Contributor
TheTrainSpotter
A mechanisms obsessive. Never reviews a game in isolation — always reaching for what it borrows, what it refines, and which other titles sit next to it on the shelf.
76 reviews
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The Old King's CrownThe Old King's Crown is a tough but fair asymmetric card game that needs a group willing to learn its peculiarities. Once the early learning games are out of the way, I found in it much of what I wanted Arcs to give me.
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ForestryForestry is a tight resource-management euro that, despite my reservations about its “best with 2” reputation, worked wonderfully with four players. Its diverging paths to victory and crushing endgame make it far more interesting than I expected.
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Ayar: Children of the SunAyar: Children of the Sun is a euro that dares to tighten up rather than open out as the game progresses. With an original tableau-building grid and meaningful indirect interaction, it asks for more than one play before it reveals what it can do.
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Cross Bronx ExpresswayCross Bronx Expressway is a very distinctive, strictly three-player COIN that moves conflict away from the battlefield and into ideologies and the historical trajectory of the Bronx. Tight, demanding, and initially somewhat remote, it rewards persistence with serious gameplay and metagame.
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SpeakeasySpeakeasy is a tight, unforgiving heavy euro that binds a mass of systems into a clear, thematic criminal machine. For anyone who can handle its designer’s style, it is one of the year’s most rewarding experiences.
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Railway BoomRailway Boom is a tight cube-rails/euro hybrid that builds its tension around auctions, variable objectives, and light but meaningful engine building. With four rounds and plenty of room for optimisation, it is the sort of game I immediately want back on the table.
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Bier PioniereBier Pioniere is a tight, medium-weight worker-placement euro that earns its keep through a clean production chain and an unusual ending. It has the charm of a classic German euro, even if its design may feel a little dated to players looking for newer ideas.
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Monkey PalaceMonkey Palace smartly combines LEGO building and resource gathering in a game I find especially suited to children aged roughly 6-12. It offers enough choices to avoid becoming entirely automatic, without forgetting that it is, above all, a cheerful LEGO romp.
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Star Wars: Battle of HothBattle of Hoth takes the familiar Memoir ’44 chassis and dresses it in Star Wars so effectively that my old objections to the system fade into the background. In the two-box Epic format, the larger scale also noticeably softens luck’s influence and brings the tactical side forward.
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TianxiaTianxia won us over as another twisty, tense, and fairly confrontational Tascini design. After only two plays I am not ready to deliver a final verdict on its balance, but at the proper, harsher invader level it has already provided a satisfying amount of fighting.
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Galactic CruiseGalactic Cruise is a lavish, attractive medium-weight point-salad euro with six interlocking parts and plenty of freedom in how you build your route. My first play left me wary of the card RNG, but a second game with four players made its strengths much clearer.
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Mistborn: The Deckbuilding GameMistborn: The Deckbuilding Game takes familiar deck building and gives it a genuinely thematic constraint: limited metals force you to build a more colourful deck. It is very good for its genre, as long as you do not pack in more than three players.
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UnstoppableUnstoppable is a demanding co-op/solo boss fighter with card crafting that, for me, even surpasses the beloved Aeon's End. It asks for time, reading, and careful planning, but gives plenty back in return.
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AquaticaAquatica is an honest, minimalist engine builder with a fresh idea for exploring territories and no unnecessary decoration.
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DaitoshiDaitoshi is a maximalist mid-to-heavy euro with many systems, yet its connections are impressively clean. Anyone already fluent in this language will find a game that deserves serious consideration for their collection.
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18Rhl18Rhl is an enjoyable, reasonably paced 18XX with two distinct sides, but the RHL map we tried did not feel as fresh as I wanted. It is good at the table, just not among the best examples of its particular mould.
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Black ForestUwe Rosenberg returns to his familiar territory of resource wheels, forests, animals, and earnest eurogame industry, delivering a game I liked quite a lot without being bowled over. If your collection is already full of similar designs from him, though, it may not feel essential.
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CivolutionCivolution is a heavy, tight civilization simulation that had me managing panic and disappointment—and yet I immediately wanted to play it again. With one small scoring reservation, it can comfortably claim a place among the games of the year.
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Andromeda's EdgeAndromeda’s Edge takes the core of Dwellings of Eldervale and pushes it in a more lavish, more demanding direction. Its first outing tired me and made me wary of faction balance, but later plays made me revise my opinion considerably.
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Railways of the Lost AtlasA fantastical 18XX with a player-built map, fixed companies and privates, and plenty of pressure despite its modern round cap. I liked it a great deal, and already see it ranking highly among introductory 18XX games.
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Boonlake: ArtifactsArtifacts makes the already sprawling Boonlake even fuller, but this time the additions serve a purpose. With more tension, asymmetric choices, and a noticeably shorter playtime, I see it as a clear improvement.
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Fighters of the PacificFighters of the Pacific is a lean, zero-luck game of mass air battles in the Pacific that favours clear tactical choices over realism. It is not for anyone looking for a simulation, but it delivers very satisfying aerial engagements for the right audience.
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1930: The Golden Age of Airlines1930: The Golden Age of Airlines is a fresh economic game, with the progression and clarity to sit comfortably alongside racing and train games. At four players, however, its final turn can undo what is otherwise an excellent four-hour journey.
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21Moon21Moon is a modern 18XX with ambitious, well-integrated new systems and a pace that makes a serious claim to being the quick 18XX. Its terse and frequently unclear rules writing is the one real thorn in an otherwise highly compelling package.