveal their company and forecast cards, then the stock's value for that company is altered accordingly - more on this below.
  Next, the stock value for the company with open knowledge is resolved and finally, the face-down company and forecast cards are revealed one-at-a-time and resolved.
  Forecast cards: These do 1 of 3 things to stock value, they push it up or down by the displayed value or they pay out dividends which earns players with that stock money but does not alter its value.
  There are also 2 further effects that may be triggered by changes to stock values.
  Split stock: If a stock's value is moved above 10, the stock is then split.
  This means the value is reset to 5 and any stock players had in their stock portfolio is moved into their split stock portfolio. Thus the value is halved but the stock is doubled, leaving room for growth later.
  Bankruptcy: If a stock's value goes below 1, then that company has gone bankrupt!
  The value is reset to 5 and all players must discard all stock they had in that company from both of their portfolios, ouch!
• Next round: Move the round tracker to the next spot on its track. The player to the left of the current first player becomes the first player in the following round.
  A new round begins with the next information phase.

Endgame
The game ends when the round tracker reaches the end of its track!
​There are now a couple of final phases that must be resolved.

• Majority: For each of the 6 companies, all players count up the shares they have in that company - split stock counts as double. Whoever has the majority in that company earns extra money. Ties earn a lesser amount.
• Sell, sell, SELL!: All players now sell all their shares back to the bank at the final value shown on the game board.

Players will now only be left with money which should now be counted up.

Values are tallied, highest amount wins.

Overall
Stockpile's theme fits its game fantastically, luckily, it's a theme that seems to translate well to gameplay - I guess that says something about real-life stock trading!
Players will find themselves trying to buy low and sell high - and trying to out do each other with a little bit of 'insider knowledge'.

Mechanically, Stockpile is relatively straightforward and uncomplicated. It does that neat trick of blending simple mechanics with quite deep gameplay, this is due to some extent on how players are actually playing each other and not the game!
There are two key ways players interact with each other.
​
Firstly and most obviously is the auctioning element which always brings a lot of factors to think about: How should I bid for something? Can I run up someone else's bid? Etc
The clever twist here is adding the rules for creating the stockpiles especially since half the cards are always played face-down. It can be used to give someone a nasty surprise or hide something you don't want opponents to have. Conversely, cards can be played face-up dissuade opponents from bidding for a specific stockpile or perhaps lure them into buying pile. This is all of course contextual and requires a player trying to keep an eye what stocks their opponents have been buying.

There's definitely a higher level of play that comes from trying to gauge an opponent's motives. Watching which companies shares they are playing cards into into which stack or bidding for. Or, especially during the selling phase, seeing someone ahead in the turn order dump their stock in a particular company might mean they know something that's going down and maybe you want to try and stymie them or perhaps get in on the action.

There's not much more to add really; Stockpile is an easy to learn game that provides meaningful decisions and lots of player interaction, all of which I found a lot of fun.
If auctioning mechanics are not your thing, Stockpile one to avoid but otherwise, it's definitely one to try.