Anyone who enjoys strategising over puzzles as a team will find a lot to like in , a cooperative board game challenging up to five people to help the legendary Sammu-ramat fend off threats to the Neo-Assyrian empire. Players can draw on a diverse array of royal advisers with special abilities, such as an Egyptian priestess with healing powers and a spy who can pass speedily and stealthily through enemy territory.
My friends and I barely managed to win before invading enemy armies or a spreading plague overwhelmed us. But even if your empire crumbles, you can pick up the pieces and try again.
I also watched Civil War, a film set in a US riven by conflict, starring actors including Kirsten Dunst (pictured above). I delayed viewing what seemed a fraught choice during the tempestuous election cycle. The film’s foreboding and surreal vignettes, which show what happens when leaders and ordinary people embrace violence to solve political division, are particularly ominous.
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