You remember what trials I went through trading my Battle Cry for a copy of Nexus Ops located in America?

Well, I finally broke the shrink wrap off Nexus Ops and played it through solo, and you know what? It was really worth all that hassle!

This game is such great fun, even solo. With other players it must be fantastic! It's the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree that started with Risk and went on to spawn Axis & Allies, Twilight Imperium and the rest. Ignore the Hasbro label - this one's been really well thought out. Easy to learn, quick to play, lots of incentives to get stuck in and attack, interesting special cards and special powers for the units. And I love the dayglo bits as well, the game looks really striking on the table. I suppose I would love it even more if the hexes were planets and the bits were spaceships, but that aside, it looks on first sight pretty much perfect for its genre.

Now to try introducing it to my local group of dyed-in-the-wool Eurogamers.....