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”
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”
Here we go again! It’s finally time for Heat’s first expansion to hit the market and it’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect: I’ve got a couple of days off work, a serious cold is keeping me mostly indoors, and even the weather here in Hamburg has decided to play along and be appropriately dreadful …
Read more “First Impressions of Heat: Heavy Rain – Rainy Forecast Turns Out to Be Sunny With Clouds”
There are many good reasons to be interested in a board game: a unique mechanism that hasn’t been seen before, a great theme, a designer one really enjoys. From the top of my head, I can’t think of a game where the outstanding feature that intrigued me was its play length, but that’s exactly what …
Read more “First Impressions of Last Light – A 4x Stratego in Space”
I’m not much of a conflict/war gamer. Direct aggression just doesn’t seem to be something I enjoy. I tried Blood Rage once and it wasn’t for me, Cubra Libre for some reason gave me headaches, and playing Clash of Cultures put me in a state of such anxiety that it caused me to preventive strike …
Read more “First Impressions of Halls of Hegra – Congratulations, You Lost!”
Can board games be art? What might have been a controversial question back when I started in the hobby has without a doubt by now been answered by a resounding “YES!”. We have more and more artists that no longer are only mentioned in the fine print (or not at all) but are printed on …
Read more “First Impressions of ICE – A Coffee Table Board Game”
To say Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies was my most anticipated game of 2023 would be true, but kind of missing the point: it was my only anticipated game of 2023! I usually don’t “anticipate” games. Sure, I’ve backed a handful of crowd funding projects I would like to play right now, like Pampero or Inventions: …
Read more “First Impressions of Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies – A More Mature Experience”
It all started when the sheer gigantuous box that is the Galactic Edition of Voidfall arrived at a good friend’s doorstep after many months of anticipation. Would I be interested in playing it? Of course! I had been close to backing Voidfall myself but ultimately decided not to, mainly because I couldn’t decide whether I …
Read more “First Impressions of Voidfall – But wait, there’s more!”
I’ve written before how difficult it was to get a copy of Sky Team at Essen this year: it’s not out in Europe yet, there was a lot of interest in it leading to queues forming within minutes of the fair opening, and the publisher Le Scorpion Masqué had only a limited quantity on sale …