Essen-time is soon upon us! This year, the kind folks of SPIEL have provided me with a press pass, which is a huge milestone for an independent reviewer like me. For all the years – or shall I say decades – I’ve been going to Essen, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to …
This issue of Origin stories is special for a number of reasons. I’m talking to Stephen Hurn, a designer who’s name you might not recognise but who’s contributions to the hobby you will have experienced when playing Martin Wallace’s Anno 1800: The Board Game and it’s recently released expansion. He has been deeply involved in …
Read more “Origin Stories: The Anno 1800 Solo Campaigns – An Interview With Designer Stephen Hurn”
I ran into a number of situations where the automa behaved oddly. So here is an attempt to patch them a bit with minimal rules tweaks or clarifications. I’ll update this post as I evolve the automa changes. Hope you like them! Last updated: Sep 1, 2024 General Barbarian (Yellow) Climber (green) Pirate (blue) No …
I’ve published my Recommendations For Solo Board Games in 2023 over a year ago and it has been surprisingly popular. So I guess it’s time to do an update and throw out some new recommendations based on games I reviewed, new additions to the collection, and classics I got back to the table in the …
The Kickstarter project Rise & Fall is currently in fulfilment and it comes with a ton of components. There is also additional packing material in the box to protect all the wooden pieces during shipping, which can make it confusing to get everything back in the box. This small guide hopefully will help you find …
Sometimes, surprisingly, the BGG games market can be a source of inspiration for me what newly released games to try. With every pre-order or crowd funding project that is being fulfilled, someone inevitably will have had their life situation changed between backing and receiving a project … or they found that they didn’t get what …
Read more “First Impressions of I, Napoleon: Swipe Left for Conflict”
Ah, Kickstarter, you gotta love it. Sure, we all had our fair share of duds over the years but overall it’s always been an enjoyable spectacle for me. From the videos listing upcoming games to the hype-inducing previews that more often than not made me wonder “what were they thinking?” when I held the final …
Read more “First Impressions of Pampero – How Many Plays Do You Owe A Game?”
After playing the original Pandemic for over ten years, struggling with mutating viruses and terrorists in Pandemic: On the Brink, and upending the usual way to cure things with Pandemic: In the Lab, the prospect of digging into another version of the all to familiar Pandemic seemed daunting to me. Pandemic has rightfully become a …
Read more “Review of Pandemic: Rising Tide – You Saved the World, but Can You Save the Netherlands?”
In recent years, board games have made some giant leaps when it comes to their production. Just look at an ICE or Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies, they are pieces of art! Despite my interest in Lacerda games and fondness of Foundations of Rome, I’ve come to dread giant Kickstarter productions though. Sure, they might look …
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. …