Board game reviews and previews
Board game reviews and previews
Chip Theory Games, who make Too Many Bones, have a reputation for putting premium games with massive replayability out in the market. Was the hype justified? And maybe more importantly for my readers - is it a good game to get, even if you're a die-hard Euro gamer? Can you still have fun without farming or running a fishery?
Jonny Pac is the cowboy-hat-wearing designer of Coloma, Sierra West, and one of this year's big hits, Merchants Cove. He's also the developer on the current Dranda Games Kickstarter, Solar Sphere. Here's what he had to say.
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.
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.
With the numbers of board games released each year growing by thousands, there's a lot of cardboard trying to grab your attention, and the quality of the rulebook can mean the difference between a smash hit and a damp squib.
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.
If you're a fan of modern board and card games, there's a feeling you've probably experienced at least once. It's when you know you're going to be in a social gathering where people might want to play games, but - SHOCK! HORROR! - they aren't gamers!
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