Category: Reviews

Designers / Publisher / Year: Mitch Wallace / Mighty Boards / 2023 Player Count / Playtime: 2-4 Players / 30-60 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Auction, Bidding, Pattern Building, Tile Placement, Puzzle, Art In Art Society, players collect paintings and decorate the walls of their personal gallery by arranging artwork into patterns and sets that score points in…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Ceil Anderson, Kathy Assell / Double A Productions / 2004 Player Count / Playtime: 2-6 Players / 45 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Card Game, Set Collection, Hand Management, Golf Play Nine is one of those deceptively simple card games that becomes more satisfying the more you play it. At first glance, it feels…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Ken Johnson / Mattel, Inc. / 1982 Player Count / Playtime: 2-6 Players / 45 mins (if you’re lucky) Genre / Type / Mechanics: Card Game, Rummy, Set Collection, Take That Phase 10 is one of those games that feels tied to memory just as much as gameplay for me. Long before I cared…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Amy Droz, Dusty Droz / Dux Somnium Games / 2024 Player Count / Playtime: 1-5 Players / 45-90 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Engine Building, Events, Pick-Up and Deliver, Adventure, Flowers Expansions: Botany: Tantalizing Trees (2024), Perilous Perfumes (2024), Regal Roses (2024), Brilliant Blue Botanicals (2024), Orchid Obsession (2025), Festive Foliage (2025) Botany feels less like a competitive board game and…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Jamey Stegmaier / Stonemaier Games / 2016 Player Count / Playtime: 1-5 Players / 120 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Engine Building, Economic, Fighting, Area Influence, Grid Movement, Territory Building, Science Fiction Expansions: Scythe: Invaders from Afar (2016), The Wind Gambit (2017), The Rise of Fenris (2018), Encounters (2018), Modular Board (2019) Set in…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Andreas Steding / Game Brewer / 2021 Player Count / Playtime: 1-4 Players / 180 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Eurogame, Exploration, Area Movement, Set Collection, Engine Building, Action Points, Worker Placement, Russian Expansions: Stroganov: Turukhan (2024) Kickstarter Deluxe Components: Big Game Box storage solution, double-sided oversized game board, double-sided…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Brent Povis / Two Lanterns Games / 2022 (Originally 2012) Player Count / Playtime: 2 Players / 30 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Card Game, Set Collection, Drafting, Hand Management Expansions: Morels: Foray (2017), Morels: 10th Anniversary Booster Pack (2022) Morels: Foray “expands Morels with new items, characters, weather, a more dynamic forest,…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede / Z-Man Games / 2000 Player Count / Playtime: 2-5 Players / 30-45 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Territory Building, Area Influence, Map Building, Pattern Building, Medieval, Family Expansions: Inns & Cathedrals (2002), Traders & Builders (2003), The Princess & The Dragon (2005), The Tower (2006), Abbey &…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Bruno Cathala, Bruno Faidutti / Matagot / 2015 Player Count / Playtime: 2 Players / 30 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Fighting, Action Selection, Action Points, Hand Management, Grid Movement, Take That Raptor is one of my favorite two-player games. It’s fast, tense, and full of clever decision making. Also, who…

Designers / Publisher / Year: Alex Hague, Jon Perry, Justin Vickers / CMYK / 2022 Player Count / Playtime: 1-4 Players / 30 mins Genre / Type / Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Push Your Luck, Card Game, Dice, Animals Reminds Me Of: Dairyman (2016) Spots is a game where, as the publisher puts it best, “dogs have spots,…