Welcome to our monthly roundup of the best new board games. This time around we’re building shrines and palaces in ancient Japan, stuffing ourselves with delicious pizza and growing magical flowers in a surprisingly cut-throat gardening contest.



Yamataï

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yamataï sees players compete to build shrines and palaces across a kingdom of scattered islands. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

2-4 players, 90 minutes, RRP £49.99, age 13+

Designers: Bruno Cathala and Marc Paquien

Ancient historical accounts tell of the realm of Yamatai: a mysterious archipelago kingdom off the coast of Japan, whose queen, Himiko, was elected to the throne at the age of 14 after generations of male rulers had brought nothing but war and chaos. To add to the overall sense of drama, she was also said to dabble in sorcery.

It’s difficult to imagine a setting with greater mythological mystique, so it’s surprising to find that Yamataï the board game is all about the construction industry. It casts players as rival builders competing to earn the queen’s favour by erecting prestigious structures across her domain. If that sounds a little underwhelming, though, don’t worry. It turns out that building projects in Himiko’s realm are quite a bit more interesting than your neighbour’s ill-advised conservatory.

Each round of the game sees fleets of supply ships arrive laden with wood, clay, bricks and bamboo, and you’ll have to jostle with opponents to secure the materials you need to complete buildings. Once you’ve procured some, you’ll need to build supply chains to different islands through the labyrinthine network of shipping lanes that criss-cross the archipelago. To make this easier, you can piggyback on routes already established by your opponents. But this means they can do the same thing to you, and expanding into new areas of the map always carries the risk of opening up opportunities for your rivals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest To build on islands, you’ll need to supply them with an assortment of different materials. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

Along the way you will also be able to recruit the services of specialists – powerful allies who grant you new abilities, letting you raise more money, claim extra resources or rearrange ships on the board. Different combinations of specialists can be incredibly powerful, and it means that the game evolves as you play, forcing you to alter your tactics and ensuring that no two play-throughs are likely to feel the same.

It’s reminiscent of Via Nebula, another game of competitive route-building, which I fell in love with last year. But Yamataï comes with an added layer of chewy complexity, and while that means it’s not a game I’d recommend for inexperienced players, it’s perfect if you’re in the mood for something elegant, beautiful and tactically challenging.

Lotus

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lotus, by husband-and-wife team Jordan and Mandy Goddard, sees players compete to grow magical flowers. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

2-4 players, 30 minutes, RRP £27.99, age 8+

Designers: Jordan and Mandy Goddard

A game of magical gardening, Lotus sees players attempting to obtain supreme spiritual knowledge by cultivating a collection of enchanted flowers. Don’t let the tranquil premise fool you, though, because behind this thin veneer of serenity lies a merciless fight for horticultural domination.

You’ll start the game armed with a deck of cards, each showing a single petal from an array of different blossoms. On your turn you’ll be able to play some of these to the table, laying petals on top of one another to gradually grow them into finished flowers. Multiple players will have the chance to contribute cards to each growing bloom, but place the final petal on any flower and you’ll get to scoop it up to add to a scoring pile, where it will earn you points at the end of the game.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest In Lotus, players build flowers one petal at a time, but knowing the right moment to play cards from your hand can be tricky. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

It all sounds simple enough, but it’s not the only thing you’ll have to consider. Cards played from your hand also come with power symbols, and the player with the most of their icons on a flower receives a bonus when it’s completed – either in the form of points, or special abilities that grant them advantages over their rivals. They will get this even if another player places the final petal, and it means that a play that seems advantageous could be just as beneficial to an opponent.

It also means that every dainty and delicate orchid becomes a miniature power struggle, with players battling to boost their own influence and cut off their opponents. It makes for a tense, competitive atmosphere, and it does it with a minimalist set of rules that make the game ideal for families – as long as no one minds when things start getting a little cut-throat.

New York Slice

Facebook Twitter Pinterest New York Slice casts players as rival pizza chefs, and appropriately enough, it comes in a pizza box. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

2-6 players, 30 minutes, RRP £29.99, age 8+

Designer: Jeffrey D Allers

Few things in life go together as well as game night and pizza, so it’s only natural that someone should have come out with a board game that celebrates the greatest foodstuff known to humanity.



New York Slice puts you and your friends in the shoes of aspiring pizza chefs, each aiming to prove themselves as the true maestro of mozzarella. Each round sees a new pizza placed between players, built from randomly shuffled slices with a selection of different toppings. Every round also puts a new player in charge of dividing the slices into portions, and while there has to be one for everyone around the table, there’s no requirement for all of them to be the same size.



Players take turns choosing the portion they want for themselves, and while the obvious move might be to grab the biggest slab of steaming, cheesy dough available, in practice, things aren’t quite so simple. To win you’ll need to collect sets of matching slices, and the toppings available on every turn are just as important as the volume you manage to pack away. You’ll also pick up bonus points for grabbing helpings of pepperoni, and lose them if you find yourself stuck with anchovies.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest New York Slice is the only board game that’s ever made me feel hungry just by looking at it. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

What’s most clever about New York Slice, though, is that the player responsible for dividing a pizza gets the last pick of the available portions. It means you’ll need to think carefully about how you split up slices, trying to ensure that no matter what your rivals pick, you’ll be left with something appetising when your turn comes around. Getting it right takes the wisdom of Solomon. But where the biblical king only had to intervene in a trifling dispute over a baby, this is serious. No one gets between me and my spicy chicken and jalapeno special.