Review: Fantasy Defense
You’ve probably heard the story before; elves and humans working together to fight off the invading orcs. You may know the story, but have you ever taken part in the story? In Fantasy Defense that is exactly what you get to do. And just like most of those stories, you are woefully unprepared. I mean, seriously, most of your troops are mediocre at best and that best rarely shows up.
Review: Yamataï
Yamataï… A strange name for a game that’s both beautiful to look at and to play. But nevertheless that is exactly what it is, a true beauty. In Yamataï you’ll spend your turn acquiring ships and placing them on the main board to build buildings and score points. But watch out, each move you make might help your opponents out too.
First Impressions: Thieves Den
There are certain publishers that have earned my attention whenever they publish a new game and Daily Magic Games has done just that. All of their games are visibly spectacular, but what I love most about the games I have played of theirs so far, is their elegant simplicity without taking away strategy. Thieves Den is no different in these regards
Review: Welcome to
Welcome to… Postwar America! Confident that a bright and prosperous future now lies ahead, America’s population experiences an exponential growth – the so called “Baby Boom”. To provide affordable housing for the numerous young families, investors take on large building projects in the cities’ suburbs. In Welcome to you play as rival architects; each allotted 3 suburban streets to develop into a congenial residential area. Will you become the architect of the future?
Gen Con 2018
I’ve been to Grand Con, Washingcon, Portal Con, Origins, UK Games Expo and even SPIEL, but I had never been to Gen Con, so when the opportunity presented itself to go, I was all in! Similar to a bunch of other people, I used the Tabletop Together Tool to plan out all of the games I was interested in even a slightest bit.
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.
Review: Chimera Station
I’m not an alien, but if I was, I like to imagine I would be the kind of alien who could change my body parts to whatever suited my every whim or fancy. Ok, so maybe I have never actually thought that, but after playing Chimera Station by Game Brewer and TMG. I kind of do think that is the kind of alien I would be. Since I will, most likely, never become an alien I’ll have to settle for creating a space station with my fellow aliens in Chimera Station.
Designer Spotlight: Dávid Turczi
Dávid Turczi is one of the most diverse designers out there. He keeps on making completely different games with different themes and mechanism. That in itself makes him a very interesting designer, but not only does he make very different games, he also makes great games. Let’s see what he has to say.
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.
First Impressions: The Mind
The hype is real. The Mind from NSV has been taking over the board game community by surprise and a lot of vocal boardgame ambassadors on social media are advocating its greatness. Now that The Mind has actually been nominated by the famous Spiel des Jahres award, even more attention is drawn to this small game from Wolfgang Warsch. Is the jury out of their mind or is it legit? Is The Mind even a game? A social experiment? Magic? Or soon to be forgotten after the gimmick wears off…
Review: Riga
Travelling is a hobby of mine, and one of my favorite things to do is visit cities that aren’t the biggest tourist destinations. So when I saw a game named after Riga, the Latvian capital, I was immediately intrigued. Riga is the third installment in Ostia Spiele’s Baltic city line of games after Visby (reprinted as Santo Domingo) and Tallinn. Essentially, in Riga, you collect resources and erect buildings to become the master of trade, but it is how you do this wherein the fun lies.
UK Games Expo 2018
Going to any convention requires some planning and preparations, and UK Games Expo 2018 was no different. In addition to all the things you normally do when you travel somewhere (pack clothes, money, passport, book flight and hotel) I always spend a lot time reading up on games.