Dear Readers,

I hope your New Year is starting out wonderfully!

I was able to play several games over the Christmas into New Year’s week, but won’t be inundating you with them all at once. Just warning you – the holly table cloth* will be around for several posts.

We played Tiny Epic Galaxies with some dear friends earlier this week. I knew the Tiny Epic games were all very different but I had only played Tiny Epic Western before.

It’s a cute, compact dice-rolling game. I enjoy dice rolling games, but don’t often fare well with them!

The Tiny Epic games are rather inexpensive and have a slim box, which makes them great for taking out to a friend’s house.

The ideas behind this game are rather straightforward- you are trying to progress your planet’s empire and accrue more Victory Points than the other players.

You progress your empire by:

• Landing on planet cards to utilize their unique abilities
• Colonizing those planets (which gives you Victory Points)
• Spending culture to copy other player’s actions
• Spending culture or energy to buy upgrades (additional ships, additional dice, and Victory Points)
• Following your secret goal (Chosen between two)

Here’s the breakdown:

• Players: 1-5

• Play time: 30 Minutes

• Age: 12 +

• By: Gamelyn Games

Here we go- I’ll rank it on Accessibility, Mechanics, and Engagement.

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Accessibility ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌑

Where this game loses a point for me is the visuals. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautifully designed game that really pushes the space aesthetic. The problem is readability: small futuristic fonts and a heavy reliance on icons, a trap many games fall into.

One player stated at the end that he didn’t realize what one of the icons meant when he selected his goal, so that effected his game play.

The colors are pretty bold where it’s important, but the graphics are gorgeous. I think I would want to at least give it a look with EnChroma glasses.

On the box it says ages 12+, but it’s so straightforward that this seems very conservative. A younger child who reads well could definitely enjoy this game.

Mechanics ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The mechanics are very simple. On your turn you roll dice. These dice have the following symbols:

• Land a ship
• Energy
• Culture
• Advance Economy
• Advance Culture
• Utilize Colony

You have one free re-roll for as many dice as you would like, afterwards you strategically use them by placing them on the Activation Bay card. Any other players may spend culture points, as kept track of by

Engagement ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This game is quite entertaining. The turns are quick, and since you may “follow” another player’s actions and repeat them when it’s not your turn, it’s beneficial to pay attention. It wasn’t boring, and overall was a short, fun game.

Tiny Epic Galaxies is available on Amazon. It started out on Kickstarter and they have various other games. Still #notsponsored. 😉

Happy Gaming! Play On!

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* Please excuse the crumbs and cat hair. With three cats, every piece of textile we own has ingrained cat hair in black, white, and tabby. As for the crumbs, we had just eaten dinner and are apparently quite messy eaters.