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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Vinhos: An Excellent Vintage

Many popular board games today are praised for being highly accessible and easy to learn, simple yet fun. Vinhos is not one of those games. It seems fitting that such a rich and complex game is about wine; a beverage which is notorious with being connected with elitists and enthusiasts, whose value seems to only […]

Carcassonne – Abbey & Mayor: Farms? Where we’re going we don’t need farms.

Carcassonne’s plethora of expansions each seem to have their own purpose. Inns & Cathedrals was meant to add more risk into the game while Traders & Builders added more rewards for growing and finishing cities. Princess & Dragon added a destructive element to the game while The Tower provided a more combative experience. The purpose […]

Stone Age: Tribal Tedium or a Prehistoric Pleasure?

Stone Age is a game of worker placement, resource collection, and civilization building. There are many other games with these same ideas. So is Stone Age special, or is it just another run of the mill Eurogame designed to bore your pants off? Let’s find out, shall we? Looking into the game mechanics without going […]

Small World: The Next Big Thing

Designer games have exploded onto the board gaming scene over the last decade and as a result board gaming has never been so popular. The success of these designer games has been propelled by three particular games: the Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride. These are the tent-poles of the Eurogame movement. The […]

Zooloretto: Strategy in Camouflage

Zooloretto looks like a children’s game. And at first glance is may seem and feel like a children’s game. By behind all the flashy colours, underneath the furry spots and stripes, beyond the cute and cuddly animals, lies a game which is full of strategy and wit. The game may be quick and simple, but […]

Carcassonne – The Tower: Tensions Rise High

Hollywood has a number of franchises which are mainstays of the movie industry and continue to come out with new entries; star Wars, Harry Potter, James Bond, etc. This also exists in the world of board games, and no franchise is more dominant than the Carcassonne family of games. Carcassonne seems to come out with […]

Carcassonne – Traders and Builders: Now With More Bacon!

Bacon has the ability to make almost anything better; put it on a cheeseburger and its better, wrap it around a filet minion and its better, crumble it up and toss it into a Caesar salad and its better. Likewise, the second Carcassonne expansion Traders and Builders, along with its brand new pig-shaped meeples, makes […]

Carcassonne – Inns and Cathedrals: A Textbook Expansion

Lately, the movie industry seems to be swamped with sequels. Sequels have become extremely popular among Hollywood execs and almost any movie has the potential for one. The board gaming equivalent to the movie sequel is the board game expansion. And just as sequels seem to have been the rend this decade, so to have […]