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• Let's start with news of a game that first debuted in Germany in late 2021:
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Devir has obtained the Spanish-language license for Reiner Knizia's Mille Fiori from originating publisher Schmidt Spiele, and this edition will be released sometime in 2022. What's more, Devir has also picked up the English-language license for Mille Fiori, and it anticipates getting the game onto the North American market in October 2022.
Obsessive BGG database watchers might have spotted an English-language edition of Mille Fiori from Schmidt Spiele, and Devir's Matt Hyland clarified that this version of the game will be released in Europe, Asia, and other locations, whereas Devir has the game's English license for North America.
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• In Ouch!, from designers Romain Caterdjian and Théo Rivière, 2-5 players try to grab sets of cacti flowers by literally grabbing cards. On a turn, you pick up a card by the edge of your choice, then flip the card over. If you grabbed a side lined with cacti, then OUCH! you have to discard the card; if not, you add the card to your collection. Each card shows 1-3 flowers, and the number of cacti edges generally matches the number of flowers, so you can go for a fairly safe 1-point cactus or play it risky.
The game ends when the deck runs out or someone has ten cards in their collection. Each flower is worth 1 point, each set of red/white/blue/purple cards is worth bonus points, and whoever has the most red flowers (the rarest type) earns a bonus.
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In the game, you start with one card in hand and a row of three cards on the table. Each card shows a 2x3 grid, with a space in the grid containing a type of food, an empty pallet, or mice. On a turn, play your card in hand or a card of your choice from the row into a personal layout of cards. You can overlap the cards as you wish so long as you retain a grid structure to how they're laid out. If you played from your hand, you draft a face-up card to end your turn, then reveal a new card.
Once everyone has laid out eight cards, each player determines the type of food that they want to score, then everyone scores for this type of food. Your score for a food is the number of distinct groups of that food multiplied by the number of crates in your largest group of that food; in my layout close to the camera, I have 14 points in bananas (2 groups x 7 bunches in my largest group), and everyone else has been shafted for bananas, so I'm definitely going to score that food, although we each have two more cards to play at this point. Empty crates are 0 points, and rats are -2 points, so try to squash them with crates to keep your score up.
I've played Magazynier a handful of times, and it's a clever little game with you trying to build up lots of groups so that you have options of what to score, while leaving open the possibility of scoring from what someone else chooses. Go banana!
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• Walkie Talkie is a real-time co-operative game for 2-8 players from designers Shei S. and Isra C. in which you're trying to play out all the cards in your hands. Each card shows a color on one side and a letter on the other, and you shuffle the deck so that you have an even mix of colors and letters face up.
Each player has a hand of cards, and one color card and one letter card are placed face up on the table, then you begin play, with a time limit of 30 seconds per player and with everyone playing at once. You can lay down a letter card if you can name something starting with that letter that is the face-up color, so I could play the N and say "Night". You can play a color if you name something of that color starting with the face-up letter. If someone is dissatisfied with their hand or players feel stymied, someone can say "Over!", and everyone turns their hand of cards over to reveal the colors and letters on the opposite side.
When time's up, you score points for the stars on played letter cards, then subtract 1 point for each unplayed card.
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• Home Sweet Home (or Not) is a co-operative game due out in Q3 2022 from Paul Peterson in which 2-5 players need to complete the objectives of one of the five scenarios. The home in the game is comprised of rooms that nest together inside the box, with you assembling the rooms in different ways based on the current scenario. From the BGG game page:
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Each player represents a family member who must spend action points to recover objects from the rooms and return them to their correct places according to the mission. Will you be able to get all of the stuff out of the rooms and into the attic before the aliens abduct you? Can you help Santa Claus load all of the presents into the sled that's parked in your garage?
• The Red Cathedral: Contractors adds contracts to fulfill, additional game boards, different materials (e.g., diamonds), and new guilds to help you complete tasks to 2020's The Red Cathedral from Isra C. and Shei S. This expansion is due out in Q3 2022, and Devir hopes to debut it at Gen Con 2022.
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