Barcelona: Passeig de Gràcia

First Impressions of Barcelona: Passeig de Gràcia – As Before, Good Timing Is Everything

Aaah, Barcelona! It’s been many, many years since I’ve been in this beautiful city, but I still have fond memories of it: Sitting in the Parc Güell, visiting the brilliant Gaudi museum inside La Pedrera, or in general strolling through the city and being amazed by its architecture. All those beautiful moorish-inspired private gardens on …

Rise & Fall Board Game

First Impressions of Rise & Fall – There Might Still Be Hope for Crowd Funding

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’re browsing through Kickstarter projects, skip over a whole bunch of projects that look just plain boring or like another fulfilment disaster waiting to happen, and suddenly you stop. You’ve found a game that looks amazing! The visuals speak to you, the production is lavish, and the few sentences …

Anno 1800 expansion

Origin Stories: The Anno 1800 Solo Campaigns – An Interview With Designer Stephen Hurn

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 …

I, Napoleon

First Impressions of I, Napoleon: Swipe Left for Conflict

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 …

First Impressions of Pampero – How Many Plays Do You Owe A Game?

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 …

Pandemic Rising Tide

Review of Pandemic: Rising Tide – You Saved the World, but Can You Save the Netherlands?

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 …