I backed this game on kickstarter on a whim because it was so cheap ($19). But now it's hard to get hold of and is probably double that price. I don't normally like roll and writes, which probably comes from my dislike of dice in general, but this game is so good.

Components

There's not much that can be said for components in a roll and write, it's paper and pen, right? But this one is twice as good as your average roll and write because it has two sheets per player - both different. The custom die are nice and the wooden markers used for the solo variant are of decent quality.

Gameplay

This game is what you'd expect, you roll the dice, you mark your sheet. However, the intricacies in some of the choices are amazing. Pick a die because you don't want the other player to get it, get X now, so you can get Y later, which will give you Z. The engine building aspect really appeals to me and the combos you can pull off can be crazy as per "ganz schön clever". As you get toward the end of the game, you'll find one die ends up with 9 or 10 marks on your sheet. I've played this solo and I've played with my son, who understood the rules at age 7 and still gives me a run for my money - although I switch the rules so he goes first every round to balance a bit.

AI/solo mode

Playing solo against the AI is a different experience, almost paradoxically so. Usually in solo versions of multiplayer games, you end up taking away the interactive nature of it. But this AI goes from being a multiplayer solitaire to a quite aggressive 'mess your board up opponent'. The AI doesn't have their own sheet, but blocks the spaces on your own sheet. I found myself racing the AI in some cases to get things built quickly before I got blocked. It feels a little of a non-issue at the start of the game, but when it gets to round 7-10 you certainly wish you made different decisions at the start.

Overall

My favourite roll & write. I'd recommend for either multiplayer or solo. I'd like a better win condition for solo than 'beat your own score' but not sure how else it would work. The theme is decent here, which makes the game easy to learn - everything comes back to fishing.

This game has been on my list for a while, and I finally took the plunge and got it. I was not disappointed. I haven't manged to play multi-player, but the solo experience is immense.

Components

First off, there are a lot of then. Disks, cards, cubes, markers, workers amongst others, but they're good quality. The disks are a bit fiddly and the tableau could have been indented to allow for them to stay put, but apart from that, everything works well. The imagery and iconography is good and mostly intuitive and you feel like you've got your money's worth for how much comes in the box. One minor point - the box is just a box, there's no insert or organising so everything is messy in baggies at the moment but nothing some foam core can't fix.

AI

The AI (Jean) does a fairly good job of mimicking human players and it feels like you are making meaningful decisions based on what Jean does. She doesn't score/accumulate resources in the same way as a human player but that just makes the upkeep somewhat simple. Once you get the AI in your head, you can easily do their 'turn' in a few seconds. One minor drawback of the AI is that (particularly on easy mode) you know what they're going to do because of the limited card deck.

Gameplay

Once I got the rules down I could play a game in less than an hour. However, the setup still takes some time (15 minutes ish). The decision making is interesting and you are force into different strategies based on the cards you get. Long term planning isn't too easy as the game is over fairly quickly. You have a choice of either taking it steady and eeking out as many actions as possible or racing to the end to beat Jean to those extra VP. I found myself thinking about multiple strategies/long term goals and simply not having the time to complete them. I wonder if extending to 6 rounds instead of 4 would be viable.

Story

The 'story' mode adds another aspect to it. Although the narrative is pretty poor, the story tiles themselves are pretty powerful so you end up trying to get to these. It also changes the board slightly so each game can be different in subtle ways. Jean doesn't really interact with the story, other than it slows her down slightly.

Overall

I'm happy with the game. I'll likely play solo to at least the end of the story and probably more with just the base game. It's a classic euro game with tableau/hand management and a really good decision making point. I think it would be excellent as multi-player but would recommend as a solo game.

Azul is one of the many 'grown up' games that children can play quite easily and it's proved a big hit in our house.

The premise is mainly one of colour matching, but the strategy is quite deep and once you've played it a few times it's clear to see why it rates so highly on BGG. Thinking where you can play tiles to get the most points, whether to finish the game or gamble on completing a row the next turn.

My seven year old son loves it. And why should children be restricted to crappy roll-and-move games from their favourite TV franchise when there is quality games like this that both parents and children can enjoy together. He's yet to fully grasp the strategy, but he understands the rules and enjoys playing it. What more can you ask?

I've been a huge fan of board games for a few years now, ranging from social deductions games such as Secret Hitler to more complex stretegy games such Arkham Horror. I love sitting down with a game and playing. However, I've never had a game that I would call my favourite. I had games that I liked to play in certain situations and with certain friends, but not an actual one favourite game. Until now.

Spirit Island is just brilliant. It had been on my wish list for so long and I wish I bought it earlier. Everything about it seems to be so well thought out and perfectly balanced. It's puzzle solving aspect and quite predictable nature feels so incredibly engaging.

It is a co-operative game, but works brilliantly well as a solo game. You don't feel as though you're missing out on anything and the tactics and decisions still feel as in depth. When playing with multiple people, 'quarterbacking' is not an issue because it's just not possible due to the sheer number of decisions and permutations there are. The downside of this is that it's tough to play a multi-handed solo game.

Whilst the learning curve is steep and the number of rules to start with overwhelming, the rulebook is well written and lets you almost just jump straight in. You can leave out some of the more complex stuff and add it in a bit at a time. Then, once you've mastered the base game there are scenaios, adversaries and, of course, the expansion.

I am so impressed with this game, that it is the only game (outside of MTG) that I've bothered sleeving the cards and organising and storing the pieces in a careful way to make it durable for a long time.