But that’s my game nights and I have always considered Legacy as a fantastic concept that personalizes the gaming experience, forges that group bond further and the result is a tailored game that literally stands as a testament to your endeavors.

That said, something happened this year that’s affected gaming nights for everyone; our gaming circles became a little smaller and they certainly became a lot more familiar as social-distancing changed our routines and kept us closer to our nearest and dearest.

But this is when Charterstone finally came to my table and I kick myself and apologize profusely to Jamey for leaving it so long!

The mechanics are so perfectly light that the youngest (and eldest) members of my family gaming night grasped the concept instantly. The learning curve is steady and when changes come they don’t add panic and confusion, but instead add flavor, fun and variety to the game.

These campaigns are perfectly manageable – at around 1 hour these are lunch hour bites of entertainment which is even better for younger audience who can lose interest swiftly.

The concern over wasting money on a non-replayable game? That’s perfectly countered by the fact this is 12 gaming sessions in 1 box – I have shelves of games that I’ve barely played a handful of times.

So to have 12 hugely enjoyable sessions is completely justifiable on my wallet.

And the fact Stonemaier have a double-sided board included as standard and a cheap recharge pack on hand to start a whole new adventure – perfectly ingenious and perfectly fair!

Now before this turns into a total fanboi moment, Charterstone isn’t a perfect game for everyone. Many will rightfully grumble at the lack of replayability given its cost, or that it is on the lighter side of worker placement for many seasoned gamers.

But light worker placement doesn’t mean a lack of depth, in fact there’s a lot of strategy and opportunity at play here. For example by careful selection of your buildings you’ll be able to set up strong engines that form action combos to generate tonnes of VP and by having the most VP you will ultimately control the story!

Replayability well that’s the nature of Legacy games and not a weakness of Charterstone itself, in fact the game doesn’t prevent you from playing passed the 12th campaign, you just continue to play against the landscape you’ve formed.

Personally I don’t see myself ever playing in this way as the biggest driver is defining the story of your village; that’s not to say I wouldn’t start all over but this does involve the purchase of a recharge pack.

An expansion pack for new campaigns would be a perfect solution but that’s the sad part… just when I’ve found and fell in love with the World of Charterstone it seems this is very much a One and Done title for Stonemaier and that’s a real shame as I’d love to continue my journeys throughout this newly formed world.

With that in mind do I feel Charterstone is value for money – well…

From its Mr Cuddington Artwork (which will always win me over) to the superb components and those weighty tactile coins, the entire presentation is luxury and justifies the price point.

In fact the entire unboxing experience is almost ceremonial, akin to the thrills of opening the latest gadget from a certain Cupertino tech company and shows that this has been a passion project from start to finish. So well done Jamey it’s another stamp of quality for Stonemaier Games.

But what’s the experience I take away from Charterstone? It has to be said I had expectations and it really has accomplished what I hoped it would – it provided hours of fun, brought the family closer to my gaming world and left us with a momento of our adventures together.

I’d say that given the right time and the right people, this game has so much enjoyment to offer that I believe everyone should try to make some time in their life and experience Charterstone.