Contributor
TheCuttlefish
Cares about the box, the insert and the rulebook as much as the game. Has a particular weakness for tidy rules and gleeful take-that.
🎁 2 kudos from readers
238 reviews
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Review 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight
1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight made for a hard, slightly dated railway introduction with newcomers, yet it still held the table. At three players, it seems to find its strongest reason to exist.
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Review Battle for the Deep: Powered by Axis & Allies
Battle for the Deep: Powered by Axis & Allies puts asymmetric sea-going factions on a cramped map that quickly gives everyone something to fight over. Dice can ruin your day, but when they behave, the brawls have real bite.
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Review Farms Race: Deluxe Edition
Farms Race: Deluxe Edition starts with the familiar business of spreading out for resources, then hands the table dice, karate and nuclear weapons. It is not asking to be taken seriously; it is asking for a group willing to laugh while it wrecks one another’s plans.
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Review Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Board Game
A faithful, substantial Heroes of Might and Magic III adaptation with smart battles and a ruthless appetite for time. It is a good night out, but the box wants the whole evening, and not every scenario earns it equally.
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Review Frozen Frontier
Frozen Frontier is a brisk economic resource-management game in which exploring a new stretch of galaxy means making temporary alliances and fighting hard for control. It has real depth without leaving anyone parked between turns, and enough variety to stay fresh.
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Review Pipeline
Pipeline remains a thoroughly solid, demanding game for a group willing to wrestle with a network of pipes. Emerging Markets adds goals with enough oddness to give the session a welcome extra kick.
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Review Burning Banners
Burning Banners is a wild asymmetric fantasy battle game that asks for real preparation before it starts paying back with memorable stories. It is not a conventional wargame; it is dice, spells, and scenarios with enough momentum to overturn a table.
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Review Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game
Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game understands that the RPG’s real currency is mutual destruction, though it asks the group to endure some fairly blunt cruelty first. With the right crowd, its chaos develops a crooked sort of strategy and a proper laugh.
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Review Worms: The Board Game
Worms: The Board Game brings the computer game's weapons-grade hostility to the table, although it asks for rather more thought than it ought to. The collector edition is hard to justify, but a cheaper version could be a very good proposition.
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Review Vinyl
Vinyl is a light record-collecting game with action selection and a pleasing amount of traffic around the shop. The base game makes for an enjoyable first listen, even if its editions and expansions create needless confusion.
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Review The Ruhr: A Story of Coal Trade
The Ruhr: A Story of Coal Trade is a tight, knotty economic Euro with no spare room for anyone. Its slide on BGG has done nothing to reduce my willingness to put it back on the table.
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Review Slay the Spire: The Board Game
Slay the Spire: The Board Game is a far better tabletop adaptation than I expected. At three players, it delivers brisk cooperative runs, clean arithmetic, and the kind of shared planning that keeps everyone involved.
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Review Keyflower
Keyflower remains a group favourite, though Merchants can grow teeth when some of its buildings meet the score-doubling rule. The answer is already on the table; you simply need to remember to use it.
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Review Skyrise
Skyrise is an easy continuous-bidding game with plenty of room to get in each other’s way. Racing, area dominance and Roxley’s usual production quality turn a three-minute teach into a properly lively table.
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Review The Barracks Emperors
The Barracks Emperors is a lean, deceptively nasty GMT trick-taker that turns feral with the right four players. It is less convincing below four, but at full strength it is an easy blind buy.
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Review Age of Steam
Age of Steam is a formidable game, provided you match the map to the group. Germany at five delivered proper conflict, sustained pressure, and a generous helping of table bullying.
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Review Inventions: Evolution of Ideas
Inventions: Evolution of Ideas already looks capable of standing beside Lisboa and Gallerist after two plays. Its rulebook is poor, but the game itself is far cleaner and more approachable than the warnings about brain-burn suggest.
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Review Battle Line: Medieval
Battle Line: Medieval is trick-taking with knights: quick to teach, brisk to play, and far tenser than its plain premise suggests. For two players wanting half an hour of direct conflict, it is an exceptionally honest choice.
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Review Starship Interstellar
Starship Interstellar asks for a long teach and a long first game, then pays that investment back with real decisions and a close, talkative finish. It is a large game that does not mistake exhaustion for achievement.
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Review Fallen Land: A Post Apocalyptic Board Game – 2nd Edition
Fallen Land: A Post Apocalyptic Board Game – 2nd Edition is a sprawling post-apocalyptic sandbox that has been properly tightened up without losing its ridiculous stories. It will not suit every table, but genre devotees should pay attention.
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Review Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game
Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game arrived under a cloud of suspicion and left me admitting, rather inconveniently, that I had enjoyed it. It is silly and random, but with the right people it produces real laughter and, at higher difficulty, a decent amount to think about.
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Review Prime Minister
GMT's Prime Minister gives political ambition an accessible, highly thematic frame. Its betrayals have bite, but the game can take long enough to wear that bite away.
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Review 18 India
18 India brings a modern wrinkle to the 18XX table in a shorter, more approachable package, but its draft and muddy rules can bite very early. It is not a bad game; it is a game that needed rather more care than it received.
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Review Nucleum
Nucleum is a large, busy euro that keeps everyone occupied and hands out rewards with impressive regularity. It is not an easy teach or a flawless design, but heavy-game groups will find an enormous amount to explore.
