Ticket to Ride: The Heart of Africa

At this point, Days of Wonder have fully committed to the Map Expansion idea for expanding their most popular game, and the third such package takes us to Africa, the fourth continent to be visited by these coloured plastic trains. Unlike the previous two map packs, this is not a double board. As such, it […]

Small World: Royal Bonus

Small World expansions have always excited me, as I love getting new races to add to the variety of the gameplay. It seems limitlessly expandable, so long as you can find new ways to create different abilities within the rules. So when Days of Winder ran a kickstarter for the Small World ipad app, I […]

Steam

There are some themes that board game designers are drawn to far more than others: medieval times, fantasy adventures, war simulations. Trains is definitely one of those themes, one which countless games have been made for and which has been an important part in our current board game history. Steam is a product of this […]

The Settlers of Catan: Explorers & Pirates

While games these days seem to come out with expansions every year, Settlers of Catan, with its rich 20 year history, only needs an expansion every 5 or 6 years it seems. Mind you, it has lots of spin-offs and the like, but the last proper expansion to the same was back in 2007. Then […]

Agricola

In the world of board games, the reputation of some titles just demands a certain level of respect. Agricola is one of those titles. It created a lot of hype when it was released back in 2007 before it made the transition from Europe to North America, and when it did it rose to the […]

Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Conflict

  Cosmic Encounter is a game that has had many versions and may expansions over its 37 year history. However Fantasy Flight’s latest version really seems to be the definitive edition, which has up to five expansions thus far. The first to be released was the excellent Cosmic Incursion Expansion. Today I will be looking […]

Vivajava: The Coffee Game

A Blend That’s Great, Even with Eight Vivajava is my hidden gem story. I ordered the game without really knowing how it worked. I just liked that it was about producing coffee. But low and behold, what I ended up with was a fantastic game that quickly became a hit among my group of friends. […]

Power Grid

A Renewable Resource of Great Gaming In the fast-moving popularity contest which exists within this hobby, it doesn’t take many years for a game to have lasted to be called a classic. In the case of Power Grid, which just had its 10th anniversary, it is a status that is well-earned, whether or not you […]

Ticket to Ride: Asia

A while back, Days of Wonders decided to start the Ticket to Ride map collection, providing new map experiences without requiring players to purchase entirely separate games, like they did previously with Europe, Nordic Countries, etc. Their first offering ventured into the exotic continent of Asia. The Asia Expansion includes a double-sided board with two […]

Dominant Species

Boardgaming Evolved For a long time there was a divide in the board gaming hobby between Eurogames with their economic designs and dry themes and American games with their more militaristic, aggressive nature. But every once in a while, a game with bring the two crashing together like a force of nature. Dominant Species is […]

Small World Realms: Bigger and Better… Well, Bigger At Least

Small World is one of my favourite games and has proven to be easily expandable. Most of the expansions coming out have included new races and powers, as would seem obvious. However, a small group of fans clamoured for more map expansions, and so Days of Wonder released Realms. Realms allows players to make their […]

Alhambra: A Moorish Bore?

In this climate of a board gaming hobby being inundated with massive numbers of new games every year, to continue to be a prominent game in the culture after ten years is an impressive achievement. Alhambra has managed to do so. This Spiel Des Jahres winner continues to be discovered by new gamers and maintain […]

Dominion: The Fourth Pillar of Boardgaming

Since the turn of the century, the board game industry has been booming. The boom began with the rising popularity of 1995’s The Settlers of Catan, and 2000’s Carcassonne picked up where it left off, introducing gamer’s to a whole new style of board games. A few years later in 2004, Ticket to Ride hit […]

K2: Reaching Thematic Heights

When K2 was released in 2010, it didn’t cause much of an uproar, more of a small trickle than an avalanche. However, it deserves far more attention than it has been given. It is a wonderful race game which is heaped in its mountain-climbing theme. If you like thematic games, pay attention. K2 is rich […]

Puerto Rico: The Ultimate Eurogame

The board game boom in the last decade was ushered in by the rise of eurogames: games designed for deep strategy with interesting mechanics, a de-emphasis on the role of luck, and tighter gameplay. Settlers of Catan kicked off the trend, and ever since games have been released which have tried to master the elegance […]