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 …
Ever since discovering John Company Second Edition and Carnegie, I’ve become interested in board games that have some historical foundation. While Carnegie was merely inspired by the name-giving philanthropist and has little resemblance of the actual, complex and controversial person that was Andrew Carnegie, both games inspired me to buy books on their topics and …
Read more “First Impressions of Votes for Women – Board Games as a Medium to Tell History”
I would venture to say that Vladimír Suchý and Delicious Games have cracked the code for SPIEL Essen. Same as with Woodcraft the previous year, they had managed to create a high level of anticipation for their new game Evacuation before the fair even started. But many other publishers managed to do that part as …
Read more “First Impressions of Evacuation – When a Single Cube Was All You Needed”
The other day, while I was playing Barcelona, I was wondering: what made me fall in love with games like Grand Austria Hotel, Suburbia and or more recently La Granja. They don’t have the most mechanical perfect designs. They have artwork I enjoy a lot, but they are no artistical masterpieces I would frame and …
Read more “First Impressions of Barcelona – Putting the Charm Back Into Euros”
I have the feeling I need to preface this one with a huge disclaimer: More than any other game I can think of, Mr President is first and foremost a interesting challenge. It’s a challenge to learn, a challenge to play, a challenge to write about. And I’m not even sure I’m the right person …
Do you know the feeling when you play a game and wonder “why on earth did I buy this”? Not in a bad way, just seriously asking yourself what made you do it. On paper, For Northwood is a 1p-only (so far so interesting), trick-taking game (not particular exciting stuff) with art that could be …
Read more “First Impressions of For Northwood – Trick Taking for One?”