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.
154 reviews
-
Review Transatlantic
Transatlantic is too readily dismissed as a dry Concordia copy. It has its own strategic cadence, meaningful interaction, and a variant that is well worth putting through its paces.
-
Review Glorantha: The Gods War
Glorantha: The Gods War takes the Cthulhu Wars frame and tightens the parts that needed it: less runaway snowballing, more decision-making, and runes and fragments that genuinely add to the game. Its miniatures, regrettably, do nothing for me.
-
Review Inca Empire
Inca Empire is an older, modest route builder with a useful place at the table: a brisk, tight Euro fix. Its simplicity is not an absence of design, but the frame for decisions that matter.
-
Review The Estates
The Estates is a pure auction game with a closed money supply, a shifting balance of power, and genuine late reversals. The design has real promise, but five players expose a substantial scaling problem.
-
Review 1066, Tears to Many Mothers: The Battle of Hastings
1066, Tears to Many Mothers: The Battle of Hastings is a light card-driven battle game with historical flavour, a brisk pace, and a healthy dependence on the draw. It will not make you feel like a grand commander, but it can deliver several satisfying clashes in an evening.
-
Review Arkwright
On my sixth play, Arkwright remains perhaps the best economic game I own, though it certainly charges for the privilege in stamina. It turns a shared market into a proper battlefield, and a one-point finish makes every calculation feel earned.
-
Review Periorbis
Periorbis is a lean, low-luck worker-placement game built around clear planning rather than a scattergun of scoring opportunities. It applies honest pressure, but its narrow economy and weak recovery prospects stop it becoming something exceptional.
-
Review Import / Export
Import / Export takes the lead/follow engine of Glory to Rome and Eminent Domain, gives it an economic setting, and makes a more convincing case for a fuller table. Its graphic design gets in the way, but the system moves well enough to merit further plays.
-
Review Tramways
Tramways first struck me as a miserable experience; repeated plays have made it look like a demanding game of turn order and disciplined drafting instead. It is unforgiving by design, and much better for it.
-
Review Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars still rewards an approach that does not look like the obvious route to victory: a serious discount-and-card engine can outrun a far more visible map presence.
