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 Resurgence
Resurgence dresses a tough medium-weight euro in the ruins of Moscow, and thankfully the theme is doing more than decorating the box. It is a polished, slightly unusual production with an economy that keeps everyone under pressure.
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Review Minecraft: Heroes of the Village
Minecraft: Heroes of the Village is a solidly made, very simple set-collection game that can get a five-year-old to the table. Older children may find that the suspense runs out rather quickly.
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Review Peak Oil: Profiteer
Peak Oil: Profiteer is the welcome exception from a publisher that had not quite won me over before. It is short, direct and properly nasty once the table fills up.
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Review Dirty Money: The Money Laundering Game
Dirty Money has a cracking premise—laundering cash through art and property—but leaves that premise doing most of the heavy lifting. It is pleasant for a game and good for a few laughs, yet it does not make much of a case for coming back.
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Review Age of Civilization
A minimalist civilisation filler that gets thought, noise, and a lively group into half an hour. It seems happiest with three or four players, where the table has something to push against.
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Review Lawyer Up
Lawyer Up is an interesting two-player companion that improves once the first game is out of the way. In Case 00, repeat plays give the card pool and witness order enough context to make the contest properly tense.
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Review Brides & Bribes
Brides & Bribes is an old-fashioned, cheerfully ruthless climb through Genoese society, where marriage is simply the tidier form of attack. It is a little fussy in the hands, but a useful thing to keep ready when five people turn up.
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Review Firefly: Misbehavin'
Firefly: Misbehavin' arrived under a cloud of suspicion and turned out to be a pleasing surprise. It is a thematic faction deck-builder with real player pressure, and it is not shy about letting a crowded table get messy.
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Review The Shadow Planet: The Board Game
The Shadow Planet: The Board Game is a relaxed semi-co-op deduction game with handsome pulp art and a few genuinely fresh ideas. Its first play is spent finding the edges of the rules, but there is a pleasingly suspicious game waiting on the other side.
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Review Front Line No Komrades
Front Line No Komrades is a Soviet-flavoured party-game twist on Guillotine with some good ideas, but not enough development to carry them all. We laughed, but it outstays its welcome and its flavour text promises more comedy than the game delivers.
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Review Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Xia: Legends of a Drift System is a remarkably convincing space sandbox: messy, random, and quite willing to turn into a missile fight. Its freedom comes with downtime, especially once the table grows.
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Review Pingyao: First Chinese Banks
Pingyao: First Chinese Banks is far better than its bruised reputation suggests: a tight, competitive dice-placement game with genuine economic pressure. The English rules need patience, but the game earns it back.
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Review Conquest & Consequence
Conquest & Consequence promises a more immediate and combative three-player contest than Triumph & Tragedy. On first contact, though, its rules manage to stand between the players and the game.
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Review 878 Vikings: Invasions of England
878 Vikings: Invasions of England is a rowdy invasion game where dice arrive by the bucketful and bold timing matters more than keeping a cool head. It deserves more attention, provided you are prepared to be tried and sentenced by English peasants.
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Review Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain 1085-1086
Almoravid retains the striking thematic pull of Volko’s system, but makes you work too hard before the campaign can begin. Its lords and battles are strong; its supply rules are still getting in the way.
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Review 1822CA
1822CA is a heavy, demanding game, and a very good one for a group that wants its auctions to have teeth. Its Canadian wrinkles make it more complex than 1822, so it is better treated as a next step than an entry point.
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Review Ascension: Deckbuilding Game
Ascension: Deckbuilding Game shows its design seams more clearly once everyone at the table knows what they are doing. It is still a deep, lively choice for a proper scrap with two or three players.
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Review Dead Reckoning
Dead Reckoning gave our table cannon fire, aggressive rivalries, and a victorious Mariposa determined to make purple look unbeatable. Its campaign still lands just short of the finish its journey seems to promise.
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Review Red Flag Over Paris
Red Flag Over Paris feels like a clearer step on from Fort Sumter, but my first play did not uncover enough game beneath its cards. I am not writing it off; I would simply like to see what an experienced opponent sees in it.
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Review Seeders from Sereis: Exodus
Seeders from Sereis: Exodus is a weighty, unusual engine builder where building your own machine sits alongside bidding, hostile card powers, and plenty of scope for hard feelings. It stands apart, but it needs a group willing to take the hits and play it often enough to learn its deck.
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Review Hellenica: Story of Greece
Hellenica: Story of Greece treats ancient Greece as a loud mythological toybox rather than a history lesson. Get the right large group around it, though, and it delivers brisk conflict, plenty of noise, and remarkably little waiting.
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Review Twilight: 2000 (4th Edition)
Twilight: 2000 (4th Edition) drops the Forbidden Lands engine into a world already swallowed by war. It is a careful, grounded military RPG with enough tactical pressure to keep everyone at the table alert.
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Review Rococo: Deluxe Edition
Rococo: Deluxe Edition is an older euro with plenty of life left in it: light engine building, resource management, and just enough room to deny someone at the right moment. The jewellers make it more accommodating without removing its teeth.
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Review One Card Wonder
One Card Wonder is an ultra-light civilisation bag-builder about getting your wonder built before everyone else. It has real bite at lower player counts, provided you leave the leaders mini expansion out of the box.
