Thunderworks Games Dawn of Ulos - Economic Strategy Tile Placement Game, Roll Player Tale, Thunderworks, Ages 14+, 1-5 Players, 60-90 Min

Those of you who have been in the board game hobby for a bit might know of a game called Tigris & Euphrates. It's great. It's also out of print. Dawn of Ulos plays like the child of Tigris & Euphrates and another older game called Acquire. And I dare say, it's so good that it can go toe-to-toe with either of them. For those of you who haven't heard or know anything about the previously mentioned games, I would describe this game as the following: 1. Aggressive. It is not for the conflict averse. 2. Medium weight. Probably about the same difficulty to learn as Wingspan or Settlers of Catan. It's harder to learn than Ticket to Ride. Easier to learn than Horizons of Spirit Island. 3. Economical. The goal of the game is to get the most amount of points. Most of your points will be earned in a stock market, so to speak. Basically you'll spend points to back various factions, then march them off to war against each other, and hope to take profits based on who wins and loses. It means you need to be willing to take some big risks, and be able to stomach going from first to last place in an instant (but you can also go from last to first, and that feeling is euphoric). You also need to understand that you aren't playing as just one faction, but rather every faction on the board is available for you to exploit for your own personal gain. This idea is can be confusing for a lot of players who aren't used to thinking this way as most other games have you controlling just one character or army. Gameplay aside, the publisher did a nice job with the presentation. Every component looks and feels nice. A big surprise was that it's also one of the few games I've gotten that come with a usable insert. The minis look very good, especially if you go the extra mile to paint them. All in all, very impressed on both fronts from the designer and publisher.