Have you ever thought about the effects of pollution in medieval Italy? I sure hadn’t. But Joris and Jeroen – better known as Dutch design duo / boutique publisher Splotter Spellen – definitely have! And as always, they ended up with a game that is challenging, punishing, and quite different than anything else out there. …
Expansions are always tricky to write about. Some of you might never have played the base game and be curious to learn if the combined game is now something they should check out. Others already have played the base game extensively and come with a whole range of expectations what an expansion should and should …
Read more “First Impressions of Anno 1800: The Expansion – A Welcome Update to Version 1.2”
So Antiquity from Joris & Jeroen (a.k.a. Splotter Spellen) is an amazing game. But it comes included with a free mini game I like to call “how many bowls can you find in your apartment?”. There are so many bits and bops to get out and put on the table that it made me wonder: …
There are a number of issues I had with Foundations of Rome‘s solo mode “Gardens of Ceres”, chief among them that Ceres doesn’t integrate some essential aspects of the multiplayer experience and that it only comes with cardboard tiles where everything else in the game is a nicely designed miniature. I already tried to address …
Read more “3D Printed Miniatures for Foundations of Rome – Gardens of Ceres”
Hi y’all, I’ve crossed the milestone of 50 published reviews a couple of weeks ago. If you know my style of writing, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that this took me almost 2 1/2 years! To celebrate, I thought it might be nice to do a “where are they now”. I always like …
So I recently got my hands on a 3D printer, something I wanted to do for ages. I was hesitant to do so for two reasons: However, I came across an upgraded Prusa Mini+ for a very reasonable price, so I thought I give it a shot. Long story short, I actually got into printing …
With the release of the first expansion “Roads of Fortune”, I’m bringing Foundation of Rome more regularly back to the table and am once again realising: the official solo mode “Gardens of Ceres” still isn’t that appealing to me. Before designing a completely new automa, I wanted to give Ceres a few more tries and …
I’ve been enjoying publisher Sit Down!‘s output for a while now. They first came on my radar with 2017’s collaborative no-speaking supermarket heist Magic Maze and since then I’ve both enjoyed my plays of competitive minesweeper-style Tiwanaku and the gorgeous, nature photography themed Redwood. While definitely more on the lighter end of the spectrum of …
Read more “Review of Maps of Misterra – Forest? What Forest … ?!?”
Vital Lacerda, master of interweaving mechanisms, has given us a new game, hurray! Vital is one of only a handful designers for which I actively seek out to try as much of their oeuvre as possible: Ryan Laukat, Vladimir Suchy, Jeroen & Joris from Splotter, Vital Lacerda are all designers that constantly seem to challenge …
Read more “First Impressions of Inventions: Evolution of Ideas – Chains, Chains, So Many Chains”
I enjoy keeping my finger on the pulse, checking out what new games get released, what new mechanisms or themes get introduced to the hobby. As someone who writes about games, it’s gratifying to do deep dives into games that just came out and help them find their right audience. It’s a similar story on …
Read more “First Impressions of Indonesia – Beating the Competition”