When a friend asked me whether I could pick up a copy of Asian Tigers for them while I was at SPIEL Essen 2024, my first thought was: why haven’t I heard about this game? My second thought – after looking up picture on BoardGameGeek – was: of all the games available, you want me to …
Read more “First Impressions of Asian Tigers – Abstract as Abstract Can Be”
I have been thinking about the following on and off for a while now: what was the year 2024 as a whole like when it comes to new releases? Was it good, average, bad? And what are the outstanding games we’ll still be playing many years down the line? Perhaps it’s just me, but it …
I just started playing Creature Caravan but didn’t like the automa that comes in the box. It doesn’t use its card effects, it doesn’t really interact with the player except for the side boards, and it took me a bit too much out of my own turn. And in the end it’s rather random which …
I was always curious how well my BGG blog (which is basically a cross-post of this website minus the reviews) is doing. Granted, it’s a bit childish and this isn’t a competition, but putting hours upon hours into writing makes you wonder if anybody is reading it. So far, there hadn’t been a good way to …
To say I’m a fan of publisher Floodgate Games’ output would be a bit of an overstatement, but they are on my radar and so far I have been quite fond of their output. 2022’s cooperative hourglass-turning Kites was a beautifully illustrated game about keeping kites up in the air. It looked gorgeous and charming, …
Read more “First Impressions of Landmark – The Better Codenames?”
After much waiting and a couple of false news alerts, the latest expansion for bike racing game Flamme Rouge is finally really here: Grand Tour is available for purchase. For some unknown reason, this expansion has been multiple years in the making – or rather waiting as there were multiple times where it looked like …
Read more “Review of Flamme Rouge Grand Tour – A Beautiful Swan Song”
So I did a post around this time last year that was quite popular about the behind the scenes financial stuff when it comes to me writing reviews. It also contained some high level reflections on my gaming year. This is basically the same but for 2024. For those that don’t know me, I usually …
Read more “Financials of a Hobby Board Game Reviewer – 2024 Edition”
The action-selection, combo-driven, point-salady Euro as a sub-genre has definitely become overcrowded in recent years. I for one had my fair share of games that worked well mechanically but were ultimately forgettable and without any stand out moments, one play being the same as the next, always leading me to the same question: why should …
Read more “First Impression of Galileo Galilei – Being Good Is Better Than Just Standing Out”
Euro games are a tricky category to design in. While their focus on balanced game play and avoidances of direct player conflict has given them immense popularity over the years, those strong points have also caused a lot of new releases to feel bland and interchangeable. Why should one care if one is building churches …
Read more “Origin Stories: Barcelona – An Interview With Designer Dani Garcia – Part 1”
Everybody likes an underdog, especially if it looks this pretty! Stamp Swap by Stonemeier Games hasn’t been out for long but it’s BGG rating has already dropped to a 7.2 and most reviews I’ve seen are somewhere in the “it’s not for me” (also known as the “I got this as a review copy and …
Read more “First Impressions of Stamp Swap – Sometimes The Right Framing Is Everything”