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
-
Review Point Salad
Point Salad packs drafting, denial and shifting scoring into fifteen minutes of uncomplicated joy. Better still, a fuller table does not dilute the recipe.
-
Review Freedom!
Freedom! is an approachable siege game with cannon fire, dice, and enough tension to keep its history from becoming mere decoration. It captures an unequal struggle without forgetting that two people are sitting across the table trying to win.
-
Review Glen More II: Chronicles
Glen More II: Chronicles first struck me as a busier Isle of Skye with none of the cheer supplied by the auctions. A later game with Chronicle 3 made a much stronger case for it: the awkward setup is real, but so is the game underneath.
-
Review Sword of Rome: Conquest of Italy, 362-272 BC
Sword of Rome is a large, demanding conflict game, sitting right at the limit of how much rules preparation a group will willingly take on. Once minor powers, alliances and disastrous dice rolls arrive, nobody gets to remain comfortable.
-
Review Space Infantry: Resurgence
Space Infantry: Resurgence brings back an older Lock & Load cult item, borrowing the mood of the Starship Troopers film without pretending to be a lost classic. It is direct, kit-heavy, and built around missions where both time and casualties close in.
-
Review Star Trek: Ascendancy – Vulcan High Command
Vulcan High Command brings Vulcans and Andorians to Star Trek: Ascendancy, giving an already sprawling game some welcome new life. It is a long ride, but with four players and the expansions in play, it finally delivers proper Trek atmosphere and a satisfying amount of violence.
-
Review Giga-Robo!
Giga-Robo! is an arena game of giant robots, careful pre-fight construction, and a great deal of hitting. It is not the smoothest system around, but it knows how to make PvP bite.
-
Review Aeon's End
Aeon's End is a cooperative deckbuilder with a fast, smooth flow, clever enemies, and enough variety to keep calling for another run. There is no player-on-player fight, but it works especially well solo or with two.
-
Review Radiant: Offline Battle Arena
Radiant: Offline Battle Arena brings MOBA-style card combat to the table with clear care paid to balance and strategic depth. It needs a regular opponent who is willing to learn it with you, though; without that, much of its appeal stays locked away.
-
Review Era of Tribes
Era of Tribes is a dense semi-civ game that is not bad, but demands to be approached on its own terms. Miss the intended line, and its awkward systems leave you in the dark.
-
Review Trickerion: Dahlgaard's Academy
With every expansion in play, Trickerion: Dahlgaard's Academy becomes a deeply satisfying euro that finally smooths out its rougher edges. It is not a game for a casual teach, but it rewards a group willing to learn its language.
-
Review Jagged Alliance: The Board Game
Jagged Alliance: The Board Game gets a surprising amount of the computer game’s character onto the table in a co-operative campaign. Its AI rules are needlessly hard work, but the campaign has enough laughs and personality to keep Arulco worth liberating.
-
Review Aristeia!
Aristeia! offers a deep, satisfying skirmish without demanding a second hobby in metagame study. Open the box, choose a scenario, draft, and start trading blows.
-
Review El Grande
El Grande is still a lively, clean grandfather of area control: straightforward to learn, brisk at the table, and fully capable of producing a proper fight. Its age shows mainly in five-player volatility and the risk of an early runaway leader.
-
Review Key Market (Second Edition)
Key Market (Second Edition) is a tight economic euro where the market is never merely a market. It has replayability, real friction, and enough pressure to make its two hours feel properly full.
-
Review East Indiaman
East Indiaman is a tight, quick, slightly odd game that takes some patience before it reveals itself. Its rulebook is not helping, and five players make the table feel rather cramped.
-
Review Impulse
Impulse is a demanding, chaotic card game for people who enjoy losing their footing a little. It will not win over every table, but it has plenty to offer the right one.
-
Review Towers of Am'harb
Towers of Am'harb turns the old Towers of Hanoi puzzle into a dark little contest over cultists and scoring altars. It begins gently, then tightens its grip at precisely the right time.
-
Review Black Angel
Black Angel takes some patience to get moving, and it very much wants exactly three players. At that count, it becomes a tough, cerebral engine builder with real endgame risk and scoring that has to be earned.
-
Review Greed Incorporated
Greed Incorporated is not one of Splotter’s major triumphs, but it is a solid economic game of negotiation and auctions. The real energy comes from players getting in one another’s way; the ending is less satisfying.
-
Review The Godfather: Corleone's Empire
The Godfather: Corleone's Empire is a surprisingly tight area-control game: quick, thematic, and just nasty enough to keep everyone alert. It does not reinvent anything, but it knows exactly when to run you over with it.
-
Review War Chest
War Chest is the unexpected abstract war-game hit: simple to begin, difficult to master, and superb as a brisk game of confrontation. A later session did clarify one thing, though: it is at its best as a straight two-player duel.
-
Review Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India, 1917 – 1947
Gandhi is an odd, advanced COIN that makes no effort to ease newcomers into the series. Its awkward rules and unusual balances are precisely what make it worth a look for experienced players.
-
Review Captains of Industry
Captains of Industry remains a solid economic game that is especially good at five. Prices, property and production give players plenty of ways to get in one another’s way.
