Roll-and-write games are bigger now than they’ve ever been. The runaway success of games like Railroad Ink and Ganz Schön Clever paved the way for more ambitious, complex games like Hadrian’s Wall. There are plenty of games out to the gap between those light and heavy titles, and Rolling Realms is one of the latest.
Tackling On Mars was a daunting prospect. Both in terms of reviewing it, and in just learning how to play it properly. Both have been extremely rewarding exercises though. On Mars is one of the best games I’ve ever played, it’s as simple as that.
Arkosa, the new title from Toon Hammer, plonks you on the titular planet of Arkosa, and makes you try to get back off of it. You see, there’s an opportunity to get off this desert world, but only the most prestigious of colonies gets the ticket.
As you might have guessed, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is a game in the same family as the original board game, Terraforming Mars. This latest game gives itself the label of “The Terraforming Mars Card Game”, which is a bit of a misnomer if you ask me, because it’s no more of a card game than the original game was.
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
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.
