Board game reviews and previews
Board game reviews and previews
Strategy games
When I first saw the name 'Subastral', I immediately thought "Cool, definitely a space game". I was wrong. Subastral in this context refers to exactly what it describes - below the stars. The focus is our own blue marble, our own speck of beauty on the canvas of cosmic insignificance: planet Earth.
Did you wake up today, and suddenly have the urge to run a railway in the Philippines? No? What if I told you the railways are on Luzon, the largest and most-populous of the Philippine islands? Yeah, I knew it, I knew that'd swing it for you.
Tiny Towns is a damning indictment on urban sprawl, overcrowding, and an ever-expanding society's need for quick, affordable housing! Actually, it's not. It's a really cute abstract puzzle about space optimisation, forward planning, and the most adorable little wooden buildings.
I recently reviewed Wingspan, a game about collecting birds and playing with tons of little plastic eggs. Its designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, was rocketed from "who's that?" to a name that everyone in board games knows. So what's for her follow-up to the birdy game? More birds? More delightful eggs? Nope. We're still playing with animals that fly, but this time it's butterflies.
They say good things come in small packages, and they don't get much smaller than Zuuli, which is about the size of a pack of playing cards. Zuuli is a card game from Unfringed, where players are building and upgrading enclosures at their wildlife parks, while rescuing the animals who'll live there
When Raiders of Scythia landed in 2020, it caused a few heads to be scratched. Garphill Games already had a 'Raiders of' title with 2015's Raiders of the North Sea. Unless you'd followed Scythia's progress, you'd be forgiven for wondering if it was another game in the same vein, a spiritual sequel, or a remake
I really like Z-Ball. It quickly turned from a game I wanted to play a few times to give it a fair review, to a game my son and I take when we go somewhere, because we really enjoy playing it.
Your goal, if ewe can believe it (sorry...), is to jump the fence enough time to send your person to the land of nod, without letting the nasty nightmares get to them first.
If you've been around the board game scene in the last couple of years, there's a good chance you've already been exposed to Wingspan. It caused huge ripples when it landed in our pond, like a less-than-graceful duck coming in for a landing
The premise of this abstract game is simple. You play the roles of deckchair attendants aboard the infamous ship, and your goal is to appease the First Class passengers who want prime deck space for their deckchairs.