Board game reviews and previews
Board game reviews and previews
Medium-weight games
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.
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
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
We're heading back to Garphill Games' West Kingdom, taking a look at the first game in the trilogy. I started the series with Paladins, then Viscounts, and now I'm looping back around to the game that started it all - Architects of the West Kingdom.
Ride The Rails, from Capstone Games, takes the 'invest in a train company' formula and boils it down into a much simpler, quicker game. It's from a sub-genre known as Cube Rails, and it's number 2 in Capstone's Iron Rail series
Through a mixture of placing tiles and rolling dice, players assume the role of a character in each scenario, and choose how best to fulfil their own destiny, while others race to do the same.
Looks can be misleading. The first time you take a look at Root's box and artwork, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a cutesy woodland game.
The aim of the game is to either grow your clan large enough to form the nation of Bjarmia (I googled it, it was a real thing), or kick enough ass to win through sheer dominance.
Santa Monica is a game where you're trying to develop a neighbourhood in South California, and trying to choose the features which will score you the most points.