Contributor
CaptainObvious
Loves the games everyone already owns and the strategies everyone already knows. If it is popular it is on the table, and if it is exploitable it has already been exploited.
16 reviews
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Review Bunny Kingdom Town
Bunny Kingdom Town is a quick, strictly two-player city builder with resources, small engines, and a fair bit of luck in its objectives. It does not reinvent anything, but it teaches fast and plays pleasantly.
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Review Shards of Creation
Shards of Creation is a trick-taking game that lands easily with younger players, then gives them reasons to reach for its more demanding parts. It is simple to enter and has room to grow with the group.
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Review Toy Battle
Toy Battle is a very clever two-player game: easy to teach, quick to get moving, and kept fresh by its different maps. Children can take it to their friends and teach it themselves, which is about as strong a recommendation as you can get.
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Review Unmatched: Teen Spirit
Unmatched: Teen Spirit makes a strong case for short, thematic duels. It works especially well for a parent-and-child game, provided you do not begin with one of the more complicated characters.
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Review Azul: Queen's Garden
Azul: Queen's Garden is a hex-tile drafting game that landed far better than I expected. It moves briskly, gives you proper decisions, and makes scoring feel worth chasing again and again.
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Review Castle Combo
Castle Combo looks like a game for younger players, yet it landed far better than expected with a table of adults too. I would recommend it without hesitation to eight-to-ten-year-olds looking for something light and mentally healthy.
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Review Monkey Palace
Monkey Palace combines LEGO building with resource gathering in a clever, approachable game for children around 6–12. A few production cards are noticeably too strong, but it delivers exactly the sort of table experience it promises.
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Review Flip 7
Flip 7 is pure push-your-luck with a little take-that seasoning, and it makes no claim to be anything grander. Meet it on its own silly terms and it can become alarmingly hard to put down.
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Review Carcassonne
Carcassonne is still the family game that turns one field into a small argument and a neatly completed area into a proper triumph. The first two expansions add useful depth without losing sight of the simple idea at its centre.
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Review Art Society
Art Society turns an auction and an art-wall puzzle into a quick, welcoming game with more thought in it than its rules suggest. It is easy to teach, easy to bring to mixed groups, and satisfyingly clever once the scoring comes into focus.
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Review Fleet: The Dice Game
Fleet: The Dice Game makes fishing with dice and a marker feel like the obvious thing to do. It is a roll-and-write that works beautifully for younger players and adults alike, especially at three or four.
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Review Point City
Point City keeps Point Salad’s clean immediacy, then turns it into a simple engine builder with a little more depth and some welcome counterdrafting.
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Review Hidden Leaders (Kickstarter Edition)
Hidden Leaders is a quick hidden-alliance game that turns gleefully loose at six players. Its ending still does not quite work for me, but later plays made its audience impossible to miss.
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Review Cascadia
Cascadia is the sort of AEG family game that wins you over immediately: handsome, clear, and full of small decisions that matter. It is 2021’s Point Salad with wildlife, landscapes, and scoring that stays fresh.
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Review QE
QE is a very simple economic party game that does not chase depth, but knows exactly how to make the right group enjoy itself. It is the sort of game that earns its place in a collection.
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Review Grand Prix
Time has not changed my first impression of Grand Prix. Put plenty of people around the table, though, and it finds its purpose.
