5 Mini Reviews - Reef Project, Peak Team, The Last Spell, Kutna Hora & Pirates of the High Teas

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex Radcliffe from Board Game Co. And today, I'm going to give you five quick reviews of these, well, five games. I almost said five first impressions. Some of these are first impressions. Other of these I've played a bunch of times, some more than others, but I'll go ahead and give you my quick thoughts on them. And also, hi, Cal. Cal was actually in the chair next to me. I had a chair pulled up next to me cuz he is there. Um but then he decided to hop up once I was giving him attention. So, he gets his little attention right now. Anyways, before we dive into this, this channel is sponsored by All Play. If you go to allplay.com, you can find a variety of games from both them as well as their partner publishers, including Pirates of the High Teas, you can find at allplay.com. This and other games. Go out and check them out. Link down below. But with that said, with these five games, we'll be talking about The Last Spell, the board game, Pirates of the High Teas, The Peak Tea Rangers, Reef Project, and Kutanohora, City of Silver.

0:46 And I'll go ahead and give you my thoughts of these in order from my least to highest how much I like them or dislike them. So, we're going lowest to highest over here. So, saving the best for last, except for Cal. He's the I don't want to be that pet person. He's like, "You should get my You should get my cat on camera." And he's the best, and he's a cutie little smoochums. He is a cutie little smoochums. But I try to I try to let them be in videos without overly spending too much time with them cuz some of y'all are cat people, and some of y'all don't want pets in your board game videos, and I respect that. With that said, let's talk about other things you don't want in your board game videos cuz that's The Last Spell. That was harsh. That was too harsh. But honestly, this game has a lot of issues. So, The Last Spell, The Last Spell of the board game from Tabula Games, I was kind of excited to dive into this one. And And the first problem is the rule book. The rule book is one of the worst rule books I've read in recent years. It has a lots of iconography that's not great, lots of images that are just hard to read. The general rule structure of it is split into like two different rule books, and it's not the easiest to follow everything. It is not a great rule book. But what I also don't know is I don't know how much of that is enabled by the game itself also being kind of tedious cuz even once you get I've only played this once for context. I've played this one time. I'm not giving it a second time. Uh I'm not giving it a second play. Uh the game itself is very tedious as far as the actual game play mechanics. You're basically playing not really tower defense, but you kind of are building up your little city and all of that as hordes kind of enclosing on you and the board shrinks around you.

2:06 It's based on the video game, I assume. I haven't played the video game, but it is it is a video game. But ultimately, the game itself is again, it's it's tedious, it's slow, you don't feel particularly you're like restricted on resources, and you don't have enough mana, your your the shooting mechanics are weird. There's There's so many different small little complaints, but ultimately, you never really feel particularly cool and powerful, and you struggle through a bad rule book to get to that point. So, that's kind of like not my favorite time. Like I debated giving it a second play, but I also know that I've seen other people's opinions of this one, and it's not like, "Oh my gosh, you know." I don't think there's a redemption arc there. I think for me this is a two out of five. Gameplay itself, probably a 2.5 out of five, but I'm definitely dinging it a half a point for a rule book that is a slog to get through. So, a two out of five. I I I cannot recommend this game. I think there's some interesting ideas in there in there, but like there's so many better games that have better rule books, easier to play, less of a slog, and more fun while doing so. Check out Kingdom Rush: A Rift in Time Rising.

3:00 That's like if you want a tower defense game that actually has fun vibes based on a video game IP, that's a great one. Try that out from Lucky Duck Games. Uh skip on The Last Spell, unfortunately. I'm usually not like super harsh in my video in my my reviews. I think most games are pretty good, and so more often than not, the games that are just like, "Meh," are like, "Hey, you just weren't that amazing." But like most games are going to be at least a three. Most games are going to be a 3.5 out of five, by the way. And then above a 3.5 is really like at a four and higher, that's where the recommendations start. Uh but it's not that a 3.5 is a bad, it's just that there's so many 3.5s. But The Last Spell, this is one of those games that I'm like, I'm annoyed. I guess Here's how I put it. Here's how I put it. I play a lot of games, and I like playing a lot of games. I like learning new games. I like trying stuff. It's currently when I film this, I've no clue I've no clue when this video goes up.

