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.
🎁 1 kudos from readers
274 reviews
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Dominations: Road to CivilizationDominations: Road to Civilization looks lighter than it really is, then starts demanding serious thought. It is chaotic and not entirely polished, but its engine building won me over and I definitely want to play it again.
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Radiant: Offline Battle ArenaRadiant: Offline Battle Arena is a PvP card game with a MOBA feel that seems to reward serious commitment from two players. It is not, however, a game for groups that rotate opponents every session.
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Era of TribesEra of Tribes is a hard-to-digest semi-civ game that left me with mixed feelings. I do not think it is a bad game, but it demands that you approach it the right way, or it becomes unforgiving.
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Trickerion: Dahlgaard's AcademyWith Dawn of Technology, Trickerion: Dahlgaard's Academy sheds much of the randomness and uneven feel of the variable player powers that had put me off at first. It remains a huge game I have no desire to teach from scratch, but with an experienced group it is one of the most satisfying euros I played this year.
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Jagged Alliance: The Board GameJagged Alliance: The Board Game is an honest, fairly streamlined cooperative adaptation of the computer game, retaining much of its feel without drowning in complexity. The rulebook and AI take patience, but liberating Arulco is still worth our weekly appointment.
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Teotihuacan: Late Preclassic PeriodIn a four-player game of Teotihuacan with expansion modules 1 and 3, I found more length and more gods than I needed. It is not a disaster, but neither is it the refresh that would make me love the game.
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El GrandeOn my first encounter with El Grande, the grandfather of area control, I found an old game that still flows beautifully and delivers honest thrills. Its age shows in a few places, but the overall impression remains clearly positive.
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Continental DivideAn east-west Cube Rails game that wants to feel more serious and heavier, but for me ends up merely dry and fiddly. I would pick Baltimore & Ohio without a second thought.
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WingspanWingspan is a light, quick game that fits easily onto the table, but it never gives me enough reason to take it terribly seriously. The European birds bring clever ideas, along with more disorder than I want.
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The Rich and the GoodA very interesting Broker variant that also stands firmly as a limited-information stock-manipulation game in its own right. Its QE-like elimination at the end gives it a finale that raises the tension.
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Key Market (Second Edition)Key Market (Second Edition) is a tight eco-euro that largely earns the buzz surrounding the original. It runs for roughly two full hours, but fills them with painful market decisions and choices that matter.
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East IndiamanEast Indiaman sat on my shelf for over a year, mainly because its manual does not make the first encounter easy. With a little persistence, though, it turned into a tight, quick game that deserves another try—this time with four players.
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ImpulseImpulse struck me as an excellent game: clever, chaotic, and enjoyably panic-inducing. It is not for everyone, nor is it something you learn in a breath, but I had a great time with it.
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Chicago 1875: City of the Big ShouldersChicago 1875: City of the Big Shoulders is a small economic monster that initially looked suspiciously uneven, but revealed much better balance on its second play. It is ruthless about mistakes and, for me, a must-buy for fans of economic games.
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Towers of Am'harbI did not know much about Towers of Am'harb, but seeing Moideas is enough to get it onto my table without much hesitation. Thankfully, it continues the publisher's very good track record.
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Black AngelBlack Angel won me over in the end, but it needed someone else's patience with the rulebook and, above all, the right player count. At three it revealed itself as a solid, demanding engine builder; at four it had not left me with the same impression.
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Greed IncorporatedA decent economic negotiation/auction game that does not reach Splotter’s best work, but does not disappoint either. Its mechanisms take centre stage, while the endgame is not its most exciting feature.
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Pulsar 2849Pulsar 2849 is a cute dice-placement game with a genuinely fresh idea in how players choose dice each round. Still, its randomness, near-solitaire feel, and demanding scoring setup keep it lower on my list of preferences.
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The Godfather: Corleone's EmpireThe Godfather: Corleone's Empire is a welcome heresy: CMON, miniatures, and Lang, yet ultimately a fast, thematic, enjoyably confrontational area-control game. It is not revolutionary, but with the right group it has far more substance than you might expect.
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Xenon ProfiteerXenon Profiteer is a cute little card game with mini engine-builder elements, and it knows not to outstay its welcome. It is not something I will remember for long, but it does the job for 30–40 pleasant minutes.
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Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India, 1917 – 1947Gandhi is one of the stranger, more advanced COIN entries: knotty, demanding, and built around balances that take time to grasp. It is not an introduction to the genre, but it gives experienced COIN players a real reason to add it to their collection.
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TransatlanticTransatlantic is not merely a “dry copy” of Concordia: across my four plays, it has proved pleasant, interactive, and strategically deep.
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Captains of IndustryCaptains of Industry remains my favourite BLTG game at five players: an honest economic game that, when the table is full, gives nobody a free pass.
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Cthulhu WarsIn Cthulhu Wars, we played a bizarre map with new factions and ended up with some thoroughly honest carnage. The game also showed how much time it demands before you can tell genuine synergies from lopsided interactions.