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
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.
Cooper Island is an unusual Euro game that marries worker-placement and tile-placement, along with a bit of resource management.Each player is developing their own peninsula of the oddly-shaped island, and resources are in short supply.
This special feature looks at the games produced by The Dark Imp, and designer Ellie Dix
Ragusa is a meaty Euro game from Braincrack Games and designer Fabio Lopiano. Players are developing the titular city, generating the precious commodities of the day, trading, importing and developing the city walls.
I’m of a particular generation that can’t see a gondola without singing “Just one Cornetto….” in my head, thanks to TV advertising in the 80s. Fortunately, thanks to the Venice board game, I now picture little cubes instead. It’s a start.
Buckle up folks, we’re going hop-growing in Bavaria! Hallertau is the longest continuous hop-producing region in the world, and in this medium-heavy game from Uwe Rosenberg, we’re going back to 1850 to develop our Bavarian villages and try to be the biggest and best.
If you’re reading the name of the game over and over, and trying to figure out how to say it, you’re not alone. Tawantinsuyu is the latest in a series of games from Board and Dice with fun-to-say names that begin with the letter T. Let’s see what this heavyweight Euro game has in store for us.
A week or so ago I wrote a blog piece about hype, looking at why games are forgotten so quickly in this hobby. One major reason is that aforementioned hype, and getting swept along on the wave of The Cult of the New. The other though, in my opinion, is the crazy rate of progress and evolution in board games.
Way back in 2013, Stonemaier Games published a worker placement game called Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia. Fast-forward six years and they released an expansion called Ignorance is Bliss. Here’s what happens when you put them together.
The lovely folks at @alderac sent me Whirling Witchcraft, which I'm really enjoying. It's basically an engine-builder in the style of something like It's A Wonderful World, but with the aim to overload your neighbours' boards when you pass these gorgeous cauldrons around.
3I've been playing Arkosa, from @toonhammergames , and I've had a lot of fun. If you'd like to know more about the bunker-building alien eurogame, take a look at my preview - https://punchboard.co.uk/arkosa-preview/ . Well? What are you waiting for? Potter along now.
I love this talk by @gengelstein . The psychology of loss aversion and choice is so interesting. I'm sure there are plenty of board game designers out there even now who could take so much away from it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1YcCcBVfY