3:46 These particular videos go up like whenever. Sometimes they go up like four months later. But But April 24th, 2026 when I'm filming this. That's what? 160-ish? No, no, that's not right. 120-ish days in the year so far? I have already learned over 160 new games this year. I like learning new games. I like playing new games, but most of the time I don't feel frustrated at the time I spent doing so. At best, at worst, at worst I feel like, "Okay, I could have played a better game instead." But it's not a complaint against the good game. I like I like experiencing things. It is rare that I'm like, "You know what? The time I spent on that, I want it back." And the And it's not even like this isn't the worst thing I've ever done. But I The time I spent slogging through the rulebook to get to a mediocre game, I want it back. Anyways, from there, let's go next. What is next? Ooh, this is a I know I know which ones are the last two.

4:35 The next one here, I'm going to go with Kutná Hora. Kutná Hora over here is my second least favorite over here. Although Although I'm not going to be nearly as harsh on this one. Now, Kutná Hora is another one that I only played one time, didn't feel the particular need to play it again. I almost went to top cam, realized my top cam's not on. You're building a city. The city of gold or silver. I almost said city of gold. The city of silver. Kutná Hora is a market How to put this? How do you even explain this game? You're kind of building a city together. You're also kind of excavating the mines together. You're working with a shared market economy. They They call it like the the the the the an something calculator a uh an analog calculator. I don't know. They have this They have these market tracks that are meant to be like, "Ooh, look, dynamic markets." That aren't that interesting. Like I don't really feel a strong sense of, "Ooh, that's super cool." Like if I play a market in a board game, I kind of want to have an insight into how the market works. And I don't really have that insight in this game. Maybe if I played it a bunch more I would, but as it is, it kind of feels like, "Okay, let's do some stuff. The market goes up, the market goes down."

5:30 Don't have a clear association as to what my actions do on the market. So now I'm just playing this weird game of like, "Ooh, look, the market just went down. The market went up." It doesn't feel It feels like decisions you make are based on the ebb and flow of a changing market, which works if you are playing a video game. If you're playing something like, I don't know, let's just give a Age of Empires, I don't know, whatever. Anno 1800. If you're playing your own personal video game and the markets are rising and falling, that feels interesting and fun cuz dynamic resources. If you're playing a board game with other players and the entire 2-hour game night strategy that you have developed is going to feel a little at whim to the not randomness, but the fluctuations of the market that are meant to be more simulated, but not as trackable, it doesn't feel quite as fun in that sense. And the problem is the rest of the game isn't particularly inspiring.

6:15 Now, it's not bad. I'm going to be giving this one a three out of five. I don't regret the time I spent on this one, but I also don't want to play it again because like it's a full game night game and that's I listen, if I'm going to play a two, two and a half hour long game, I want to enjoy it more than a three out of five. Sometimes I I do it anyway cuz reviews, but other times I'm like, you know what? This goes into a video about about games that I didn't feel the need to play again. That's not the whole video, to be clear. That's not. Like some of these games are actually pretty good. Uh but Coimbra, City of Silver, um it it's it's not bad. Also, by the way, the thing that boggles my mind is like it's an 8.4 or something and an 8. It's highly rated on BGG. I don't know if it's an 8.4, that sounds too high. It's highly rated on BGG. People like this game. Everyone I played it with was like, that wasn't the worst thing we've done. It also wasn't particularly amazing. I I I I think it's fine. It's just fine.

7:01 You build a city. You take actions. You do stuff. The automatic calculators move. Nothing I did in this game felt like that was clever. Not a single thing. There wasn't a single moment I had where I'm like, I feel clever. I like feeling clever when I play games or entertained, either of those things. Like party games are more entertainment, other games are more of a feeling clever. I want to feel like I did this and did that and then I either killed 14 zombies or alternatively, I just placed that worker and I got that card and I comboed this and I got three points, but I did it in a really cool way that's hard to do. I want to feel clever in some capacity in games and Coimbra, City of Silver, I just felt like I did the things until the game ended. And then I was like, oh, I think I won, by the way." I'm pretty sure I won. I only say that because sometimes like losing a game can be a like associated with like, "Oh, you didn't get the game." So, like because you didn't get the game, it wasn't fun for you. I mean, maybe I didn't get the game, but I I got it the most from the people at the table. But then again, we all didn't love it, so maybe none of us got the game. That is a possibility.

