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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Heaven & AleHeaven & Ale is a tough, clever semi-rondel game that rewards patience and reveals its real depth after the first few plays.
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Circadians: Chaos OrderCircadians: Chaos Order takes on the difficult proposition of an asymmetric 3X area-control game and, unusually for the genre, makes its individual systems click together. It is demanding and lengthy with a full table, but rewards groups that want conflict without tolerating runaway snowballs.
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The TranscontinentalThe Transcontinental does not invent new mechanisms, but it joins familiar ones with remarkable precision into a tight economic game. With three players I found the right balance of pressure and room; at four, I have one reservation.
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ZapotecZapotec is a tightly constructed light-medium game of around an hour, with satisfying escalation and meaningful choices. Its concern is that the optimal opening is very narrow, and falling behind early can leave a player out of contention.
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CorrosionCorrosion entered my collection almost out of stubbornness, and it ended up pleasantly proving me wrong. It is a tight, cerebral production game where action programming is not merely one element of the design, but its entire engine.
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Lizard WizardLizard Wizard takes the core of Racoon Tycoon, moves it into a market for spell components, and, to my mind, works it out noticeably better. It remains a pleasantly chaotic game with plenty of push-your-luck, though, not the answer for anyone already tired of its predecessor’s laid-back nature.
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Seeders from Sereis: ExodusSeeders from Sereis: Exodus is an unusual, heavy engine builder where bidding and familiarity with a huge card deck make all the difference. It is not for every group, but it offers something genuinely different to players who can handle take-that and kingmaking.
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Core Worlds: EmpiresCore Worlds: Empires is a heavy worker-placement game with an honest 3X flavour, minus exploration, and it rewards a group willing to commit to a full three-hour session. It stays engaging with almost no downtime and several genuinely well-constructed ideas around conflict and force management.
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Squaring CirclevilleSquaring Circleville is a lean, fast euro built around a rondel, gradually improving actions, and strong racing/area-control pressure. It is highly abstract, but refreshingly clean for groups tired of overloaded designs.
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Commands & Colors: Napoleonics Expansion #6 – EPIC NapoleonicsEPIC Mode makes Commands & Colors: Napoleonics feel even more like what I want from a big Napoleonic confrontation: more scale, more tactics, and, naturally, far more cannon fire.
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Factory 42Factory 42 has a tightly interlocking, delightfully hostile worker-placement core, but its production gets in the way precisely when the game needs to be read clearly. I definitely want to give it another chance, with homemade reference cards.
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FurnaceFurnace is a tight four-round auction/production game whose auctions make even losing feel valuable. Production brings a little unnecessary handling, but the central system is clever enough that I think it deserves a place in a collection.
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DestiniesDestinies is built from things that would normally put me off: tiny miniatures and a mandatory app. Yet as a short, app-driven adventure for two, it turned out to have far fresher ideas than I expected.
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MonasteriumMonasterium turned out to be far breezier and more enjoyable than I expected: an approachable tableau builder with meaningful development and no unnecessary headache.
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Mini ExpressMini Express is a minimalist cube rail that packs shares, network expansion, and some delightfully nasty timing into under 45 minutes. It is not my favourite in this small niche, but it is an excellent, replayable little filler.
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All Bridges Burning: Red Revolt and White Guard in Finland, 1917-1918Finland’s civil war did little for me as a subject, but All Bridges Burning pulled me into its setting and restored my faith in the COIN series. It is one of the line’s most distinctive and demanding entries, with a few rough edges that make it a poor first introduction.
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Rise to NobilityRise to Nobility is a rich, enjoyable dice-placement euro and a clear step up from Cavern Tavern. With the right variants and the Chancery expansion included in the box, it also fixes its main runaway-leader weakness.
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Pacific Rails Inc.Pacific Rails Inc. marries worker placement and track laying in a way that felt fresh to me, but it does not fully capitalize on the network you build. It is a well-paced, hard-edged euro worth trying, even if it ultimately feels like a missed chance at something great.
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Tekhenu: Obelisk of the SunTekhenu feels like a more brain-burning relative of Teotihuacan: a tight dice-placement point salad that asks for constant optimisation beneath all its thematic chrome. The first encounter is heavy, but after a few rounds the system starts to click and makes a second play feel very tempting.
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Europe DividedEurope Divided is a pleasant, compact take on the tension promised by a TS-Light game, with asymmetry that gives both sides genuine character. Its open selection of future scoring objectives adds bluffing and strategy without stretching the playtime.
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Giga-Robo!Giga-Robo! is a long-suffering Kickstarter that, thankfully, justifies the wait with deep customization, plenty of violence, and more depth than I expected. My second encounter with it even corrected my initial reservation about its game modes.
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Aeronautica Imperialis: Wings of VengeanceAeronautica Imperialis: Wings of Vengeance initially looks like another chaotic GW dicefest, but beneath the buckets of dice lies a demanding dogfight of positioning and timing. It needs careful list building, because the imbalance of certain aircraft can undermine all that tension.
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Edge of DarknessEdge of Darkness takes Mystic Vale's card-crafting system and places it in a far more variable, scenario-driven framework. It is not an automatic buy because of its cost and setup, but the variety of its setups is its real strength.
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Cataclysm: A Second World WarCataclysm’s full scenario begins as a tense market of flags and neutrals, where Germany’s diplomatic edge sets the pace. Germany’s refusal to enter the expected cycle of provocations may cost industrially, but it materially changes America’s problem.