Reviews

Reykholt feels like a dry, half-baked prototype that escaped Uwe Rosenberg’s workshop. It is tolerable because it ends quickly, but it is hard to see why I would want to come back to it.

The Fat Cat Expansion makes Raccoon Tycoon look more deluxe on the table, but it does not fix the places where the base game already creaks. It remains a pleasant, light economic experience—there are simply much better choices when I want real depth.

Nemesis wins primarily through its atmosphere and lavish presentation, not through the depth of its mechanisms. If the group buys into the mood, it can produce stories that take several beers to properly unpack.

The Waylanders hides a decent, light skirmish game behind a rulebook that seems determined not to let you play it. It is for genre devotees only, and only if you find it well below its retail price.

Inca Empire: The Card Game is an honest, light card game that fits into a shorter time slot without giving up meaningful thought. It gets a little untidy on the table by the end, but it is flexible enough that I can easily imagine bringing it on holiday.

Keyper has a very clever action core and, once you see it working, your mind starts spinning. It is a shame that it hides it behind an exhausting rulebook and ends on scoring far more mundane than it deserves.

Tiny Towns is a lean, clever AEG filler that can work both as a children’s “let’s build a town” activity and as a proper exercise in wrecking one another’s plans. With more players, the chaos of shared choices is exactly where its appeal lies.

Android: Netrunner remains, for me, the king of CCGs/LCGs. Project Nisei’s System Gateway is the obvious and correct excuse to get back into it.

Gùgōng is a clever, demanding card-drafting/worker-placement euro with zero luck and an action mechanism that takes some work to click. It is not the most exciting game around, but it remains a strong alternative for anyone tired of the usual euros.

Cooper Island is a ruthless solitaire-like optimization puzzle that fried our brains in both plays. I wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of this kind of challenge, with one important warning about the experience gap at the table.

Kanban EV returns as a far more polished and comprehensible version of an already exhaustingly complex euro, with rules and scoring that finally feel as though they belong together.

Obsidia is the kind of odd indie release that probably owes its existence to Kickstarter—and thankfully so, because it has character in spades. Dark, thematic, and hilariously crude, it is far more interesting than its low-key presence suggests.

Honey Buzz, especially in its deluxe edition, is a beautifully produced game of bees, hexes, and an initial explanation that feels far more intimidating than the actual play. Beneath that impressive package sits an honest, approachable racing/economic game.

Mini 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.

Tortuga 2199 is a controversial game, made harder to assess by the noise surrounding it. Still, it has enough good ideas to deserve a look from deckbuilder fans searching for something different.

Curious Cargo is a very tough network builder strictly for two players: only a step above filler in heft, but with enough brain burn to leave a mark.

Tapestry initially won me over with its production and teachability, then lost me spectacularly on the balance of its civilizations. It is a pleasant, simple game that turns its asymmetry into an exercise in irritation.

Lost Ruins of Arnak remains a satisfying, pleasant hybrid of deckbuilding and worker placement, but its interaction and a few sharp balance issues keep it a notch below the very best in its category. With the Expedition Leaders, it shows much stronger staying power.

A forgotten Essen impulse buy finally reached the table, like a small space-age excavation during lockdown. It did not blow me away, but its clever dice system and expansions keep it respectably in orbit—provided you can stomach the baffling retail price.

Pulp Invasion delivers exactly the pulp look and atmosphere it promised on Kickstarter, but it left me fairly lukewarm as a game. It has ideas and replayability, yet its difficulty scaling and occasional sense of unavoidable punishment ultimately made me leave it behind.

Sovereign Skies is a clever, short mini-rondel racing game that hides more depth than its first impression suggests. It is not ideal online, but I would gladly bring it to the table with a regular group.

I initially underestimated Smartphone Inc., because it seemed like it would simply occupy the same space as Franchise. It turns out to be far more than a light network-building game, with simple rules but meaningful player tension.

Alma Mater is a lavish, tight euro that looks great on the table and has plenty to offer genre fans, though it demands a lot of upfront absorption. After four plays, the familiarity of its engine began to show more than I would have liked.

Whistle Mountain has already given me two excellent sessions, at the table and on Tabletop Simulator; only Tabletopia managed to spoil the mood with its physics. It is tough, spectacularly score-driven, and close right up to the end.