8:00 Anyways, a three out of five. Moving on from there, we have Pirates of the High Tea. Pirates of the High Tea is is The reason I got this one higher, I'm also giving this a three out of five. I also was not like super wowed by it, but I do think it is shorter, easier to table. This one I did play multiple times because it's shorter and easier to table, and it's fun and simple. It's not like a whole game like that. It's a game. It's like 45 minutes, something like that. It's It's a It's a What's the right term? There's a term. It is contract fulfillment. That's the term. That's the official board game term for this is contract fulfillment. You are trying to fulfill contracts. You take cards, which are like the tea cards, and then you have to get other cards because you're trying to like assemble these combinations of cards. You're serving tea with certain recipes and all that, and you're trying to mix and match it all together to basically the demands of these captains. Also, it's worker placement. You're doing a worker placement spot where you're like, "Oh, I want to get this this turn. I want to get a tea. I want to get recipes. I want to get these things."

8:47 You're trying to figure out what you can do before you go to actually place your worker and serve tea to the captain. Uh it plays out over I can't remember. I think it's like nine rounds, whatever it is, how many rounds it is. But you're basically just trying to collect cards and serve tea, get a variety of bonuses. It's a totally fine game. It's cute. It's charming. The color palette's very nice. It's It's very It's very easy to play. It's very easy to table. I think that this is the kind of game that if this was your first game in board games, or even like amongst your first amongst your first games, I think I'd be much more charmed by this. I think you might be much more charmed by this. I think that the tricky part is for the game mechanics, judging the game by the mechanics, I think that I've seen this done a lot in games, and I don't think this brought anything particularly new to the table for me. So, there's nothing bad about this. I think I would have like again, if this is my first 20 games, or even more than that, my first played games, I might have been "Wow, board games do so much." But I think that as much as I do try to review games and rate games based on how that game stands on its own, it's also hard to not totally disconnect it from the wealth of knowledge I have about playing different games. Pars of the High Tea is just charming. I think you would enjoy it. But I think if you are looking for how where this falls in the stack of all those games out there, to me it's a three out of five. It was cute and charming and didn't do anything special, but it did do it did do worker placement contract fulfillment and it hit those notes totally acceptable. So a three out of five Pars of the High Tea's. Then from there we get into the two that I really enjoyed a lot more, although even these come with some small caveats. We have Reef Project over here.

10:16 Reef Project is a solid game from Board & Dice that the game looks beautiful. The game this is not again another one I've played a few times. Uh the game looks beautiful. Like I debated giving its own honestly both of these I debated giving their own reviews, but I I think it's I'm so far behind where these games have come out that I was like, you know what, I'll just do a round up. Uh but Reef Project it is a there's a lot going on as far as the actual mechanics of the game of building out your own little tableau and like upgrading your like ship and all that and then trying to to place it around the board in a way that chains into this kind of area control element of these different zones. You kind of have these different zones on the board you're trying to enclose. There's a very clever puzzle going on here. It's a very clever puzzle. It's one of those weird games that I think it's like I think it's a solid game. I think it's a solid game. Like if you like it's worth trying this one. If you like Euro games it's worth trying this. You might like it more than I did.

