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.
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274 reviews
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Terracotta ArmyTerracotta Army is a polished medium-weight euro with worker placement, gentle competition, and the pleasant brain-burn of having to reconsider your plans. It is not essential for every collection, but it is an honest and clearly recommended choice.
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Peak Oil: ProfiteerI gave Peak Oil: Profiteer one last chance, mostly because it is short and works well with five players. Thankfully, it is an honest, easy corporate-grab game with plenty of chaos and reversals.
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VerdantVerdant is a pleasant, beautifully presented follow-up from the team behind Calico and Cascadia, but for me it sits a step behind the latter. Beneath its lovely plants and relaxed look, it has enough bite that a casual approach is not always forgiven.
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CarnegieBy my fifth or sixth game of Carnegie, I am still uncovering new strategies through its departments. And as that interest holds, I increasingly want to try the variable setup too — but first I need to settle a small suspicion about one very strong opening.
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Lawyer UpLawyer Up is a very interesting two-player game that, while not exceptional, improves greatly over repeated plays. For now I prefer it to Radlands, even though I have only seen Case 00.
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Brides & BribesA slightly old-school hidden worker-placement game about Renaissance Genoese families, full of secret missions, sabotage, and thoroughly unhumanitarian ambitions. Fiddly but enjoyable, and particularly valuable as an option for five players.
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War of the Triple AllianceA light, quickly teachable wargame about South America’s greatest bloodshed, focused on troop manoeuvres rather than dice rolls. It is not the best in its genre, but it is an honest and suitably historical-feeling offering.
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The Red CathedralThe Red Cathedral is a breezy, approachable euro that manages to offer thought without becoming tiring. The Contractors expansion is clever and rich, but it noticeably shifts the game toward something heavier.
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Firefly: Misbehavin'I approached Firefly: Misbehavin’ with plenty of suspicion, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. It is a thematic faction-based deckbuilder with lots of interaction and a fair amount of chaos, especially with four players.
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The Shadow Planet: The Board GameA relaxed semi-co-op deduction game with pulp looks and a few genuinely clever ideas, though it needs one exploratory first play before it starts showing what it does well.
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Xia: Legends of a Drift SystemXia is an honest, enjoyably chaotic space sandbox: it can deliver exploration, trading, and cannon fire in the same session. Randomness and downtime are real thorns, but the freedom of its system makes them easy to forgive.
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BitokuBitoku is a spectacularly overloaded euro which, despite its initial chaos, eventually makes sense at the table. Beneath its parade of systems lies a very good core, but to me it is not as polished as the hype suggests.
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Catherine: The Cities of the TsarinaCatherine: The Cities of the Tsarina is an honest, approachable tableau builder with several paths to victory, without demanding the mental investment of Furnace. It is ideal when I want something more substantial than point salad for a more casual group.
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Pingyao: First Chinese BanksPingyao: First Chinese Banks initially made me worry about my Kickstarter pledge, but on the table it proved to be a tight, highly competitive dice-placement game. The rules need some patience, yet there is a real game underneath them.
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Conquest & ConsequenceConquest & Consequence promises an even more explosive three-player confrontation than my beloved Triumph & Tragedy, but on my first encounter its rules became the real obstacle. I very much want to give it another chance, yet newcomers to the system should clearly start elsewhere.
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Founders of TeotihuacanFounders of Teotihuacan is an unusually light and short Board & Dice release, with a few good ideas but without reaching its potential. Its action-selection system provides the necessary friction, yet its tile-laying core remains somewhat flat.
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878 Vikings: Invasions of England878 Vikings: Invasions of England may not be new or especially widespread, but it remains an underrated, noisy war game. Especially if, like us, you are hooked on The Last Kingdom, it has a very easy excuse to return to the table.
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Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain 1085-1086Almoravid has a thematic, promising system, but its rules—especially its supply rules—can make the first encounter thoroughly frustrating. I liked it a lot in play, yet it is not the digestible game I want it to be just yet.
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1822CA1822CA is a heavy, very enjoyable train game, provided you love auctions and do not arrive completely unprepared. For me, 1822 is a necessary stop before heading into the Canadian Alps.
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Ascension: Deckbuilding GameAscension: Deckbuilding Game has a few awkward design corners, but I keep enjoying it without a second thought. For an honest brawl with two or three players, it remains one of my top picks.
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Dead ReckoningDead Reckoning gave us a campaign full of cannon fire and aggressive play, with the Mariposa confirming — obviously — the superiority of purple. After 8-9 plays I still rate it highly, but I now have reservations about its ending and the campaign’s structure.
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Red Flag Over ParisRed Flag Over Paris felt like a clear improvement over the series’ poor start with Fort Sumter, but not an interesting enough one to win me over. The rules make sense, yet the game I played mostly landed as a shrug-worthy “meh.”
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Tabannusi: Builders of UrTabanussi: Builders of Ur has the clever ideas I expect from Tascini, but in my first plays it felt more like a prototype that had not settled all its loose ends. At four players, though, it proved noticeably stronger and more engaging.
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Origins: First BuildersI approached Origins: First Builders under a cloud of dire predictions and came away far less negative than expected. It is not a blind-buy recommendation, but it certainly does not deserve burial either.