Contributor
WhiteColarGamer
Suave, flamboyant, and unrepentant about it. Drawn to deluxe editions, upgraded components and a table that looks as good as it plays.
🎁 2 kudos from readers
164 reviews
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Review Cargo Empire
Cargo Empire aims for a brisker pickup-and-deliver game, but ends up too dry to sustain much interest. It is perfectly pleasant to play; it just does not create much urge to return.
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Review Distilled
Distilled is an honest, satisfying card game about making spirits, with thematic systems and an endgame that rewards the distiller who planned ahead.
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Review Cascadito
Cascadito is a light Knizia roll-and-write with a neat little network puzzle under its dice. It is not one I would reach for myself, but it is well made and clearly has an audience.
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Review Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition)
Warhammer 40,000 Tenth Edition gives up much of the old flavour, but retains a sharp tactical game that rewards another go. A first loss with Ynnari against Grey Knights felt less like a warning and more like an invitation back.
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Review The Breach
The Breach is a generously produced cyberpunk tableau builder from Ludus Magnus, all glowing plastic and digital-infiltration theatre. The base game is only the beginning; its real value emerges when the wider box of scenarios and additions comes into play.
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Review Ark Nova: Marine Worlds
Ark Nova: Marine Worlds brings fish, Map Pack 2, and enhanced action cards to a familiar experience. It is an easy purchase for admirers of the base game, not a conversion kit for everyone else.
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Review Aeon's End: The New Age
Aeon's End: The New Age keeps the original's satisfying marriage of deckbuilding and boss fights, then lets its campaign unfold at an unhurried pace. It is a very solid box to revisit now and then rather than race through.
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Review Autobahn: Kickstarter Edition
Autobahn: Kickstarter Edition arrived looking rather less deluxe than it ought to, but the game beneath the production disappointment is rich and rewarding. This is a substantial network-building and delivery euro, though it asks for a fair bit of evening.
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Review Silverton
Silverton is a sprawling, dice-heavy claim-jumping game that can make you feel brilliant or mildly bereaved. In the right relaxed company, that volatility becomes the evening’s entertainment.
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Review Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors
Fall Flavors gives Honey Buzz more to chew on without making it lose its shape. It is a handsome, generous expansion for groups that already know the base game a little.
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Review Ra
Ra is a classic Knizia with a clean foundation and more mechanical assurance than its first impression suggests. At four, though, the tile draw kept it at arm’s length for me.
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Review Autumn
Autumn is a tiny, quick game for two, with two trees competing for space by shedding leaves. It lasts about as long as a break, but leaves a lovely melancholy little scene on the table.
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Review Black Rose Wars: Rebirth
Black Rose Wars: Rebirth takes the excess of the first edition and turns it into a far smoother, better-paced experience. It is still a colossal box, but now it earns its space much more convincingly.
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Review Pest
Pest gives a familiar Euro framework an evocative plague-doctor setting and a properly lavish table presence. Its pressure is real and its systems are neatly tied together, though the random spread cards can sometimes make the whole affair too generous.
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Review Obsession
Obsession puts a delightfully odd Victorian manor on the table and, without additions, delivers a tight management game. Add the expansions, though, and the elegance thins out while luck begins to speak rather too loudly.
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Review Nova Aetas Renaissance
Nova Aetas Renaissance is a lavish campaign dungeon crawler with Ludus Magnus’s usual generosity of production, but without demanding the endless commitment of some rivals. Its rules have a little needless friction, yet our group has found no reason to stop following its story.
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Review Age of Comics: The Golden Years
Age of Comics: The Golden Years draws you in with its comic-book theme and thoughtful production, then earns its place with a relaxed economic game underneath. It asks for a little planning, not a second shift.
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Review Brief Border Wars
Brief Border Wars is a very simple, compact wargame that fits comfortably into about an hour while still leaving room for decisions, strategy, and dice-led suspense. Its early sets also include three conflicts of Greek interest, which gives the series an extra pull.
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Review Bärenpark
Bärenpark is a very approachable first stop for children discovering polyomino games, clear enough for them to play on their own. Even with the advanced mode, though, it offers limited pull for more experienced players.
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Review The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition
The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition is a magnificent piece of table presence wrapped around a design that now feels its age to me. My group still loves it, but the vineyards variant did not provide the fresh lift we hoped for.
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Review Wild Tiled West
Wild Tiled West is a brisk tile-drafter with a polished presence and more thought in it than its light frame first suggests. It is not flawless, but once everyone understands its rhythm, it becomes an honest, pleasing thing to have on the table.
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Review Age of Innovation
Age of Innovation takes the part of Terra Mystica that still appeals to me and gives it room to breathe. It is busy, uneven, and wonderfully generous: a large eurogame that seems pleased to have you there.
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Review Septima
Septima is Mindclash in its more approachable, thematic mode, though it still carries enough weight for the publisher’s regular audience. It is beautifully assembled and smoothly built, but it did not leave us hungry for another game in the way its bigger siblings did.
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Review Barcelona
Barcelona is an honest point salad in the Merv mould: busy enough to engage the brain, but not so scorched that it becomes work. Its apparent winning routes are not necessarily the ones that matter, which gives a return visit real appeal.