11:05 I did like it. I do like it. I did like it. I do like it. Pick your you know past tense present tense. The only issue this game has is that there's so many great games out there that I'm just not as likely to pull this one off the table for off the shelf for game night. I debated giving this a four to five. I think I'm going to come in at a 3.5 out of five. And I wrestle like I think it's almost deserving of that four. There's a fun Euro strategy game going on here that does reward you for clever play and has a lot of moving aspects and tableau building. And I like tableau building. I like I like any more powerful as I do stuff. Again, I mentioned like what was it? The last spell or what not? No, Kemet or Kemet or like didn't have any of those moments of like, "Ooh, I feel clever." Reef Project has a bunch of moments of feeling clever. It has a bunch of fun things happening in the game as far as how you build out your ship and build and power yourself up while trying to set yourself up for those area control elements in the larger seaboard. Lots of clever fun moments and also great graphic design. It's a good game, a very good game. Still going to come in at 3.5 to 5. That's Reef Project. And lastly, we have the Peak City Rangers. Uh this is an interesting one. This one I played a ton when I first got it. I came back from this to Gen Con, liked it a lot, talked about it in a few videos. I I played through this like six or seven times. Six seven, sorry. I have to. I played through this six or seven times going through every single one of the arcs. It's like a five-step arc just to play the game. So, mission one, then two, three, four, five, and then you've unlocked all the mechanics of the game.

12:27 And then played through a few more times for good measure. The biggest challenge I have with this game is that as much as I've enjoyed it, and I'm going to give this one a four to five. It's a very enjoyable cooperative game in my opinion. I think there's a lot of fun tension. There's like communication and not communication, but there's a lot of card passing. It does get It is very challenging. I do think that I think that my biggest complaints about it are probably that it's a cooperative game of basically card passing cards as you try to each achieve your goals. Lots of fun moments. The decisions of where to place flags and goals and all that as you try to work together with teammates. The decisions of which cards to hold on to, which ones to pass. Lots of fun there. The biggest issues I have with it. Number one is I do think that the arc of the game is best at around like level three. And I kept expecting it to arc up, boys, but like four and five don't really add a ton new. There's like a weather mechanic and all that. It's like I kind of thought there was more happening, and three was probably where it capped out for me as far as enjoyment. And four and five was like, "Oh, here's a new little module to add in." But it didn't really feel like the same level as what the first few levels introduced.

13:22 Um and then secondly is I don't really think it's great with two. I think this really is a three or four player game or five for that matter. There's a lot It's It's better at higher player counts and I just don't I think it's less likely at the table at a higher player counts cuz they usually have a larger roster of other games I don't get to as much. Like if I'm playing at a four player game, there's so many games I don't don't table as much. Versus two and three players, I get so much out of two and three players. It is pretty decent at three. Three's the area where it has the most likely chance of being tabled. But the issue I have is that the people in my game group who are the most common players on my three player games were fine with it and liked it enough, but they didn't like it as much as I did. And so it has gone into that weird state where it hasn't been played in like in like a few months by now. Again, I got it at Gen Con and played it a lot right after that, but it hasn't been played in a bit because I'm not willing to like really fight for it to get tabled and uh my game group is kind of more mixed in it. They're willing to play it, but not like super obsessed with playing it and there's other games we'd rather play at that point. So it falls in that weird space. I'm still going to give it a four out of five. I really enjoy the cooperative play and I do recommend it.

14:21 Um it's just been hard to table because of that player count and my own personal group dynamics. Anyways, those are your five little mini quick reviews. We have The Last Spell. Please save your time. I I I'd check out other opinions, too, cuz like I hate being harsh on games. Like usually if I'm harsh on a game, I will also tell you, but other people seem to like it. But in this one, I don't think other people seem to like it. I don't like it. I think the the rule book was not good. The gameplay is not good and that's an opinion that's not just my own. So um save your money. Try it out at a board game convention or play something else instead. Uh Cthulhu Horror, other people seem to like it. I think it's fine. I just I just there were no wow moments. No wow moments no wow moments at all and it's a long enough game there should be some wow moments. Pirates of the High Seas, a totally fine, accessible intro gateway game. Um just like, you know, even the expansion added some few new pirates with like the captains. I like that. I added that my second play of like these little captains available goals, but overall it it's it's felt a little too straightforward for me. Uh so another three out of five. So two two three three and then we have Me Project at 3.5 out of five, a very solid game that I think you might enjoy. but check it out if you like Euros. And then Peak Team, a slightly whimsical, fun, cooperative game that is simple, accessible, and engaging, a four out of five. Anyways, until next time. I'm Alex Radcliffe from Board Game Co. I hope you enjoyed these videos. I hope you enjoyed this video.

15:34 And as always, I hope you have a good one.