Review: Battlefold
A game with a central mechanism of folding a piece of cloth? And a take that-ish fighting game on top of that? What is this madness? It is madness. But Battlefold is just so much fun.
Review: Pikoko
What do you get when you cross a trick taking game with plastic peacocks? a fan-tastic card game… But what if you add in a hint of Hanabi and turn everything on its head and add some bidding and guessing? An even more fan-tastic game. Which incidentally is also the game Pikoko, the subject of this review.
First Impressions: Teotihuacan – City of Gods
When I first got into board gaming, the first heavy game I played was Agricola. The second heavy game I remember playing was Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar. A brilliant twist on the worker placement mechanism with great production value and a lot of fun.
At UK Games Expo 2018 I got to demo a prototype of the upcoming, spiritual successor to Tzolk’in. The tongue twisting game called Teotihuacan – City of Gods.
Review: Planet Defenders
In Planet Defenders you are controlling 3 robots trying to defend 9 planets from malfunctioning robots. As the theme might lead you to believe, this isn’t a very serious game. But does it have enough interesting decisions to warrant a recommendation?
Review: Ice and Sky
Ice and Sky is my wife’s favourite game (and she doesn’t like a lot of games) and it’s a really interesting thematic and mechanical game. So how does it play and how much do I like it?
Review: Vinhos Deluxe Edition
Vinhos is my first Vital Lacerda game. As a eurogamer I had long wanted to try out a game from his hand. But for many reasons I had never gotten around to it. But when I got my hands on the Vinhos Deluxe Edition I couldn’t wait to get it to the table, anxious to find out if this heralded designer was something for me.
Review: Heir to the Pharaoh
Heir to the Pharaoh is a two player game with many layers. It is a lush production (especially the Kickstarter version). It has great components and great art. Heir to the Pharaoh is a somewhat light abstract-ish game with a really cool and original bidding mechanism.
Review: Undercover
I picked up Undercover at Essen SPIEL ’16, right after playing it there. Since then I have already played it numerous times. Undercover is a fun abstract tile laying and flipping game. It has a somewhat pasted on theme about being agents, or double agents, and setting up meetings with other agents. The game takes around 30 minutes and plays (well) with 2 to 4 players.
Review: 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis
13 Days is a game about getting through the Cuba Missile crisis without starting a nuclear war. It is a game about coming out on top in the world opinion after the crisis and it is a game of clever timings and bluffing.
Review: ZhanGuo
In ZhanGuo you are officials who work for the first Emperor of China. You try to help him with unifying the warring states (ZhanGuo). You have to unify the writing system, create a political system, keep civil unrest under control and at the same time help construct the Great Wall of China to stop the barbarian hordes from invading, and thus by creating security, also help creating the state; the Chinese Empire.
Review: Stockpile
When monopoly was originally released it was created as a critique of capitalism. I don’t know if the creators of Stockpile had similar intentions, but none the less they have created a game that functions as such. It exposes the absurdity and volatility of the stock market while at the same time being a brilliant, fun and engaging game that in my opinion could and should cross over to the mass market.
Review: Barony
At its core Barony is really an abstract strategy game with a medieval theme pasted on. Or rather, I would presume that is what many would say. Some of the best games out there distil a theme to its most abstracted level. Some call these games theme-less, but to me it is always about how the game makes me feel. If the game makes me feel like I am walking through a desert in its mechanics then I don’t need any amount of flavour text or in-game personas to feel like I am playing the theme.