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 Alma Mater
Alma Mater is a substantial, tight euro with a splendid table presence and a great deal to absorb before it starts to flow. Repeated play reveals that its engine may be more familiar, and less durable, than it first appears.
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Review Whistle Mountain
Whistle Mountain is excellent at what it does, and three plays have already shown how sharply it can land. Give it a cooperative table or a sensible digital implementation, and even a one-point finish feels rather larger than it ought to.
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Review Black Rose Wars: Sator Box
Sator Box turns Black Rose Wars from a likeable miniature game with Euro instincts into a louder, messier and more satisfying spectacle. It is excess in a box, though it also contains a notably well-supported solo and campaign offering.
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Review Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire
Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire was an easy game to bring back, and the second play made a much stronger case for it. It is not flawless, but it is a thoroughly pleasant entry in its corner of the hobby.
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Review Merchants & Marauders
Merchants & Marauders is a sprawling pirate evening: rich in flavour, held together by strong systems, and entirely willing to let the dice embarrass you. It needs the right group and plenty of time, but it earns its reputation there.
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Review Rome & Roll
Rome & Roll has a clever dice-drafting race at its centre and the pleasing spatial pull of a building puzzle. Its main flaw is painfully literal: the supplied pens make the writing part harder than it should be.
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Review Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy
Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy sets a rather intimidating standard for a deluxe reissue, and looks good enough to tempt owners of the fully loaded original. Once the newness wears off, though, it remains a better presentation of a good game with familiar limits.
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Review Robotech: Crisis Point
Robotech: Crisis Point is a noticeably steadier second entry, fixing several of the first game's weak spots with a larger 4x4 playing space, restrained asymmetry, and more variety. It cannot challenge the finest quick two-player games, but it is a worthwhile small box for anyone with some affection for Robotech.
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Review Flying Colors
Flying Colors is an honest dicefest, even if every attempt to finish it seems to summon some minor catastrophe. Its energy comes from dice and cannon fire, with no need to pretend it is something grander.
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Review Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace has a genuinely fresh idea at its centre: choosing dice and paying for them. It is worth returning to, though a few rough joins keep it from feeling fully finished.
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Review Cosmic Colonies
Cosmic Colonies is a tidy space puzzle of cards, resources and tile placement, with enough brain-burn for its brief running time. It does not aim to reinvent anything, but it is a handsome little thing to have on the table.
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Review Foothills
Foothills is a compact two-player euro with the feel of a Mini Snowdonia, but without asking for an entire evening. For anyone who enjoys tight, fair games for two, it is a small gem.
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Review Paladins of the West Kingdom
Paladins of the West Kingdom first struck me as the heavier, more rigid relative of Architects. Further plays revealed considerably more bite than I had initially given it credit for.
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Review Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein
Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a strongly themed mid-weight euro with a lovely grim presence on the table, though its play can feel a little dry beneath all the stitches and lightning. It is worth trying once for the occasion, but the official Igor Rules look like a far better version of the game.
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Review Throne of Allegoria
Throne of Allegoria is a neat hidden-bidding game of medieval ambition, with a gentler learning curve than its reputation suggests. Beneath the waiting for a vacant throne is a pleasingly sharp game of pressure and opportunity.
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Review La Granja
La Granja did not win me over on first acquaintance, but later plays with the right group changed the picture completely. It is one of those games that needs the right table before it shows what it can do.
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Review Living Planet
Living Planet is a carefully made Kickstarter about extracting value from a planet, with enough market collapse to keep everyone attentive. Its lavish presentation occasionally muddies the information, but not the game’s appeal.
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Review Everdell
Everdell is a cheerful worker-placement engine builder with enough bite to keep the table alert and enough restraint to finish at a sensible hour. It does not need to reinvent anything to be a thoroughly lovely play.
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Review Circadians: First Light
Circadians: First Light is a cute, busy dice-placement game with asymmetric powers and far more going on than its compact box suggests. It makes for a pleasant session, but not one I am eager to arrange again soon.
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Review Key Flow
Key Flow takes the familiar appeal of Keyflower and makes it much easier to bring to the table. It is a lighter visit to the rivers and roads, rather than a whole evening spent unpacking them.
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Review Snowdonia: Deluxe Master Set
Snowdonia: Deluxe Master Set is a brisk, old-school Euro with a huge range of scenarios to keep it fresh. It shows its age in places, but the sheer amount gathered here makes it outstanding value.
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Review Town Builder: Coevorden
Town Builder: Coevorden is an easy-going city-building game with a notably polished production and just enough interest to keep its lightness from feeling empty. It is not trying to astonish anyone, which turns out to be one of its nicer qualities.
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Review Extra! Extra!
Extra! Extra! is an unusual, properly thematic worker-placement game for anyone who hears “newspaper” and immediately thinks deadlines, front pages, and manageable disasters. Its flow takes a little getting used to, but the game is a pleasure once it finds its rhythm.
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Review Trajan
Trajan had been waiting on the shelf for far too long, only to prove much more compelling than I had given it credit for. Its altered rondel holds together a dense, handsome tangle of scoring decisions with remarkable poise.
