Looking back at 2024, Rise & Fall was one of the few stand-out games for me that a) did something radically different I hadn’t seen in another game before and b) I could see myself actually still playing in five years time. What initially looked like just another over-produced crowd funding game turned out to …
Read more “Origin Stories: Rise & Fall – An Interview With Designer Christophe Boelinger”
Molly House – the brand new game from publisher Wehrlegig (Pax Pamir 2nd Edition, John Company 2nd Edition) – has arrived! As much as I appreciate small, compact boxes, this one was a bit tricky to pack. So here is another quick packing guide. While there are some images on BGG of people squeezing both …
Hi everyone and welcome back to On The Table, my top-of-mind catch-you-up-with-what-I’m-playing format. Here’s what’s been on my table in last two months that I haven’t written about in my normal format yet … or in some cases will never do if I don’t find a good story to tell for a particular game. As …
Read more “On The Table: Greed Incorporated, Wondrous Creatures, Heat: Tunnel Version, and more …”
From time to time, someone asks me if I could add some form of score or pros/cons summary to the end of my reviews. I intentionally don’t do that because I think it works better to read the whole piece and make up your own mind. But the other day someone contacted me with an …
Besides metal coins and inserts – both of which are usually game-specific – poker chips are one of the most popular ways to enhance the playing experience. The most common used variety among enthusiastic board gamers are Iron Clays by Roxley Games. I recently replaced my Iron Clays 100 set with the larger Iron Clays …
Ryan Laukat (and in extension Red Raven Games) is best known for his story-infused big box titles such as Sleeping Gods, Near & Far, or Empires of the Void II. The degree in which story is the driving factor varies from game to game – from being at the forefront in Sleeping Gods to pretty …
Over the past year, I have been on sort of a deep dive, trying to explore as many games from Dutch design duo / boutique publisher Splotter Spellen as I can. If you are not aware of their oeuvre, their games are highly diverse in topics and mechanisms – from managing org-charts of a fast …
Read more “First Impressions of Bus – A Masterclass In Board Game Design”
As part of my continued deep dive into Splotter titles, I finally got myself a copy of Bus as well. Since I wasn’t sure when I would be able to get it to the table, I started designing another solo mode as I’ve done with Horseless Carriage and Indonesia. It’s still in an early stage and …
The base game of Kingdom Legacy, Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom, has been one of my favourite solo experiences of 2024. As a small package of 140 card deck and some stickers, it is affordable yet packs a mighty punch. In 3-4 hours, you’ll build your kingdom from untouched grasslands to castles with knights, astronomers and …
Read more “Review of Kingdom Legacy: Distant Lands – Onwards to New Horizons”
I’m toying with the idea of a more edited, stylised type of playthrough video format. I usually write reviews and do interviews and I always enjoy the story telling aspect of it the most. I want to take that to videos and especially playthroughs. So I’m wondering if there is a way to do boardgame playthroughs almost more like …