Paradox

EvEvanstar3,5

This is an interesting, puzzily game. On each turn the first thing you do is a 'take cards phase'. Cards are big points if you collect sets of same letter. to get those points you need to clear bits of your grid just like in bejeweled. This is a 5x5 token grid of assorted colors. Each turn you get 2 actions to swap 2 tokens with matching letters, and they clear when you have 4 of 5 of a color in a row. You swap from your own board, or this ever changing 3 token public pool in the center. Meanwhile you have this planet track that has planet tokens with letters matching your cards and a disaster token that rotates. When the disaster lands on a planet it flips to the red side meaning that the cards that match the letter don't score. Two of your colors let you unflip or protect a planet. So the big question for me is how many of your bad turns boil down to your own efficiency problems vs luck of the draw? Hard to tell. The downtime between turns is long, especially with 4 players. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ☆ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ☆ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment